Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Queen's Wharf Lighthouse

Photo by contributor Kaitlin Wainwright - Posted October, 2013

Photo Source - Wikimedia

Photo Source - Wikimedia Commons

This lighthouse can be found on the small strip of green space on Fleet Street, just east of Fort York Boulevard. So what's it doing so far from the water, I hear you asking? To find out, let's read the 2012 Heritage Toronto plaque just to the west of the lighthouse. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.636098 -79.405385

Now landlocked on Fleet Street, this lighthouse once stood on the Queen's Wharf. The wharf - originally known as New Pier - was built in 1833 to stimulate commercial activity in the west part of the harbour.
This lighthouse, constructed in 1861 on the north side of the west extension, was the second built for the Queen's Wharf. Noted architect Kivas Tully, later architect of the Ontario Department of Public Works, designed its octagonal plan for what became, in 1911, the Toronto Harbour Commission. The Queen's Wharf Lighthouse, along with a lighthouse farther west on the pier, guided ships safely into the western harbour.
Beginning in the 1880s, the area west of Queen's Wharf was filled in with lake dredging. The old channel into the harbour could not be maintained and, in 1911, the lighthouse was decommissioned. In 1929, the Toronto Harbour Commission transferred ownership of the lighthouse to the City of Toronto. The lighthouse was moved to its present site later that year.

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Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted October 5, 2013
A lovely and important artifact on Toronto's (former) waterfront. But what's with the pastel colour scheme? Were the pallid brown and reddish colours really used historically? Even if they were, surely it was re-painted many times in the past. This scheme doesn't do this structure any good today, which is largely overlooked because there is too much going on around it, visually. Could the City not consider a new colour scheme for the lighthouse, please? --Andrew

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