Alki Point juts into Puget Sound just south of Elliott Bay - the center of shipping traffic for modern-day Seattle. The original settlers, seeing the potential of the area, optimistically called it New York. Later, the Coast Guard named the site Battery Point. Ultimately, it assumed the name Alki Point - a Chinook word for "by and by" or "all in good time."

Despite the importance of the site, no light was officially placed on the point until 1887. The owner of the point, Hans Martin Hanson, placed a lantern on the point in 1868 as a private navigational aid. When the Lighthouse Service officially established a hanging lens lantern at the point, Hanson was paid $15 a month to watch the light.

Eventually the Lighthouse Service decided to establish a more permanent light at the site. Edmund Hanson, son of Hans Martin Hanson, sold the site for $9000. The light was completed and lit in 1913. A fourth-order Fresnel lens replaced Hanson's lamp. The old lamp was displayed in the fog signal building. Two dwellings were built inland of the lighthouse. The Fresnel lens was eventually replaced by a modern optic in the 1960's.

In 1970, the old Hanson lamp was stolen. It turned up a few years later when a woman inquired at a Seattle antique dealer about a lamp her late husband had purchased at an antique store. When she learned it was stolen, she returned it to the Coast Guard. The lamp had not been polished since it had been stolen, and the original thief's fingerprints were still on the lantern! The thief was later found and arrested. Today, the lamp is in the Coast Guard Museum Northwest in Seattle.

Alki Point remains in service today. The grounds are not open to the public, but tours of the lighthouse are available.

References (see links)

Umbrella Guide to Oregon Lighthouses, Nelson pp. 27, 29-30
Pacific Northwest Lighthouses, Roberts and Jones p. 43