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On this GIVING TUESDAY, we’re reflecting on the importance of East Brother Light Station and the community that keeps it going.
Your support helps preserve the lighthouse, maintain safe operations, and safeguard this historic landmark for future generations.
We hope you’ll consider including EBLS in your giving plans. Every contribution, large or small, helps sustain this unique maritime
treasure.
Thank you for standing with us.
See
https://youtu.be/sbPThxrkTKw
Although the government shutdown stalled us for a while, we are making great progress getting “shovel ready” for the pier and gangway project. You will recall that we must replace
the deteriorated 1962 pier platform and gangway to continue operating and maintaining East Brother Light Station. Without access, the 45-year run as a popular dinner, bed and breakfast destination will end, but even more dire, the ongoing maintenance and security
will also end, and the island will fall prey to vandals and the weather.
Here is where we are:
- Bid documents for the projects are complete, sealed and stamped by engineers.
- The US Coast Guard has officially approved the project.
- Permits from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the US Army Corps
of Engineers are under review. - Transfer of ownership of the island from the US Coast Guard to our nonprofit East Brother Light Station, Inc., is in progress.
- We have purchased the new gangway, and it will be delivered in the spring of 2026.
- We have been receiving some nice donations, the latest $30,000 from a person who has stayed there six times, renting the whole island with friends
and family.
We should be technically able to start construction in 2026, but we still need $600,000 to $700,000 to get there.
If you want to help, you can do so in several ways:
Donate online:
- Network for Good
https://ebls.networkforgood.com/ - Go Fund Me:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-east-brother-lighthouse-replace-the-pier
Write a check to:
East Brother Light Station, inc.
(Pier and Gangway Project)
117 Park Place
Richmond CA 94801
Give us names and contact information
of corporations, individuals, foundations or organizations that you believe may be potential donors. We will do the rest.
Questions or comments? Contact:
Tom Butt, President
East Brother Light Station, Inc.
17 park Place
Richmond, CA 94801
510-220-1577
Richmond’s historic East Brother Light Station puts out call for help
Under threat of potential closure, a nonprofit is trying to raise money for repairs to keep the historic
site open to visitors
East Brother Light Station on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, near Richmond, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay
Area News Group)
By Sierra
Lopez | slopez@bayareanewsgroup.com |
Bay Area News Group
UPDATED: August 21, 2025 at 4:48 AM PDT
RICHMOND — For more than 150 years, the East
Brother Light Station has been a constant fixture on Richmond’s shoreline, doubling as a warning system and novel
bed and breakfast for decades. Part of that fixture is now in jeopardy.
Under threat of potential closure, a local nonprofit is trying to raise money for repairs to keep the historic site open to visitors.
The five-bedroom Victorian-style light station has also functioned as an inn since 1980, after the U.S. Coast Guard, which owns the property,
licensed a nonprofit, also named East Brother Light Station, to oversee the historic site.
“Cities that preserve their historic resources tend to be successful and attract new residents and businesses and tourists,” Former Mayor Tom
Butt said about some of the motivations to save the light station. “People really appreciate it because it’s so different. It’s right in the middle of an urban area with 12 million people within an hour drive. You can go out there and be in a different world
for a day and a night.”
Since becoming stewards of the light station, a job that’s passed through a long line of hands, the nonprofit has invested a substantial amount
of labor and money into renovating and maintaining the property, said Butt, who was a founding member of the nonprofit and also serves as its board president.
The latest and most urgent need is an effort to replace the pier and gangway on the island, which was built in 1962, repaired in the 1990s
and has again begun to crumble and rust away due to exposure to the elements.
The Coast Guard doesn’t have the funds for renovations, Butt said, prompting the nonprofit’s latest bid to raise $750,000 for the project.
The first $51,000 raised will go toward purchasing a prefabricated gangway made of aluminum, Butt said. Just more than $18,000 has been raised since the fundraiser was announced July 23, according to GoFundMe.
Completing the latest round of repairs is vital, Butt said. If not completed and the pier and gangway further deteriorate to unsafe levels,
the inn could be shut down by the Coast Guard, he said.
“Without use of the pier and gangway, occupation of East Brother Island would cease, the bed and breakfast inn would close, and the stream
of funding critical for maintenance would quickly dry up. The buildings would soon be destroyed by neglect, vandalism and weather,” Butt said in the fundraiser campaign announcement.
The Coast Guard had long planned to do away with the light station altogether, having announced plans to demolish the structures on the island
to erect an automatic light on a steel or concrete tower in the 1960s, according to the book “East Brother: History of an Island Light Station,” by Frank Perry.
A successful push to add the site to the National Register of Historic Places saved the light station from demolition in 1971. Shortly after,
the East Brother Light Station began renovating and maintaining the property using revenue from the bed and breakfast, which opened in 1980, and public and philanthropic dollars.
Thankful for that preservation work is Martin Reimer, a long-time lighthouse enthusiast and East Brother Light Station volunteer.
The volunteer team, known as “wickies,” travel to the island once a month to paint, pull weeds, clean windows and complete any other maintenance
jobs the innkeepers haven’t been able to get to amid their busy schedules of cooking, cleaning, leading tours of the property, answering phone calls and emails and traveling into town to gather supplies.
Martin Reimer cleans windows at the East Brother Light Station during
a volunteer work day on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, near Richmond, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
“It’s important to remember that there is history here in Richmond,” Reimer said. “If more people knew about (the light station), more would
like to come and visit. It’s not all bad in Richmond. There’s good parts too.”
The most frequent users of the pier and gangway are the current innkeepers Danielle La Vigne and Rachel Colvin. The couple crosses the island’s
access point at least four times a day transporting visitors and running errands to and from the island.
As the guest-facing arm of the business, they’re also responsible for soothing any safety concerns visitors may have and letting people down
gently when their physical abilities may prevent them from climbing the ladder from the boat onto the pier.
La Vigne and Colvin’s own troubles with the station’s infrastructure started before the pair had even been offered the job. The night before
they were meant to tour the property for the first time, the lift that pulls the boat out of the often choppy water broke during a storm.
The pier and gangway project is only one on a wish-list of improvements the innkeepers would like to see completed. Also on the list is a second
guest dock on the northwestern side of the island and a new boat. More youth programming, historic education opportunities for the public and collaborations with other community groups would also help make the work more rewarding, Colvin and La Vigne said.
Those opportunities could also diversify incoming revenue, and help keep “the place here another 150 years … and make it a little more livable
for the next innkeepers,” Colvin said.
“It’s a lot of missed opportunities to do so much more with this place,” La Vigne said. “It’s still an active lighthouse. It’s also a museum.
And there are a lot of educational opportunities.”
Maintaining a historic site like the East Brother Light Station comes with a never-ending list of repairs, and the innkeepers’ jobs are hard,
Butt emphasized. He has his own list of future projects but getting there first requires addressing the pier and gangway.
“There’s a huge amount of work. It’s ongoing, constantly,” Butt said. “You got to stay after it.”
Visit ebls.org to learn more about the East Brother Light Station and how to support the preservation of the historic site.
Volunteers clean the grounds of the East Brother Light Station on Sunday,
Aug. 17, 2025, near Richmond, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Originally Published: August 21, 2025 at 4:15 AM PDT
Tom Butt, President
East Brother Light Station, Inc.
Mailing address: 117 Park Place, Richmond, CA 94801
M 510/220-1577
Tax Exempt Since 1979 – EIN: 94-2552929
CA RCT #035826
East Brother Light Station, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation that operates and maintains East Brother Light Station as a public service
under a license from the U.S. Coast Guard. East Brother Island is a California Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
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