The Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Historic Hughes House and the Port Orford Lifeboat Station Museum are three treasured sites in the area. Their distinguishing architectural features are captured in this series of photographs by three different photographers.

The isolated Cape Blanco Lighthouse holds five Oregon records: it is the oldest continually operating light; the most westerly; it has the highest focal plane above the sea (approx. 250 feet); James Langlois has an unmatched tenure at any other West Coast lighthouse (42 years); and Cape Blanco’s first woman keeper, Mabel E. Bretherton, signed on in March 1903. [Read more]

The second order Fresnel lens in this photograph is the one installed in 1936 when the lighthouse was electrified.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse (Color) by Rebecca Malamud-Evans. 2023.
Cape Blanco Lighthouse (Monochrome) by Rebecca Malamud-Evans. 2023.

The historic Hughes House is a restored 1898 Victorian farmhouse built for pioneers Patrick and Jane Hughes. After operating a successful dairy ranch for more than thirty years, the couple was able to pay pioneer builder Pehr Johan Lindberg to design and build the comfortable, two-story home. [Read more]

Historic Hughes House (Color) by Darren Evans. 2024.
Historic Hughes House (Monochrome) by Darren Evans. 2024.

From 1934 into the 1960s, U.S. Coast Guard surfmen lived at the Port Orford Lifeboat Station, ever alert for ships in distress. When a call came they risked their lives to save others. Four other historic buildings also remain at this 101.29-acre site. This is the only Forge River-type station left on the West Coast. [Read more]

Port Orford Lifeboat Station Museum (HDR) by Lance Nix. 2014.
Port Orford Lifeboat Station Museum (HDR to Monochrome) by Lance Nix. 2014.

Photo Notes 🎵 Lighting of the structures in this series of photographs was important in order to capture the distinctive details of the architecture; most challenging being the intricacy of the prisms of Augustin-Jean Fresnel’s invention and the delicate shingle latticework of the historic Hughes House (a signature style of P.J. Lindberg). Time of day was important to minimize unwanted shadows as each photograph had to be posterized (a traditional production technique to lower color threshold) so each photo would successfully render in black and white at a small size. The first two pairs of photographs (of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse and Hughes House) were a design challenge to match the detail of one of Lance Nix’s earlier HDR photographs of the Port Orford Lifeboat Museum (above).

The Cape Blanco Lighthouse historic second order Fresnel lens by Rebecca Malamud-Evans (2023).

These three photographs became the masthead art for the monthly one-sheets of the Cape Blanco Heritage Society, “News of Note” 🎵 ~ Enjoy!