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Photograph of Point San Luis Light
Photograph by Voyacantar, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

San Luis Obispo Light Station

Built in 1890. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.

From the record

“The Point San Luis Lighthouse, also known as the San Luis Obispo Light Station, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Located near Avila Beach and Port San Luis on the Central Coast of California in San Luis Obispo County, it is one of two Prairie Victorian model lighthouse left on the West Coast of the United States.”

Wikipedia article Point San Luis Lighthouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 32 National Register listings published here for San Luis Obispo County · listed in 1991 · category: District · built in 1890.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. Point San Luis, Avila Beach, 93424
  • When was it listed? September 1991
  • Category. district
  • Also known as. Light Stations of California MPS
  • Census division. San Luis Obispo
  • When was it built? 1890
  • National Register reference number. 91001093 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

88 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 88 fires within 5 miles of San Luis Obispo Light Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 525 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined42
Equipment and vehicle use23
Misuse of fire by a minor5
Debris and open burning5
Arson/incendiarism5
Recreation and ceremony4
Smoking2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
30 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSan Luis Obispo UnitONTARIO RD / SAN LUIS BAY
3 September 1992Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSan Luis Obispo UnitTANK
27 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSan Luis Obispo Unit911
2 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire ProtectionAVILA
16 September 2009Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSan Luis Obispo UnitSEE CANYON RD SLO_CO
15 September 2010Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreSan Luis Obispo UnitHIGUERA
12 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCalifornia Department of Forestry & Fire ProtectionSPYGLASS
10 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSan Luis Obispo UnitAVILA

Every fire recorded in San Luis Obispo County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of San Luis Obispo Light Station: 2 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Diatomite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Los Penascos Ranch DepositDiatomiteOccurrence
Borrow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Pacific Coast Coal CompanySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in San Luis Obispo County

Storms near this property

1 since 2023

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Avila Beach, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 2023: 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
January 2023Flash FloodAvila Beach1 killedA 60 year old woman was swept away in her SUV by raging flood waters along Avila Beach Road.

Every storm recorded in San Luis Obispo County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
John Price House6.8 miles1988
Pereira Octagon Barn6.9 miles2014
Corral de Piedra7.8 miles1978

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 91001093 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
San Luis Obispo CountyAll 32 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.