Les premiers phares / The first lighthouses

The Pointe-au-Père Lighthouse owed its existence to the postal service. In 1856, the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company secured a contract to carry mail between London and Montreal, and its owners, the Allan brothers, decided to use their own team of pilots based at Pointe-au-Père, where local pilots were already operating. Because the shoreline was flat and lacked landmarks for navigation in bad weather, the company built a lighthouse equipped with a light and foghorn in 1859. The government acquired it two years later. It burned on April 23, 1867, and was promptly replaced by a second identical structure. Some 40 years later, after a third lighthouse was built, that second building was converted into a residence for pilots, and it was demolished in 1966. The foundations of these first two lighthouses lie on the other side of Rue du Phare.

Quebec · Canada