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Heceta House: A History and Architectural Survey |
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SECTION ONE: HISTORY
IV: WORLD WAR II AND BEYOND
Concern over a Japanese attack on the coast was voiced in the Florence "Oar" as early as 1935. A headline printed in July of that year read, "Hands are Tied on Coast if Japs Come." The article reported that the War Department had requested funds to map areas along the Oregon coast, and claimed this was "...the initial step toward extensive fortification of the Oregon coast line against foreign invasion."1
1The Siuslaw Oar (Florence, Oregon), July 19, 1935, p. 1.
Despite early calls for military installations, it was not until after the attack on Pearl Harbor that a network of bases was established on the coast. The Heceta Head Light Station was among the spots chosen as a military post.
A story in the "Oar" printed December 26, 1941, read:
Four of the boys from the Coast Guard station have been transferred to the lighthouse.
To make living quarters for the new men, the Johnsons are vacating their residence and Mrs. Johnson and daughter Mary Lou will go to Astoria to spend the winter with her folks there.2
1The Siuslaw Oar (Florence, Oregon), December 26, 1941, p. 1.
Mr. Johnson remained at Heceta approximately one year, after which he was transferred to Tongue Point Station.
Soon after Johnson's departure, Coast Guardsmen began arriving en masse. One of the first to come was head cook Stanley Anderson. When he arrived in April of 1943, between 10 and 15 men were stationed at the base, but in the coming months, the number jumped to 75.
According to Anderson, the first arrivals were quartered in the east half of the duplex, while the Hermanns continued to occupy the other side. Sharing one bathroom with over a dozen men did not sit well with Anderson, but the housing squeeze was soon eliminated.
A barracks and mess hall were erected in the spot the head keeper's house once occupied. The enlisted men were assigned to the barracks, while their commander set up headquarters in the duplex.
The Heceta Head Guardsmen provided an important link in a chain of coastal patrols. They covered the beach as far north as Yachats and as far south as Heceta Beach. The patrol operated 24-hours a day, and dogs were taken along at all times.
Between 10 and 12 of the patrol dogs were kept at the station. According to Anderson, they were extremely vicious. One man was assigned to each dog, and the animals were kept constantly chained.
In addition to the beach patrol, a lookout station built above the lighthouse was manned around the clock.
The Guardsmen took over many of the lighthouse duties, which lightened Hermann's work load considerably. Anderson describes the keeper's status as that of an "honorary citizen"; he and his wife were the only civilians allowed to remain on the military base.
Anderson remembers Hermann as a "grandfatherly type." He certainly looked the part, for he was well into his sixties, and had a good-sized belly to attest to his wife's culinary skills. He often entertained the Guardsmen with tall tales of the sea and, naturally, of lighthouses.
The Hermanns remained the last testimony to the old way of life at the station. Stonefields still occupied Cape Creek, but the family had dwindled considerably. Charles died in 1927, and Annie in 1934. Rufus and Rosie remained, but their children had left the Cape.
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| Doghoues lined hillside. |
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| "Cap" and Mrs. Hermann, as they appeared during the war. |
Heceta Head was strictly off-limits to visitors during the war. Sentry posts were set up at the entrance to the driveway and at the house. However, families of the Guardsmen were allowed on base occasionally, and once a week, the USO faithfully appeared. The station wagon driven by USO volunteers was a type of traveling theatre: it carried movie screen, projector, and reels of film. Each week, the mess hall was transformed to a temporary movie house. While it may not have featured the latest films, it at least provided some recreation.
However, the men generally went off base for their entertainment. A Greyhound bus stopped by the station on the run to Florence. Anderson remembered those bus rides vividly:
It was hard because there was only one bus a day. It went down and the next day it went back, so we had to spend the night in Florence. If you think the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit is bad now, then, they had a 35-mile-an-hour speed limit and that old bus used to lug.3
3Stanley Anderson, private interview held at Tigard, Oregon, October, 1979.
As the outcome of the war became apparent, personnel were withdrawn gradually from the Heceta base. Anderson was transferred to Seattle in May of 1944, and by 1946, only one or two Guardsmen remained to help Hermann run the tower.
No news came out of Heceta during the next few years; it almost seems as if a curtain had been drawn around the station.
