The large building in the foreground is the fog signal building constructed in 1906. The smaller building behind it, constructed the following year, was used for storing kerosene which was burned by the fog signal air compressors as well as in the light within the lens. The lighthouse can be seen in the background.

Captain Lorin V. Thorndyke was head keeper from 1877 to 1906. He's shown here ca 1893 with his sons Lorin V. Thorndyke Jr. (left) and John Emory Thorndyke.

Maud Rogers (right) became the wife of the Captain's son, Lorin Jr. She is shown here with one of her sisters, Daisy Rogers.

Elizabeth Jarmon, one of fourteen children born in Wales, Wisconsin, came to California to visit her sister Mary who was married to Tom Evans and living near the lighthouse. While she was there, "Lizzie" met and married Captain Thorndyke and became the mother of his two sons.

After "Lizzie" died in 1886, leaving the Captain with two young sons, he had a brief second marriage and then married Margaret Jarmon, sister of Lizzie. This picture was taken on their wedding day in 1897.

Shown here (left to right) are Maud Rogers Thorndyke, her son Roger, Captain Lorin V. Thorndyke, his third wife Margaret Thorndyke, and his son Lorin V. Thorndyke, Jr.(husband of Maud). They are standing in front of their store in San Simeon, today called Sebastian's Store.

This triplex was built in 1876 to house the head keeper and his two assistants and their families. In 1906, a new house was built for the head keeper and his family (seen in background) and by that time the light station had three assistant keepers who lived here. In 1960, new quarters were built and the triplex was razed while the head keeper's house was dismantled and moved to Cambria where it stands today on Chatham Street.

The Piedras Blancas Lighthouse in all it's former glory. This picture was taken prior to 1949 when the lens was removed following damage to the tower by an earthquake about six miles west of the tower. The keeper's triplex can be seen to the left of the tower and the fuel storage building is in the foreground.