It was built with rough lumber and the inside was lined with cloth and paper, since cracks would frequently develop in the walls.

[9] However, the location on top of a 400-foot cliff meant that fog and low clouds often obscured the light from the view of ships.

On March 23, 1891, the flame was permanently extinguished and the light was replaced by the New Point Loma lighthouse at a lower elevation.

[12] In 1984, the light was re-lit by the National Park Service for the first time in 93 years, in celebration of the site's 130th birthday.

More than 3,000 people attended the celebration, including more than 100 descendants of former lighthouse keepers Robert and Maria Israel.

[14] He and Maria Arcadia Alipas Machado,[15] the daughter of a long-established San Diego family, were married by a priest in 1852 at the Casa de Estudillo in Old Town.

The Israels lived and worked on Point Loma for 18 years, where they watched their children and grandchildren grow up.

[16] Because of the fog, another lighthouse was built closer to the Pacific Ocean shore line, in the area adjoining Cabrillo National Monument now occupied by a U.S. Coast Guard Station.

People from town would sometimes drive by horse and buggy over a dirt road (now Catalina Boulevard) to picnic and visit the lighthouse and its keepers.

In 1913, it was proposed to tear down the dilapidated lighthouse and replace it with a monumental statue of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo.

The statue was never made, but to accommodate it, one-half acre around the lighthouse was set aside as Cabrillo National Monument by Presidential Proclamation.

With the outbreak of war in 1941, the lighthouse was painted camouflage green and was used as a signal tower to direct ships into San Diego Harbor.

During the 1980s it was restored and filled with period furnishings to resemble its appearance when the Israel family lived there.

[18] In 2003–2004 the surrounding area was also restored to a more authentic look, including native plants, a vegetable garden, and a water catchment system.

[20] The long neck of land enclosing North San Diego Bay on the West side is known as Point Loma.

The origin of the name comes from a legend of a flaxen haired little Russian girl, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, who was found wandering on shore.

The local residents took her in and named her Loma and she grew up to become the cynosure of many ardent male eyes.

A rejected suitor slew the girl and fled to the point where he met his rival on a narrow trail above the sea.

Not used for lighthouse purposes since 1891, the old tower, was set aside by President Wilson in 1913 as a national monument and is now cared for by the U.S. Park Service.