Giving a historic piece of Pacific Grove the designation it deserves will help preserve a unique legacy.

The Monterey Peninsula is world-famous for its protection of scenic wonder and historic preservation. Pacific Grove now needs to protect a missing link in the preservation of the Point Pinos Lighthouse Reservation.

The historic significance of this land was first recognized in 1851 when President Millard Fillmore directed that sites along the California coast be reserved as public domain, and the Secretary of the Treasury issued instructions to land officers in California to act accordingly. In 1867 the Commissioner of Public Lands reaffirmed in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior that Point Pinos Reservation was to be reserved from sale and so marked on the public surveys.

In 1966, my father, the late California State Sen. Fred Farr, as chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, wrote a letter in support of Pacific Grove’s efforts to preserve as open space the entirety of the Point Pinos Lighthouse Reservation. Eventually, the City did take ownership of the lighthouse, and in 1977 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, the rest of the spectacular headlands has not yet been put into protection.

Designation costs nothing, yet would create an attraction.

Sadly, the historical directive to protect all the designated lands from sale was ignored in 2022, when the federal General Services Administration sold the U.S. Navy/NOAA building to a private buyer for $4.8 million. Despite calls to preserve the building, the property was declared surplus and put out to the highest bidder, a mother-and-son from the East Coast.

However, the City still has the authority to request the entire Point Pinos Lighthouse Reservation be included in the National Register of Historic Places. There are many reasons, including:

1. Extensive prehistoric archeology with sacred indigenous cultural significance.

2. Rare and unique ecological habitat in the Asilomar Dunes Geologic Formation.

3. The 1923 foghorn signal installed at the shoreline.

4. Critical WWII activities, including the all-Black U.S. Army 54th Coastal Artillery Regiment, the Coast Guard, the Navy and civil defense installations.

5. Adjacency to the Great Tide Pool utilized by biologist Ed Ricketts and made famous by John Steinbeck.

6. Proximity to Asilomar Conference Grounds, which are on the U.S. National Registry of Historic Places and listed as California Historic Landmark #1052.

The designation as a historic district is long overdue. I urge the Pacific Grove City Council to file a request to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places for the entire Point Pinos Lighthouse Reservation to be designated as a Historic Park.

Such designation costs nothing, yet would create an attraction that stands to improve economic activity in Pacific Grove and help preserve this spectacular headland that was first recognized as important more than 173 years ago.

SAM FARR is a retired U.S. representative, who served from 1993-2017. Before that, he held state and local office. He lives in Carmel and Big Sur.