Working to Save Island Lighthouses

     This morning on the local CBC Radio program "Island Morning" Matt Rainie interviewed Natalie Carragher who's getting together a group to save and restore the Blockhouse Lighthouse at Rocky Point. 
     Here's the article which appears on the CBC website today:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2012/01/09/pei-lighthouse-deadline-584.html

Lighthouse deadline approaching

CBC News Posted: Jan 9, 2012 10:13 AM

      Dozens of lighthouses on P.E.I. could be demolished after they are decommissioned by the federal government if no one steps up to care for them before May 31.

Natalie Carragher at the Blockhouse

Lighthouse ( Julia Cook/CBC Photo )

      More than 40 lighthouses and range lights on the Island are being decommissioned. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has set the end of May deadline for groups to come forward and take charge of them, but most of the buildings still don't have anyone to care for them after the government shuts them down.

     Natalie Carragher of Rocky Point is with a group looking to take charge of the Blockhouse Lighthouse at the mouth of Charlottetown Harbour. Carragher used to play around the lighthouse when she was a child.

     "It's just as beautiful as it's always been," Carragher told CBC News.

     "You can see for miles and miles. It makes sense why they would have posted a lighthouse here back in 1851."

     When she heard the lighthouse was being decommissioned, Carragher put a community group together to make sure it wasn't torn down.

    "Have already sent the petition in, have heard back and it is eligible for heritage status, so that's where we are right now," she said.

    Carol Livingstone of the P.E.I. Lighthouse Society is concerned many Island lighthouses, including ones at Indian Head, Cape Tryon, and North Rustico, will not find a champion like Carragher.

     "There are been others across the country that have fallen into disrepair," said Livingstone.

     "I'd hate to see that be the fate of these lighthouses, but I fear that's what it probably will be."

     Any lighthouses not claimed by community groups or municipalities by May 31 will either be put up for sale to the public or torn down.

 

 

Heritage Lighthouses petition process

(Note: CBC or this Blog does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/progs/lhn-nhs/pp-hl/page02.aspx

     You are encouraged to participate in the designation of heritage lighthouses! Residents of Canada can nominate a lighthouse for designation under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act by forwarding a petition to the Heritage Lighthouse Program by 29 May 2012. 

Warren Farm, Rocky Point

     On August 18, 2011  I posted information on Warren Farm at Fort Amherst, Rocky Point - the house at that site is the Hyndman House and not the Warren Farm house.  I made corrections to that post ( http://peiheritagebuildings.blogspot.com/2011/08/warren-farm-fort-amherst-rocky-point.html ) and moved the historic references about Warren Farm to this new post.
     Below is a map of Rocky Point from Meacham's 1880 Atlas, page 136.  I have the Warren Farm house marked in red on this map.  I've been told there's an image of this house at the PEI Public Archives.

     The following information comes from Parks Canada website - http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/pe/amherst/natcul/natcul4.aspx
      When Charlottetown was officially named as the capital of St. John’s Island in 1768, the garrison was permanently removed from Fort Amherst to Fort Edward, across the harbour. The Fort had been in a state of disrepair for many years and was not worth salvaging. The fort was demolished in the 1770’s, and by 1779 there was nothing left of the fort but the ditch.
     There were several tenants of the fort lot through the rest of the 18th century, though perhaps none as prominent as the first (and only) Governor of the island, Walter Patterson.
     Patterson acquired the land through complicated means in 1773. He and his wife, Hester Warren, built an elegant farmhouse and offices on the lot. They named it Warren farm after Patterson’s wife. Patterson was removed from office in 1786, and the lot was left vacant until 1796, when Patterson’s title to the land was nullified. A variety of landowners farmed the land until 1959, when owner John Hyndman sold the land for its creation as a national historic park. The site was officially opened in 1973.

