Gibraltar Point Lighthouse

Toronto's Historical Plaques

Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

There are three plaques in Toronto about this lighthouse.
You will find them all on this page.

At the beginning of the entrance path to this lighthouse on Toronto island, about 2 km west of the Centre Island ferry dock, two 2008 Heritage Toronto plaques have been installed. The first plaque says:

Though now away from the lake and nestled among the trees, this is the oldest surviving lighthouse on the Great Lakes and the second oldest surviving lighthouse in Canada. It was constructed in 1808-09 when this site was only eight metres from the shifting shoreline of Lake Ontario and exposed to violent lake storms. Guiding sailors into York (now Toronto) harbour, this lighthouse was also used to hoist flags signalling the approach of ships to the town and fort. At a time when most buildings in York were built with local materials, the lighthouse was constructed of stone from Queenston, near Niagara Falls. Its walls are almost two metres thick at the base, and were raised to their existing height by adding stone from Kingston in 1832. Its wick lamps, which were visible many kilometres out over the lake, were fuelled with hundreds of litres of whale oil per year, then coal oil, until an electric light was installed in 1917. In 1809, the lighthouse was the only major light on York's dark, forested horizon. In 1945, the light was changed from white to green to distinguish it from the bright lights of the modern city.

Location Co-ordinates: 43.613420 -79.384933

Photo by Alan L Brown - August, 2008

The second plaque reads as follows:

The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was once accompanied by the whitewashed clapboard homes of the lighthouse keepers, the first civilian residents on the island. The third and fourth keepers, James Durnan and his son George, maintained the wick lamps and the lighthouse from 1832 to 1905. After 1878 George also rewound - every 48 hours - the new mechanism which revolved the light. Over time, the keepers and their families formed the nucleus of a growing island community. At the end of the 1957 shipping season, the light of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was extinguished for the last time by Dedie Dodds, the last of the keepers. After nearly 150 years of service, the stone lighthouse was replaced by the federal Department of Transport with a fully automated, modern skeletal tower. The ownership of the old lighthouse was transferred to Metropolitan Toronto Parks Department in 1958. The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse has since been restored, the remaining homes of the lighthouse keepers demolished, and the surrounding land integrated into Toronto Island Park.

Photo by Alan L Brown - August, 2008

The Lake Light

Is the lighthouse haunted? Well...maybe, maybe not. Here's what the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board plaque attached to the lighthouse says:

This lighthouse, one of the earliest on the Great Lakes, was completed in 1808 as an hexagonal tower 16 m high, topped by a wooden cage with a fixed whale-oil lantern. In 1832 it was raised to 25 m and later equipped with a revolving light. The mysterious disappearance of its first keeper, J.P. Rademuller, in 1815 and the subsequent discovery nearby of part of a human skeleton enhanced its reputation as a haunted building.

Photo by Alan L Brown - May 2004

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