It was not until 1950 that the lighthouse again made the front page of the "Oar." The occasion was the retirement of Hermann; he served his last day at Heceta January 31, 1950. He retired at the age of 70, after 49 years of continuous lighthouse duty.
The veteran keeper and his wife moved to Tillamook, leaving S. H. Elder in charge of the light. Elder had been assistant since 1948.
The new keeper did not remain long at Heceta Head. During the next few years, the Coast Guard transferred men in and out at an unprecedented rate. For that reason, records of keepers who served after Hermann are practically nonexistent.
In July of 1952, a newspaper article in the "Oar" announced that the lighthouse was again open to visitors. The story listed John A. Boyer, engineman second class, and Grant Allen, seaman, as keepers. The men occupied the duplex with their families.
Apparently, the "open house" tradition maintained before the war was back full force, for the "Oar" states, "In one day recently, 87 people signed the guest book, registering from all corners of the United States and several far away lands."4
4The Siuslaw Oar (Florence, Oregon), July 11, 1952, p. 1.
Another tradition was reinstated which undoubtedly terrorized the wives of the keepers: the house was once again subject to strict inspection.
In 1957, the Heceta Light was placed under the care of a veteran, civilian light keeper. Oswald Allick had put in some twenty years at the Tillamook Rock Station. After that light was closed, he was given a choice of serving at any lighthouse along the coast. He picked Heceta Head, and along with his wife, Alice, he moved into the duplex formerly occupied by the likes of the Hermanns, DeRoys and Hansens.
The light station again disappeared from the news until 1963, when the tower was automated.
That year, a sensor was placed in the lighthouse which alerts the Coast Guard station at Florence when the light goes out. In that event, Guardsmen simply make the short trip up the coast and switch the tower to a back-up generator.
Automation of the tower eliminated the need for keepers, and Allick found himself out of a job. He chose to retire the same day the station was switched to remote control: July 20, 1963.
The passing of the old-style station was lamented both by lighthouse buffs and diehard romantics. Their position is summed up well in the following passages:
Chalk another landmark off the map, mourn the passing of another lighthouse keeper.
Heceta Head light is about to join the unromantic, scientifically controlled robots now marking Oregon's western coastline that once were the subject of romantic tall tales.5
5Maxine Buren, "Landmark Will Be Placed on Remote Control July 20," Oregon Statesman (Salem, Oregon), no date or page number.
After the light was automated, the Coast Guard found itself owner of a house without a keeper. Agency officials decided they had no further use for the house, and the residence and garage, along with 10.8 acres, were declared excess property. The Coast Guard retained the 2.2 acres where the tower and oil houses stand.
Coast Guard administrators determined the State of Oregon was a likely successor to the relinquished property. The state had established Devil's Elbow Park some years earlier, and because the park was near the lighthouse station, Coast Guard officials reasoned Heceta Head would be a logical extension of the state lands.
The first acquisition for Devil's Elbow was obtained in 1930, when the state purchased 22.8 acres south of Cape Creek. Laura T. and J. Hutchinson sold the land for $2,000. Annie Stonefield made a gift of four acres to the state in 1931 and the Lighthouse Service donated an additional 7.5 acres in 1935. Three more tracts were purchased in 1939, bringing the total acreage of Devil's Elbow close to 97. (In 1974, the Stonefield family sold the state another 368 acres for $186,000.)
The beach fronting Cape Cove was selected as the use area of the park, and picnic tables and a parking lot replaced the open space that had once been playground to Heceta Head children.
The Coast Guard granted the state a revocable license for the former keepers' quarters and the adjacent acreage. In exchange for use of the property, the state agreed to maintain the premises in a "presentable condition" at all times. The license, signed by the admiral of the Coast Guard, was signed August 29, 1963.
After the lease was negotiated, parks employee Ken Lucas moved into Heceta House with his family. He was assigned to maintain Devil's Elbow and Washburne State Parks, as well as the Heceta property. Lucas left in 1964, and was replaced by George Stankey. Stankey recalls that a Parks Division administrator by the name of H. M. Stevenson often visited the house, and developed some plans for renovations. However, he never had the opportunity to implement any of his plans, for questions surrounding title to the property put the state's continued occupation in doubt.
