The Queen's Wharf Lighthouse (also known as the Fleet Street Lighthouse, after its current location) is a lighthouse in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, situated at Fleet Street just east of the Princes' Gates at

Exhibition Place Exhibition Place is a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located by the shoreline of Lake Ontario, just west of downtown. The site includes exhibit, trade, and banquet centres, theatre and music buildings, monuments ...

. The octagonal building was originally one of a pair of lighthouses built in 1861 at Queen's Wharf, replacing an earlier 16-foot lighthouse built in 1838. The 11-metre (36-foot) three-storey wood structure is one of two surviving 19th-century lighthouses in Toronto (the other being Gibraltar Point Lighthouse).

History

The lighthouse, which projected a red light, was designed by the architect

Kivas Tully Kivas Tully, ISO (1820 – 24 April 1905) was an Irish-Canadian architect. Life Born in Garryvacum in County Laois, Ireland, Kivas Tully was the son of John P. Tully, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and Alicia Willington. He trained as an arch ...

, and along with a second, larger white light lighthouse, marked the entrance to the Toronto Harbour from 1861. The two lights were lined up to guide ships into

Toronto Harbour Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a natural harbour, protected from Lake Ontario waves by the Toronto Islands. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational b ...

, which had a narrow and shallow (14 feet (4.3 metres) deep) channel over bedrock and shallow sandbars. The building is a bare frame structure and was never meant to be used as a dwelling by a lighthouse keeper, who stayed in a nearby cottage. The harbour master's residence was also nearby. The shifting in direction of the deep water channel to Toronto Harbour necessitated the moving of the red light lighthouse in 1885. Both lighthouses became redundant when a new western channel to the harbour was opened with a pair of new range lights (a short tower on concrete base and a taller skeletal tower) and were deactivated in 1912. The new range lights were destroyed by fire in 1918. By 1925, the Queen's Wharf Lighthouse was surrounded by new lands filling in the area around the Queen's Wharf, 1,400 feet (430 metres) from the water. The other lighthouse was demolished but the

Toronto Harbour Commission The Toronto Harbour Commission (THC) was a joint federal-municipal government agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The agency managed Toronto Harbour as well as being responsible for major works along the Toronto waterfront. It built both ...

moved the remaining lighthouse to its present Fleet Street location in 1929. The new location was on the northern approach to the old western channel. Its ownership was transferred to the City of Toronto. The lighthouse currently sits at the eastern edge of the Gore park about one block north from the current shoreline and is contained within a small

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and larges ...

streetcar loop. The building was listed in the Toronto Heritage Register on June 20, 1973. The Historical Board of Toronto did some restoration of the lighthouse in 1988. The light is no longer functional.

Fleet Loop

Fleet Loop is a

turning loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

, encircling the lighthouse, used for

short turn In public transport, a short turn, short working or turn-back is an earlier terminus on a bus or rail line that is used on some scheduled trips that do not operate along the full length of the route. Short turns are practical in scheduling when t ...

ing the

509 Harbourfront 509 Harbourfront is a Toronto streetcar route in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission and connecting Union Station with Exhibition Loop. History 1990–2012 The 509 Harbourfront began service in 1990 as the "604 Harbour ...

and

511 Bathurst The 511 Bathurst is a Toronto streetcar route operated by the Toronto Transit Commission in Ontario, Canada. Route The 511 Bathurst operates between Bathurst station and Exhibition Loop north–south along Bathurst Street in mixed traffic, ...

streetcar routes of the

(TTC). The lands are leased from

on a renewable ten-year term. When the loop first opened on June 22, 1931 it could only turn westbound streetcars back east. The loop was rebuilt in 1982 and reconfigured so that streetcars on Fleet Street could enter and exit in both directions, allowing them to return to the Exhibition Loop or loop-the-loop. Passengers cannot access vehicles here and must board streetcars at a stop just east of the loop.

References

External links

*
Friends of Lighthouses
{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1861 Buildings and structures in Toronto Lighthouses in Ontario 1861 establishments in Canada

History

Fleet Loop

See also

References

Further reading

External links