As reported in last week’s South Beach Bulletin, at low tide on Tuesday, Feb. 4, a dozen old concrete pier blocks with twisted metal and cable attachments protruding from their tops were revealed at the surf line near the end of W. Ocean Avenue due west of Westport by the Sea’s condominium complex buildings 7 and 8. Coastal erosion action has been particularly strong in that area for the past several months.
Thanks to longtime Westport resident, Ron Rowell, the mystery of the origin of those blocks may be solved. Rowell believes they came from the bases of two radio communications towers estimated to have been placed on uplands in that area in the mid- to late-1920s.
Started with a fire
The Grays Harbor Light was commissioned in 1898. The Light Station included the lighthouse, a fog signal building, barracks for crewmembers and farther inland, residences for the head and assistant lighthouse keepers.
A wooden fog signal building was constructed near the lighthouse, between it and the beach, which was approximately 200 yards away at that time.
When the fog rolled in, the keeper was required to light a fire under the boiler in the signal building to create enough steam to activate the foghorns, commonly called trumpets.
One of those boiler fires got out of hand, and the original fog signal building burned to the ground in 1923.
Second signal building
A new replacement concrete fog signal building was constructed a half-mile southwest of the lighthouse in 1924. that not only housed the new fog trumpet, but also a catwalk around its cupola for lookouts. A long wooden walkway was built from the light station to the signal building for easy access.
According to Rowell, by the time he and his family moved here when he was seven in 1946, the building had long been abandoned and two tall communication towers near its northeast corner shown in historical photos were gone, as well.
“We kids played in that abandoned building in the 1950s. We used to ride down there on the old boardwalk from the lighthouse on our bikes. The building was between 50 and 100 yards from the beach at that time.
It was a concrete structure with a concrete foundation, so the blocks didn’t come from that building, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that the pier blocks that recently resurfaced were a part of the anchoring system for those two towers that used to be there,” he said.
The remains of the second fog signal building succumbed to erosion in the mid-to-late 1980s.
Given the location of the second fog station and the communication towers in the mid-1920s, it would seem logical that the blocks that have resurfaced — if not in exactly the same location as the communication towers — very nearby.
Information, please…
That brings us to this week’s curiosity question. Does anyone out there remember those communication signal towers? When were they erected and when were they taken out of service? If you have any information you can share, please call 360- 268-0736 or email to: