Lighthouse site on the Burlington Canal, circa 1840
Joni Mitchell, Canadian songstress, has written some seminal
works in her time, not the least of which is Big Yellow Taxi. "Don't it
always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got, 'til it's gone." A
salient and poignant reminder that too often we do not see what is of enduring value
right in front of our noses.
Much of late has been made of the heritage 'issues' facing Hamilton: what to
protect, what to relinquish and what to really hunker down and fight for.
Ultimately, all 'heritage' fights are about preserving a
tangible asset that has proportionately defined the evolution of our commonly held
civic character and uniquely local cultural identity. These 'things' profoundly represent what and where we've come from.
It goes without saying that some items are more important
then others. In the face of natural growth and development, we do have to
discriminate. We must choose the most significant that best reflect our changing
history.
One outstanding architecturally-defining structure that
needs a fight, right now, is the Beach Canal Lighthouse. In the simplest of
terms, this decaying building and adjacent lighthouse keeper's cottage,
scrunched up beside the Lift
Bridge operations tower
and Eastport Drive
on the Hamilton Beach Strip, are on the verge of collapse.
The lighthouse & cottage are scrunched up between the Skyway & Lift Bridge
on the Hamilton side of the Burlington Canal.
Holes in the mortar,
caked-on rust, plywood cover-ups, rickety wiring and a high security fence
currently define the Lighthouse today, once the bright beacon of entry to the
harbour.
Rudimentary efforts to protect both these items from the
elements with plywood sheeting and fences are clearly failing. It also looks as
though raccoons have gotten into the back-end of the lighthouse keeper's cottage
... though the beer can debris suggests another kind of intruder ...
The run-down Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage - roof
rotting, paint peeling, overgrown ivy, and current beer can repository.
Some cynics would suggest that perhaps this decaying state
personifies the Canadian Federal and Ontario Provincial governments' hope that
these buildings will just quietly fall down, thus saving 'demolition' and
'dismantling' costs. A soiled, cracked and fading 'information' signpost near
the lighthouse amplifies this perception. That any level of our Government would allow this site to just
'disappear' is clearly a tragic and mammoth historical loss for us all. It
needs to be stated again and again: this important landmark, the lighthouse,
has shaped this end of Lake
Ontario's development for
well over two hundred years. That is no small 'thing' in historical terms.
As it is now, this sorry dilapidated fenced-in site is the
first 'identity marker' of Hamilton
that travelers and trade merchants see when entering the City by water. These
abandoned buildings stand in the foreground, the car cacophony of the bridges
rages in surround sound overhead, and the steel mills bellow smoke and fire in
the background. Talk about an 'image problem' .... But it doesn't need to be this way.
Consider this. The Province of Upper Canada
was created under the Constitutional Act of 1791. The British Crown appointed a
young military officer, John Graves Simcoe, as lieutenant governor of this
nascent nation state. He was a successful military man, abolitionist, husband, father
and eventual founder of York (aka Toronto).
Initially, John Graves Simcoe set up the colonial 'capital'
at Newark, or, what is now known as
Niagara-on-the-Lake, on the south side of Lake Ontario. Over the next decade, his regiment, the Queen's Rangers,
constructed the two primary arterial roadways through the dense bush that would
define the province for centuries to come: Yonge Street (from Lake
Ontario up to Lake Simcoe - yes, named, in tribute, after his father) and Dundas Street
(from Toronto to London, Ontario).
During his early years in this burgeoning colonial
settlement, he, his young family and military entourage would travel the
existing overland 'native' trail along the Lake Ontario
beach strip. They went back and forth from 'enemy exposed' Newark
near the American border to the safer military fort around the lake at York.
It was on one such occasion, while he and his wife,
Elizabeth, were admiring the waterfront landscape, that he decided to establish
the Kings' Head Inn on what was then known by the local aboriginal people's as
"daonasedao" or "where-the-sand-forms-a-bar". Not only was
this a convenient and enchanting stop-off point for the long and bumpy four hour
carriage ride from York to Newark, the Inn served, at various stages, as a
military trading post and 'Government House' for the growing British colony in
the years ahead. Elizabeth eventually wrote glowingly of how the Kings' Head Inn
was "beautifully situated" on the beach strip.
Looking north-west from Kings' Head Inn location on
the beach strip, with the Niagara escarpment in the background, circa 1796.
Fast-forward 200 years. All that remains of this beguiling moment
in Canada's
young history is a provincial plaque somewhere on a northern trail at the back-end
of the eponymous hot-dog & hamburger joint, Hutch's, on the lake. That's
it. The original two storey, two winged, wooden building that constituted the
Kings' Head Inn was destroyed in a fire by American troops in 1813. Over time,
the land and property were eventually absorbed into the overall development of
the area. And so goes local history.
On my request, the museum curator kindly supplied me with this backside image of the Kings' Head Inn pub sign. It's a beautiful re-created portrait of King George III.
 |
| John Graves Simcoe was in service to his King, George III. |
This local structure of historical note has been lost - and
all but forgotten - except by the oldest historical association in the Golden
Horseshoe area, the Head-of-the-Lake Historical Society, founded in 1899. This
society still uses the fine painted portrait of King George III from the backside
of the King's Head Inn pub sign - in miniature - for their society's crest.
Tra la.
The Beach Canal Lighthouse is on route to a similar
fate.
Originally built in wood at a height of 40 feet in 1838, (a
mere forty-four years after the Kings' Head Inn), the whale-oil lit lighthouse was
a beacon for the frigate and steamships passing in and out of the Hamilton
Harbour and Burlington Bay via the newly dug Burlington Canal, (officially
opened in 1832.)
