A visit to Point Traverse lighthouse today underlined for me just how perilous their situation is.
As perilous as this stretch of Lake Ontario between False Ducks, Main Ducks and Timber Island once was.
 |
| Timber Island off Point Traverse |
It's difficult to believe that anyone cares. Won't be long before the lighthouse is deemed a hazard, and the litigious among us will see demolition as the only sensible recourse. Won't know what we've lost til it's gone.
Its structures like this that keep me coming back to your website. Its an important building, of the same design as several in the Maritimes. The east coast/Ontario have the largest and oldest collection of wood-framed LH's on the continent. They have to be preserved.
ReplyDeletePlease check your email as I have an architectural question for you....
So, the Dep't of Marine and Fisheries designed these LH's, apparently in 1876, in a post-Confederation blitz to ensure safer shipping on our shores. It was designed to cheaply incorporate a residence, showing the importance of having them manned, yet at a cost-effective level. As noted above, I've seen a number of these in eastern Canada, though their ranks have diminshed. Here we are, 126 years later....I wonder what the gov't thought would happen to these buildings when they first designed and built them ?? Here's a pic of one in North Rustico, PEI (1876):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/cayogirl/7983523150/