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Once upon a time, Toronto’s Queen’s Wharf Lighthouse beamed a red light out over the rocks on the shore of Lake Ontario. Today, if its light still worked, it would guide streetcars.
Built in 1861, it’s sandwiched between Lake Shore and Fleet Street and you may wonder: Why is it so far from the water?
“A landlocked lighthouse is pretty weird,” said Meg Sutton, of Heritage Toronto.
But there’s a somewhat simple explanation. The lighthouse was built on Queen’s Wharf at the foot of nearby Bathurst Street, which was a growing commercial site in the late 19th century.
As those who were expanding industries in the city built out into Lake Ontario, the area west of the wharf was filled-in, and eventually, the old channel into the harbor could not be maintained. By 1911, the lighthouse was rendered “unusable and decommissioned.”
The Harbour Commission moved it to its new location near Fleet Street in 1929, where it remains today.
Sutton went on to say, it’s “a beautiful piece of architecture.” The tiny lighthouse building, which was listed in the city’s heritage registry in 1973, has a unique design that catches the eye, and it is so small the lighthouse keeper lived in a separate house. The lighthouse was restored in 1988 by the Historical Board of Toronto.
For 50 years it guided and estimated 300,000 vessels into Toronto harbor. In October of 2023, the tiny lighthouse underwent a renovation, which was done by Toronto’s Museum and Heritage Service.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2024 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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