On July 18, 1856, the steamship Ranger, chugged into the
canal. Hot sparks blew from its engine chimney onto the shore. The resultant
ember fire eventually destroyed the wooden lighthouse, the canal ferry, and two
houses before the fire was subdued. A
temporary lighthouse was quickly assembled to assured continued safe passage
into the harbour, and then, in 1858, John Brown, a seasoned stonemason, was
hired to construct a permanent white dolomite limestone structure on the south
side of the canal.
The Canal lighthouse is identical to another that Brown designed
and built on Christian Island on Georgian Bay.
Christian Island
Lighthouse and Beach Canal Lighthouse, both built by John Brown in the early
1800s.
Standing five stories high, the walls of the Beach
Canal Lighthouse are, at the base, five feet thick. Overall, the
stonework is 'stable', but it still needs a lot of work to bring it, and the
lighthouse keeper's cottage, back to any semblance of their former functional selves.
A fading black &
white photograph documents the Lighthouse and the former Royal Hamilton Yacht Club on the south side of the
canal, (left side of the photograph).
During its operation for over 100 years, coal, instead of
whale-oil, was used to light the 'beacon'. The light was visible from miles out
on the lake. It was a welcoming and familiar signpost into one of Lake Ontario's
best natural harbours. The Beach
Canal lighthouse was officially
closed in 1968. A mere 45 years ago.
It has been in slow decline ever since.
Today, a automated electrical beacon on the end of the south
side pier on the canal guides the lake traffic in and out of the harbour. Meanwhile, that stalwart old stone lighthouse continues
to slowly fade, like the Kings' Head Inn, from public memory ...
But, not all is lost, just yet. Ten years ago, in 2003, two forward-thinking individuals from the Hamilton Beach Community organized a meeting to attempt to save the lighthouse and the
lighthouse keeper's cottage from oblivion. Thirty-two people turned up.
It's been a slow uphill battle ever since. Over the past
decade, only 200 interested citizens from all around the Golden Horseshoe
region have joined the Beach Canal Lighthouse Group, donating their time,
money and professional expertise. This group is certainly moving in the right
direction, but it is evidently not enough, especially when time is increasingly
of the essence for these poor buildings.
In 2004 the owner of the site, the Canadian Department of
Public Works and Government Services, basically fobbed off the 'surplus'
property to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. In 2006, the DFO removed
the accumulated bird guano and the remaining lighthouse 'lens' from the tower.
They boarded up the doors and windows of the cottage with plywood. Three years
later, the Department of Public Works and Government Services rescinded their
offer to the DFO and refused to hand over 'title' to them or the non-profit
Beach Canal Lighthouse Group. In
other words, this property continues to swill around in limbo on
federal/provincial/municipal backwaters as a lamely identified place of
historic importance under the 'Ontario
Heritage Act'. In 2007, the Beach
Canal Lighthouse Group received a plaque indicating this status from the City
of Hamilton.
Tra la.
The fact remains, the City of Hamilton has not taken full ownership of this
property, as it should. The lighthouse deserves the same attention, investment
and 'tourism' rehab as Dundurn
Castle. Really it does.
There remains hope. A re-energized committee at the Beach Canal Lighthouse Group is trying, again, to re-engage both the
public and civic elders to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the lighthouse. It, and the
lighthouse keeper's cottage, do not have to got the way of the Kings' Head Inn.
There is still some time to save this sturdy pillar (albeit in need of serious
'restoration') that represents the waterfront origins of the City of Hamilton and our regional
history.
Hamiltonians, Burlingtonians and all Canadian citizens
around the Golden Horseshoe region must band together to reiterate that they do know what they've got before it is all gone. A full-on restoration of 'The
Canal Lighthouse' would be BEST, regardless of the current inhospitable
location.
Perhaps a 'lend-lease' could be established with the City of
Burlington? If
they absorbed some of the restoration costs, maybe the Province and Hamilton
would permit a re-location of the lighthouse and cottage into their ambitious design
for the City of Burlington Beachfront Park. Perhaps it could be re-located to a position of prominence
in Bayfront Park. Or, integrated into the Haida dock
site under the auspices of the Hamilton Harbour Commission. Or, moved to a
mountain location at Chedoke so that the illuminated lighthouse could preside
over the City. Or, maybe an enterprising
forward-thinking entrepreneur/developer would integrate the lighthouse and
cottage into a funky recreation of the Kings' Head Inn?
Needless to say, more must be done now to save this unique waterfront
structure before it falls down.
Ergo, Hear ye! Hear ye! - Get involved, donate, learn more about
this unsung piece of local history, bookmark the following link to the
Beach Canal Lighthouse Group, and please, open your wallets, give
generously: http://www.bclg.ca
'The Lighthouse' really does need our energy, attention and
money. Now.
Remember Joni's wise words '...we really won't know what we've got, 'til
it is all gone' ...
----
Published on Raise the Hammer, (with lively 'comments') on
August 26th, 2013 - here
UPDATE: - It seems 'someone' was listening ....
UPDATE: As of September 9th, 2013, roof repairs are happening on the lighthouse keeper's cottage. WHO is actually doing this is still somewhat of a mystery, as (title) ownership of the Lighthouse still rests with the Dept of Fisheries & Oceans. BUT, at this point, whoever it is should be applauded for taking IMMEDIATE action to save this structure.
August 26th, 2013 - here
UPDATE: - It seems 'someone' was listening ....
Credit notice: All black
& white photographs are from the 'PreView' Archives of the Hamilton Public Library. Colour imagery is by
Margaret Lindsay Holton, except for the Christian island lighthouse image,
courtesy of Google Images. The Kings Head Inn pub sign image was supplied by
the Joseph Brant Museum
and is used with their permission.
