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<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe South Coast Scenic Improvement Project<\/em> emphasized the preservation of this historic lookout as a public view point in 1969, as recorded by Doris Walker in Home Port for Romance<\/em>. \u201cThe Blue Lantern Lookout Park\u201d was dedicated in 1975 as an official Orange County Park. \u00a0The historic red-tiled, octagonal gazebo first appears in our historical photos at about the same time as the Blue Lantern Gas Station Fountain Lunch building, c. 1926-1927.\u00a0 The original site may have been chosen by the San Juan Point Corporation or Anna G. Walters in 1925, but the gazebo was likely built sometime after Sidney H. Woodruff\u2019s investors bought and expanded the Dana Point development in 1926.\u00a0 (Historic photos show Woodruff\u2019s tall-ship logo located at the peak of the gazebo\u2019s tiled roof, pictured) The gazebo\u2019s panoramic location also includes the California State Park Commission\u2019s Historical Landmark No. 189<\/em>, erected in 1955, which attests to the significance of Richard Henry Dana\u2019s visit in 1835 and, earlier, Hip\u00f3lito Bouchard\u2019s raid on San Juan Capistrano, flying an Argentine flag, while anchored here in 1818.\u00a0 On September 21, 1978, the quarter-acre site was renamed the Ken Sampson Overlook to honor the Orange County Parks director who had overseen the design and construction of Dana Point Harbor.\u00a0 A commemorative plaque with Ken Sampson\u2019s portrait is placed in the park in tribute to his supervision of local beaches, harbors and parks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Orange County Parks engaged Page & Turnbull, a preservation architecture and conservancy firm in Los Angeles, to evaluate the Blue Lantern Gazebo with a historic-structure feasibility study.\u00a0 The study describes the Spanish Colonial Revival structure as located at the edge of the bluff on a concrete foundation added in 1989.\u00a0 The ramp that slopes down to the gazebo entrance was added during the 1973 construction of the new plaza.\u00a0 This was a change to the approach, but the gazebo itself was not moved.\u00a0 The gazebo is a wood-frame construction with large corner wood columns supporting wood rafters, wood skip sheathing and a barrel clay tile roof above. The walls are wood frame construction with cement plaster finish on the exterior and wood on the interior.\u00a0\u00a0 The gazebo was originally fully enclosed with casement window sashes and partially glazed bi-fold entry doors, as evident in our historic photos.\u00a0 After an Orange County Historical Commission meeting in the harbor, I had the opportunity to meet with architect Drew Gorski at the Blue Lantern Gazebo.\u00a0 He pointed to the original recessed areas where window hinges at the existing wood columns showed that the gazebo was once fully enclosed.\u00a0 In the report submitted by Page & Turnbull, the gazebo\u2019s interior cast-in-place floor, featuring a terra cotta compass embedded at the center, was installed with the new foundation in the late 1980s.\u00a0 The terra cotta compass was salvaged from an earlier slab and reinstalled in the current concrete slab.\u00a0 The general condition of the gazebo ranges from poor to good, with the most serious issue identified as the separation of connections between the columns and beams, where beams no longer have full bearing.\u00a0 Interior wood cladding on walls have damage, the walls have evidence of termite damage, and wood sills have both termite and graffiti damage.\u00a0 Areas of concern included erosion of the bluff, which has the potential to undermine the gazebo foundation, as documented in a Limited Geotechnical Review<\/em> in 2016.\u00a0 The Page & Turnbull report recommended that continuing erosion should be examined by a civil engineer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0\u00a0 The Blue Lantern Gazebo is one of only a handful of remaining historic gazebos built along the Pacific Coast in the 1920s and 1930s.\u00a0 Also still existing is the historic Doheny-era gazebo at the Palisades Gazebo Park in Capistrano Beach (pictured).\u00a0 It is open to the sky, with connecting beams instead of a roof.\u00a0 Built-in benches for gazing at the Pacific Ocean are surrounded by a beautiful rose garden.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The Heisler Park gazebo (pictured) is another. It is now a part of Laguna Beach and its greenbelt named a \u201cHistoric American Landscape,\u201d one of only 700 national landmarks in the entire United States to receive such a recognition.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Page & Turnbull has recommended restoring the historic Blue Lantern Gazebo to its original appearance (rendering pictured), including the original faux bois fence of wood-like patterned cement as seen in our historic photos — a style that still remains at the gazebo in Heisler Park.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0\u00a0 As of now, there has been no update as to when this restoration might begin.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Barbara Force Johannes The \u201cBlue Lantern Gazebo\u201d (pictured) at the Ken Sampson Overlook Park continues to be fenced off due to a rockslide on …<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/danapointhistorical.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/blue-lantern-gazebo-old-cropped-2.jpg\")
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