Point Vicente Light, Maritime lighthouse in Rancho Palos Verdes, United States
Point Vicente Light is a white cylindrical lighthouse of masonry and concrete, 67 feet tall, standing on the edge of a 130-foot cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes. Its plain tower has a few rectangular windows near the top, a black overhanging roof and a glass lantern room ringed by a narrow metal gallery railing. The lantern sits 185 feet above the ocean.
The lighthouse was built in the 1920s to guide ships along the California coast. During World War II, its light was darkened to avoid revealing the coastline's position.
The tower's post-war legend of the "Lady of the Light" — a woman in a white gown said to pace where the lens stood — was explained by the Coast Guard as an extra coat of paint added to stop the beam reflecting into nearby homes. The grounds also host the city's annual "Whale of a Day" festival.
The tower itself is closed to the public; the grounds open on the second Saturday of each month from 10am to 3pm. Tours and open houses are run by Coast Guard Auxiliary members of the Aids to Navigation Team Los Angeles/Long Beach, assisted by the Naval Sea Cadet Corps. Besides the lighthouse, the federal property holds a museum and three former personnel residences.
The original third-order Fresnel lens, made by Barbier, Benard et Turenne, was removed from the lantern room in February 2019 and is now displayed at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. Its hand-ground prisms sit in a cast brass frame.
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