In 1965, the Coast Guard notified the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of its intention to relinquish custody of the light station. A section of the letter of intent reads as follows:
It is the opinion of the Coast Guard that the excess 10.8+ acres of land are not suitable for return to the Public Domain because of the improvements made thereon. It is recommended that the property, less reservations noted, be reported to the General Services Administration for possible conveyance to the State of Oregon for park purposes.6
6E. E. Griffin, correspondence written by direction of commandant of the Coast Guard, dated March 12, 1965, included in Region 6 files of the U. S. Forest Service.
BLM officials did not automatically concur with the Coast Guard judgement. They sent a note to the Forest Service describing the status of the property. John Brillhart, who was then employed with the Division of Lands in the Forest Service, received the notification. According to Brillhart, he did some checking and discovered transfer of the Heceta Head land to the state would be illegal.
Because the property had been public domain prior to the establishment of the light station, Brillhart maintained the land should revert to the public domain, in which case it would become part of the Siuslaw National Forest. BLM agreed, and the former Coast Guard property was offered to the Forest Service.
Siuslaw Forest administrators were not immediately receptive to the idea of taking over the land, as the following memo penned by a recreation officer indicates:
The Forest Service has no plans to develop recreation facilities next to the State Park at Heceta Head. We believe the lands surplus to the Coast Guard's needs should, if possible, be made available by GSA [General Services Administration] to the State of Oregon.7
7Philip L. Heaton, memorandum dated October 29, 1965, included in Region 6 files of the U. S. Forest Service.
However, forest supervisor Spencer T. Moore had other ideas:
I wish to strongly recommend that appropriate action be initiated whereby the lands will receive National Forest status and that the lands subsequently be made available for exchange to the State of Oregon. This will permit the Forest Service to receive an exchange value for the lands. As you are perhaps aware, we are currently attempting to prepare a mutually acceptable land exchange offer with the State of Oregon to acquire the Neptune State Park which will provide a needed expansion of the Cape Perpetua Recreation Park area.8
8Spencer T. Moore, memorandum dated November 4, 1965, included in Region 6 files of the U.S. Forest Service.
A public land order signed April 11, 1966 transferred the land in question to the Forest Service. The Coast Guard retained access rights to and from the lighthouse, in addition to easements for maintaining overhead power and telephone lines.
The lease the Coast Guard had granted the state was revoked, effective September, 1966. State Parks superintendent David Talbot attempted to retain the right to use the property under a special use permit.9 Forest Service administrators did not agree to the permit, hoping instead to effect an exchange for the desirable Neptune State Park. The following passages from a letter to Talbot indicate the Forest Service was open in its attempts to secure the Neptune land:
We do not believe a long term special use permit for the Heceta Head lands would be desirable from our standpoint or for the State Highway Department. [The Parks Department then was under the State Highway Department.]
As I have said before, we do agree that the Heceta Head property should most logically be State Parks property. Further we recommended this to the Bureau of Land when the property was declared surplus.
I am not sure that I have fully communicated to you the limitations on disposal of National Forest lands. The only method of disposal is by exchange.
I would again suggest that we get together and discuss this and other possibilities of exchange which might be beneficial to both the State and the Forest Service.10
9Under the Granger-Thye Act of 1950, the Forest Service is allowed to lease federal properties through special use permits.
10Philip L. Heaton, correspondence dated August 11, 1966, contained in Region 6 files of the U. S. Forest Service.
Talbot, however, would have no part of an exchange scheme. In a telephone interview, he said he had tried to obtain a special use permit because he wanted to see the property protected, and he thought the Parks Division was in a good position to maintain the house. When the Forest Service refused to grant the permit, Talbot abandoned the idea of retaining the property.
"I'd thought it was silly [to deny the permit] and I bowed out."11
11David Talbot, telephone interview held January, 1980.
According to Brillhart, the superintendent accused Forest Service officials of accepting ownership of Heceta only to increase their bargaining power for the Neptune Park. However, Brillhart maintains that legally, the property could have gone only to the Forest Service. Any advantages or disadvantages gained through acquisition of Heceta Head were purely secondary, he claims.12
12John Brillhart, telephone interview held January, 1980.
After the Forest Service became official owner of the property, the duplex was rented to families employed on the Siuslaw Forest. Initially, the arrangement was satisfactory. but by 1970, the building had deteriorated to such an extent that it became difficult to find persons interested in renting it.
A list of maintenance requirements compiled in May of 1970 totalled $16,350, and included painting the exterior; replacing certain doors, windows and siding; repairing the porch railing and posts; and rebuilding the water system.13 In addition, the Lane County Health Department notified the Forest Service that sewage was running directly into the ocean, and required that a new sewer system be installed.
13Document contained in files of the Waldport Ranger District, Siuslaw National Forest.
When conditions of the building were not immediately improved, community members became alarmed that the house would be allowed to deteriorate beyond repair.
Under the direction of Don Bowman of the Siuslaw Museum Association a "Friends of Heceta House" group was formed. Rumors that Bohemia Lumber Co. was interested in purchasing the site for a resort complex were particularly disturbing to the "Friends," who drew up a list of guidelines to be incorporated in Forest Service management plans for the house. The list included: public use of the house for environmental and educational purposes; public access to the lighthouse trail; landscape and house to remain essentially unchanged; no extension of vehicular access and parking; and establishment of an advisory board to Forest Service personnel involved in maintenance of the house.14
14Mrs. Robert S. Harris, correspondence dated August, 1970, contained in files of the Waldport Ranger District, Siuslaw National Forest.
Heceta House had become something of an albatross around the neck of the Forest Service. Forest administrators were anxious to grant a special use permit to an organization willing to comply with the requirements set forth by the Friends of Heceta House. There was some speculation about converting the house to a maritime museum, but interested groups did not have resources adequate for the undertaking.
Lane Community College (LCC) expressed an interest in leasing the property in order to provide classes with a coastal "field trip" site. The Forest Service approved the idea, and the proposal was brought before the LCC Board of Directors.
Catherine Lauris, member of the board, had a particular interest in the matter. "I wanted it [Heceta House] for historical reasons, and I wanted to preserve it for the general public because it had always belonged to the public. So we hashed it out, there was lobbying and debates and finally we said o.k., we'll sign a lease with the Forest Service."15
15Catherine Lauris, private interview held at Eugene, Oregon, October, 1979.
A ten-year lease was signed in 1970. Under the terms, rent would be paid in the form of repair and maintenance work on the interior of the house. The Forest Service agreed to care for the exterior. Also, LCC was required to hire a full-time caretaker to live in the duplex.
Following a joint effort by the college and the Forest Service, the house was restored to livable conditions. Workers from Angell Job Corps painted the exterior, while the college refinished interior woodwork; repaired moldings; and replaced buckled floor boards with linoleum.
Caretakers turned over rapidly during the first years of LCC occupation, but in 1973, a couple from California by the name of Harry and Anne Tammen accepted the job. As of 1980, they still are employed as Heceta House caretakers.
The Tammens saw the popularity of the site increase dramatically. Instructors now reserve the house almost every weekend. Classes in virtually every discipline are held at Heceta Head: the coastal landscape is captured by art and photography students; architecture professors lecture on the design of the 19th century lightkeepers' house; and science students examine flora and fauna of the area.
In terms of the use situation, LCC occupation proved highly successful. However, the house continued to need major repair work, despite maintenance measures carried out by the Tammens. Help eventually came in the form of federal legislation.
An executive order signed in 1971 requires all federal agencies to nominate eligible properties under their jurisdiction to the National Register of Historic Places. This was not the first law effecting historic properties; legislation protecting cultural resources had been passed as far back as 1897. However, for the first time, federal law directly effected the Heceta Head property.
In accordance with the executive order, Lt. R. J. Williamson of the Coast Guard nominated the Heceta Head Lighthouse to the National Register. After consulting with the Forest Service, he included Heceta House in the nomination forms. The process of nomination was involved; Williamson began his research in 1974, and the property did not make the register until November of 1978.
Inclusion in the National Register has had a number of consequences. Besides officially recognizing the structure as a cultural resource, it has provided for the protection and maintenance of the property. As a result, preservation of the building is now a high priority item on the Waldport Ranger District.
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Last Updated: 04-Aug-2008