File:DETAIL VIEW SHOWING ENGINE ROOM DOOR TO WORK ROOM AND CEILING VENT TO ATTIC, LOOKING WEST - Cape Arago Lighthouse, Gregory Point, Charleston, Coos County, OR HABS OR-189-16.tif

• See also HAER OR-156 for footbridge leading to lighthouse
• Significance: Completed in 1934, the Cape Arago Lighthouse was the third light constructed at the Cape Arago Light Station that was established in 1866. The lighthouse is significant for its association with the Federal government's efforts to provide safe maritime transportation into the Coos Bay harbor and along the Pacific Northwest coast during a time when Oregon’s economy was dependent on the sea for transport and trade. Mariner relied on the third Cape Arago Lighthouse to safely guide vessels along the southern Oregon coast from the early 1930s until the light was decommissioned in 2006.

The Cape Arago Lighthouse is also significant architecturally as the only pre-World War II lighthouse constructed of reinforced concrete in the state. The lighthouse represents the introduction of modern building materials and technologies into a traditional form. The tower, illuminated by a fourth-order Fresnel lens, was designed with an attached fog signal building that housed the station’s work, engine, and watch rooms. The lighthouse retains integrity of design, location, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and is one of nine extant coastal lighthouses in Oregon. The Cape Arago Lighthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 under the registration requirements as defined by the multiple property submission “Lighthouse Stations of Oregon” completed in 1991-92. The 1938 footbridge that connects the mainland to the lighthouse island is also listed in the National Register as part of the Cape Arago Light Station. The footbridge is documented in a separate survey, HAER OR-156.

• Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1514
• Survey number: HABS OR-189
• Building/structure dates: 1934 Initial Construction