City of Seattle Mike McGinn, Mayor

Great News for Magnolia Community- Seattle gets Lighthouse!

Seattle- Mayor Greg Nickels announced today that the U.S. Department of the Interior has awarded the historic West Point Lighthouse in Discovery Park to the City of Seattle for education, recreation, and park use. The property also includes two residences, a maintenance building, and 2.5 prime acres of waterfront property.

“This is terrific news for Magnolia and the entire city,” Nickels said. “As the new owner of the lighthouse property, we’ll be able to preserve this historic structure, open it to the public, and provide a stunningly beautiful place for citizens to learn about our environment.”

Parks and Recreation Superintendent Ken Bounds added, “The addition of the Lighthouse to Discovery Park adds an exciting 2.5 acres of saltwater shoreline-and a valued historic building--for public use.”

“It’s a fabulous opportunity for the city with tremendous potential and endless possibilities to promote environmental stewardship in the Puget Sound area,” said Phil Vogelzang, chair of the Discovery Park Advisory Council.

The West Point Light Station, as the lighthouse is known, became available in late 2002 for transfer to another government agency or nonprofit, educational, or community development organization under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. This will be the second Washington lighthouse to change ownership under that law.

The first was the Grays Harbor Lighthouse in Westport, WA, which was turned over to the Westport-South Beach Historical Society in August 2004. Before the new lighthouse law passed in 2000, Congressional approval was required to transfer ownership of individual lighthouses.

Seattle Parks and Recreation submitted its application for consideration to the National Park Service (NPS) in early 2003.

After performing structural, roofing, and other repairs to the building, Seattle Parks proposes to open the lighthouse to the public for approximately 600 hours per year for environmental education and interpretation, other programming, and public tours. The City Council adopted legislation funding the proposal, in the amount of $600,000 from the Shoreline Park Improvement Fund (SPIF), in the late spring of 2004.

SPIF is a $25 million fund created in the early 1990s to mitigate the impacts of King County/Metro’s expansion of the wastewater treatment plant at West Point, adjacent to Discovery Park. The projects it funds are identified and recommended by a citizen panel.

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Office of the Mayor

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