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For A Little Over A Year, The Woman Lives A Year Without Paying Rent Taking Care Of The 150-Year-Old Lighthouse On The Tiny East Brother Light Station Island In San Francisco Bay, Receives Guests, Faces Two Months Without Power And Turns Isolation Into A Real Movie Routine Every Day
Between July 2020 and August 2021, American Desiree Heveroh made East Brother Light Station her permanent home, turning the role of caretaker into a radical experiment where a woman lives a year without paying rent in exchange for keeping a 150-year-old lighthouse operational on a tiny island in San Francisco Bay. During this time, she took care of one of the most isolated tourist spots on the California coast, accessible only by boat and with a routine dictated by the tides.
On March 31, 2021, a submarine cable weighing about 200 tons that connected the lighthouse to the mainland failed, plunging the island into total darkness, forcing Desiree to survive for two months dependent on a generator from the 1930s. Power was only restored on May 28 of the same year, after an improvised repair operation, solidifying the caretaker’s experience as an extreme case of isolation during the pandemic.
A 150-Year-Old Lighthouse On A Tiny Island
Built in 1873, East Brother Light Station occupies a small rocky islet where the San Francisco and San Pablo bays meet.
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The lighthouse and the old fog signal were designed to guide ships through a strait known for strong currents and rough seas, maintaining continuous operation for nearly a century.
In the late 1960s, the Coast Guard decided to automate the station and planned to demolish the historic buildings, but community mobilization in 1971 succeeded in including the site on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the late 1970s, a nonprofit organization took on the mission of restoring the complex after years of neglect and transformed the lighthouse into a five-room inn for guests, while also maintaining its nautical function of aiding navigation.
Today, the main building, just over 150 square meters, houses accommodation, kitchen, living areas, and the operational structure of the inn, while the tower continues to emit light to guide maritime traffic in the region.
From Distant Fan To Woman Who Lives A Year Without Paying Rent
Desiree’s involvement with the lighthouse began long before her permanent move.
In the mid-2000s, driving back from San Francisco to Richmond with her young daughter, she spotted the house in the middle of the water and became obsessed with the idea of discovering what that isolated spot in the bay was.
After researching on dial-up internet connections, she found the station’s website and saw that the location operated as an inn.
Years later, after noticing an invitation for volunteering on the website, she signed up.
Desiree’s first task was scraping window frames, removing old grout, applying new material, and repainting the fog signal block, a task that took an entire day and brought her closer to the regular staff.
Over time, she began working part-time in marketing, took over the gift shop, and helped coordinate the volunteer list until she formally joined the board of the entity that manages the lighthouse.
When the 2020 pandemic halted tourism, the bed and breakfast was forced to close; without guests, previous caretakers left the post.
During this same period, Desiree received compensation from the sale of the house where she lived and from the termination of her employment in the tourism sector.
Combined with the vacancy left at the lighthouse, the context allowed the woman to live a year without paying rent precisely in the place she had been trying to protect for over a decade, in exchange for becoming responsible for virtually all tasks on the island.
Two Months In The Dark With A 1930s Generator
Nine months after the move, on March 31, 2021, the submarine cable that powered the island broke in an exposed section to the tide zone and was literally ripped apart by the rocks.
Overnight, the historic lighthouse and Desiree’s house lost electric power, with no immediate repair forecast.
The only alternative was a 1930s diesel generator, originally designed for another era.
Desiree came to depend on it for about an hour of power a day, just enough time to charge cell phones, laptops, and run a freezer adapted with makeshift blocks of ice using frozen broth containers.
In one of the most critical episodes, the generator’s tank leaked and covered the floor with diesel fuel. With no prior experience in heavy maintenance,
Desiree spread flour and baking soda to absorb the fuel, collected the waste in trash bags, and meticulously cleaned the space while learning to listen to the noises and smells of the equipment to detect failures.
For two months, every light fixture, every phone battery charge, and every hot shower depended on this fragile and exhausting ritual.
At the same time, she had to save data and battery to answer calls from journalists and supporters, as the disclosure of the emergency helped press for a solution.
On May 28, after nearly 508 days of crisis since the start of the pandemic, volunteers managed to pull the damaged cable out of the water, cut the destroyed section, and perform a splice that restored the island’s power.
Guests, Boat, Garden And Private Island Routine
Even before living in the lighthouse, Desiree had already received training in navigation with Captain Jared Ward, a volunteer who taught her to pilot the boat in open water, dock at the right tide, and maneuver safely in wind and currents.
She compares the task to parallel parking a car while the ground moves in the direction she wants, which requires millimeter precision to avoid damaging the hull and pier.
During the time the inn was closed, the daily routine was divided between heavy maintenance, monitoring the structure, and an unusual domestic life.
Desiree set up a productive garden on one of the island’s plateaus, with various types of potatoes, garlic, broccoli, lettuce, corn, squash, beans, lavender, lemon tree, and other plants that helped supplement her diet.
In the house, she hung plants in the windows and took advantage of the constant wind that came in when she flung open the wooden shutters in her room.
She claims that, unlike a conventional inn job, she didn’t need to step away from the scenery to serve tables or store food, as the priority was simply to be there, which allowed her to watch every sunset, observe birds and seals, and record with her camera a daily life few bay residents see from within.
With the gradual reopening of tourism, new couples of caretakers began to share the responsibility of operating the accommodation, receiving small groups in five rooms and organizing dinners, outings, and guided tours of the tower.
For them, the lighthouse functions as a kind of private island: intense work, but compensated by a sense of peace and silence around.
A Patrimony At Risk And Memories Of Isolation
Despite the return of power, the solution found for the submarine cable is considered temporary.
The Coast Guard, responsible for the infrastructure, has already indicated that it does not plan to invest about $1 million in a definitive replacement for the cable and advocates for the installation of a solar panel system just to keep the navigation light on.
In practice, this opens the possibility that the historic building could remain permanently in the dark, rendering the operation of the inn as it currently functions unfeasible.
Without reliable power, the lodging, kitchen, hot water system, and the very experience of spending nights in the lighthouse are at risk of shrinking drastically.
Local organizations are appealing for donations and volunteer work to keep the station alive for future generations.
When she returned to the island for the first time since leaving, in August 2021, Desiree described the visit as a reunion with a place she considers part of herself.
Seeing the renovations, the house repainted, and guests occupying the porches reinforced the feeling that, throughout that year in which the woman lived a year without paying rent amidst storms, breakdowns, and silence, she helped keep a fragile piece of history afloat in the bay.
In your opinion, would you face the routine in an isolated lighthouse like East Brother Light Station, where a woman lives a year without paying rent in exchange for taking care of the island and surviving months of near-total isolation?
Sim. Sou acostumado com solitude e não há eria problema algum.
Sim!! Com ctza. Amo a paz encontrada nesses paraíso
Sim. Encararia.