Maria Israel and the Old Loma Point Lighthouse

Debbie Stetz

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
12 (Fall 1997). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1997, Organization of American Historians

Maria Arcadia Alipas Israel may not have climbed the corporate ladder, but for nearly twenty years she climbed the stairs of the Point Loma Lighthouse, helping the U. S. Lighthouse Service safely guide ships into San Diego’s harbor. Between 1828 and 1905, hundreds of sisters and wives served as assistant keepers to their fathers or husbands; Maria Israel was one of 122 women who held the official keeper position in her own name.

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument was constructed in 1855 and abandoned in 1891. Built at the harbor entrance high atop Point Loma, it was often shrouded in early morning low clouds and fog, and was replaced by another lighthouse built closer to the water’s edge. During its time of operation, a series of eleven keepers was stationed at the old lighthouse. Robert Decatur Israel, the last keeper, lived there with his family for eighteen years. For the first three years, his wife Maria officially served as the assistant lighthouse keeper. Keeping the immense Fresnel lens lit throughout the night was the principal work of the keeper, but maintaining the equipment and grounds according to firm government standards remained the bulk of the job. The U. S. Lighthouse Service issued manuals outlining every acceptable, and unacceptable, movement around a lighthouse; from the correct procedure of trimming the wicks and polishing the glass, to being “courteous and polite to all visitors who conform to the regulations.”

Maria Israel shared lighthouse duties with her husband and often kept the night-watch. She set her rocking chair at the base of the circular stairway and used a beam of light from the lens in the tower to illuminate sewing and knitting projects. If ships drifted too close to the rocks of Point Loma, Maria kept watch on the light while Robert Israel ran outside to fire off warning shots from his shotgun.

When the light was extinguished in the morning, the keeper donned a linen apron and began immediate preparations for the detailed cleaning and polishing of the lens and equipment. In keeping with the government rules, Maria undoubtedly kept the lighthouse and living quarters scrupulously clean from any speck of dirt and dust. Every hour of the day and night was precious as her time was divided between the maintenance of a lighthouse, and caring for her home and family. On 15 February 1876, the Lighthouse Board, for unknown reasons, replaced her as the assistant keeper.

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse is a trim, two-story house, built in a traditional New England style with a parlor and kitchen on the first floor, two bedrooms on the second, and a full basement with a cistern below. Its location at the tip of Point Loma offers a spectacular view of the San Diego area, and just as today, has always attracted visitors to the quaint little lighthouse. But its distance from town and lack of available fresh water made life in the lighthouse less idyllic than it may have seemed. In 1874, the second year of the Israels’ tenure as keeper, a woman reporter from the San Diego Union described her visit:

The lighthouse upon the extreme point of Point Loma is some fourteen miles from San Diego and is approached by one of the most beautiful drives in the world, to those who enjoy the cool, bracing breezes....The buildings consist of a very neat and commodious dwelling house surmounted by a tower fifteen feet high, also several immense sheds erected by the government for the purpose of catching rain-water....Water and wood are items of considerable importance here, both having heretofore been brought from San Diego....The vegetation around the lighthouse is very meagre consisting of very low, scrubby sage brush. Mrs. Israel told us that she had endeavored in vain to make a few of the most hardy flowers and vegtables grow, but the position was too much exposed to admit of cultivation....

Maria Israel successfully created a home from very limited resources. She spent a great deal of time stitching shawls, pillow shams, lace curtains and quilts. She nurtured tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage and lettuce in the unforgiving clay soil around the lighthouse. She tended a grapevine from which she dried grapes into raisins, and grew hot peppers--a vital ingredient in her Mexican cuisine. Tourists to the lighthouse often purchased mosaic picture frames she constructed from colorful seashells her sons gathered from the tide-pools. If anyone embodied the old lighthouse, it was Maria Israel.

Bibliography

Klenner, Patricia. “Robert Decatur Israel: San Diego Pioneer and Keeper of the Light, 1826-1980.” Master’s thesis, University of San Diego, 1984.

Clifford, Mary Louise and Candace. Women Who Kept the Lights: An Illustrated History of Female Lighthouse Keepers. Williamsburg, Va.: Cypress Communications, 1993.

Debbie Stetz, a former elementary school teacher, is park ranger at Cabrillo National Monument.Adapted from Cultural Resource Management, vol 20, number 3, 1997.