Queen's Wharf Lighthouse

Built in 1833 as New Pier to stimulate commercial activity in the west part of Toronto harbour, Queen's Wharf later gained a second lighthouse in 1861 on the north side of its west extension. Designed by architect Kivas Tully with an octagonal plan, the lighthouse, together with another farther west on the pier, guided ships safely into the western harbour. Beginning in the 1880's, lake dredging filled in the area west of Queen's Wharf, the old channel into the harbour could no longer be maintained, and the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1911. Ownership passed from the Toronto Harbour Commission to the City of Toronto in 1929, and the lighthouse was moved later that year to its present landlocked site on Fleet Street. During its half-century of operation, it led an estimated 300,000 vessels into the harbour.

Ontario · Canada