Camera Obscura

Floyd Jennings built it in 1946: a square wood-frame housing of approximately 17.5 feet by 17.5 feet, with horizontal redwood tongue-in-groove siding, on a six-inch concrete pad. The apparatus is a circular parabolic dish of shaped plywood surfaced with white enamel, held by a metal frame and a rod that penetrates the floor and is anchored to the native rock of the site; the six-foot parabolic projection table stands centrally in the room, and the lens and mirror sit 150 inches above it in a rotating metal hood turned by an electric motor. In 1957 the exterior was remodelled to resemble a giant camera, following the wishes of the then Cliff House owner George K. Whitney, Sr.