Here's another reference to Warren Farm:
     ....About the centre of the burying-ground is recorded the death of Job Bevan, son-in-law of Will. Pepperal. He did duty at the block house as a soldier in the artillery when he came to the Island. The recollections of what it was, if we read them, would throw some light upon the hidden past.
     Many of the principal men who figured in our early history, lie here with no stone to mark their graves. We are reminded of them and their acts by members of the family who have been highly honored. A monument to the Hon. Geo. Wright, Surveyor General, who administered the government at five different periods, is a partial record of a family mixed up with all our early public transactions. His father, Thomas Wright, was on the Survey with Capt. Holland in 1765, and was appointed Surveyor General Sept. 1770. He resided with Patterson at Warren Farm, occupying one of those " extensive offices" which the governor erected. As stated before, Mr. Wright was taken prisoner by the Americans and conveyed to Boston, was a supporter of the Governor in his political measures, was one of the commissioners appointed on the suspension of Chief Justice Stewart, and subsequently in 1788 made an assistant judge...
cf.  http://etcdev.hil.unb.ca/UPEI/viewOCR.php?component_id=82&issue_id=9&search_url=

PS.  I was searching through Earle's Pictures Restoration's Photos on Facebook yesterday (Mar. 12, 2014) and found this photo posted

https://www.facebook.com/EarlesPictureRestoration/photos/a.140276459512153.1073741826.140204746185991/225228604350271/?type=1&theater

Caption: Hoisting up the Hay at the Warren Farm, on the Site of the old French Capitol of Port LaJoie Prince Edward Island Canada.

Hyndman House, Fort Amherst, Rocky Point

While at Rocky Point we walked around the farmhouse adjacent to the Port-la-Joye /Fort Amherst interpretive center.  The Hyndman house has had alot of recent repairs complete with a new roof. 

 

The following is from the Parks Canada Website: 
     ...A variety of landowners farmed the land until 1959, when owner John Hyndman sold the land for its creation as a national historic park. The site was officially opened in 1973. cf.http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/pe/amherst/natcul/natcul4.aspx

Below:  View of the house from the rear /west.

Below:  side window with interesting trim above that runs up to and around the verandah.

Blockhouse Point Lighthouse, Rocky Point

Down at Rocky Point there's a great lighthouse called Blockhouse.  Below are references to it's history.

1851. Active; focal plane 17 m (56 ft); white light occulting every 4 s. 12 m (40 ft) square pyramidal wood tower with lantern and gallery, attached at one corner of a 2-story wood keeper's house. Buildings painted white with red trim; lantern and gallery painted red. This is the second oldest lighthouse on the island. Located off PE 19 on the west side of Charlottetown harbor.   cf.  http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/pei.htm

     Established in 1851, located on the west side of the entrance to Charlottetown Harbour.

     This lighthouse is a century old and basically as it was when built. It is the second oldest lighthouse on the shores of Prince Edward Island. The structure has not been restored. It consists of a square wooden tower tapered, with attached two-storey dwelling. Overall height base to vane is 42 feet and is 56 feet above high water. The tower itself is 40 feet in height, surmounted by an octagonal lantern on a warehouse roof. The ground floor of the dwelling was designed with a kitchen, parlour, and two bedrooms, and on the first floor with four more bedrooms and a bathroom. It became automated on July 25, 1962.
     Besides serving its important function as a navigational aid on the approach to the harbour, this old lighthouse complements nicely the historical setting of old Charlottetown.
     To find this lighthouse, from Charlottetown travel west on the Trans Canada Route 1 to Cornwall. Turn onto Route 19, Blue Heron Drive and follow it around past Rocky Point. Turn off towards Fort Amherst/Port La Joye National Historic Site and follow the road right to the end, where you will end up in the lighthouse yard. An excellent vantage point for this light is from the park mentioned above. At the lower corner of the park the light is visible and nicely framed by woods and bushes, begging to be photographed.
cf. http://www.gov.pe.ca/infopei/index.php3?number=66346&lang=E

Above:  note the door into the lighthouse with the elaborate brackets holding up the little roof above.

Blockhouse Point: SW of Charlottetown Harbour, Lot 65.  For one or more blockhouses built there.  On Bayfield 1846.  French map 1749 and Pichon 1760 Pte a la Flamme (meaning "pennant"); plan 1819 Beacon Point, with a notation of 1848: "Block House and Battery in Ruins".  cf.  Geographical Place Names of PEI by Alan Rayburn - page 25.

What is a blockhouse? 
In military science, a blockhouse is a small, isolated fort in the form of a single building. It serves as a defensive strong point against any enemy that does not possess siege equipment or, in modern times, artillery. A fortification intended to resist these weapons is more likely to qualify as a fortress or a redoubt, or in modern times, be an underground bunker.  cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockhouse