East Brother Light Station sits off Richmond's Point San Pablo and has served as a lighthouse, fog signal, and five-bedroom Victorian inn since 1873. The U.S. Coast Guard owns the property and licensed a nonprofit to operate the inn beginning in 1980. The nonprofit has invested substantial labor and money into renovating and maintaining the property. The pier and gangway, constructed in 1962 and repaired in the 1990s, are crumbling and rusting from exposure. The Coast Guard lacks funds for repairs, so the nonprofit is seeking $750,000 to replace the pier and gangway, with the first $51,000 to buy a prefabricated aluminum gangway and more than $18,000 raised so far.
For more than 150 years, the East Brother Light Station has been a constant fixture on Richmond's shoreline, doubling as a warning system and novel bed and breakfast for decades. Part of that fixture is now in jeopardy. Under threat of potential closure, a local nonprofit is trying to raise money for repairs to keep the historic site open to visitors.
The five-bedroom Victorian-style light station has also functioned as an inn since 1980, after the U.S. Coast Guard, which owns the property, licensed a nonprofit, also named East Brother Light Station, to oversee the historic site. Cities that preserve their historic resources tend to be successful and attract new residents and businesses and tourists, Former Mayor Tom Butt said about some of the motivations to save the light station.
Since becoming stewards of the light station, a job that's passed through a long line of hands, the nonprofit has invested a substantial amount of labor and money into renovating and maintaining the property, said Butt, who was a founding member of the nonprofit and also serves as its board president. The latest and most urgent need is an effort to replace the pier and gangway on the island, which was built in 1962, repaired in the 1990s and has again begun to crumble
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