Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site, on Fisgard Island at the mouth of

Esquimalt Harbour Esquimalt Harbour is a natural harbour in Greater Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The entrance to Esquimalt Harbour is from the south off the Strait of Juan de Fuca through a narrow channel known as ...

Colwood, British Columbia Colwood is a city on Vancouver Island to the southwest of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, Canada. Colwood was incorporated in 1985 and has a population of approximately 19,000 people. Colwood lies within the boundaries of the Greater Vi ...

, is the site of Fisgard Lighthouse, the first

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

on the west coast of Canada. The lighthouse was constructed in 1859–60 by the British colonial government of the

Colony of Vancouver Island The Colony of Vancouver Island, officially known as the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies, was a Crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with the mainland to form the Colony of British Columbia. ...

, and it shone its first light on 16 November 1860. It was employed by twelve full-time lighthouse keepers, before being automated in 1929. It has remained in continuous operation, though a fire in 1957 put it out of commission for a year. The light shows a white

isophase light A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular somewhat navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists ...

of 2 second period in a sector from 322° to 195° at above mean sea level, and in other directions it shows red shutters. The white tower is floodlit below balcony level. It was formally recognized as a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada () are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being of national historic significance. Parks C ...

on 3 November 1958. An artificial causeway connecting it to

Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site is a 19th-century coastal artillery fort located on Esquimalt Harbour in Colwood, British Columbia, Canada. It was constructed in the 1890s by the Royal Marine Artillery to defend the Esquimalt Naval Base. I ...

was constructed in the 1950s, and the two sites are jointly administered by

Parks Canada Parks Canada ()Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

History

Background

View of Greenwich in 1877 Showing the Training Ship HMS Warspite

Fisgard Lighthouse and its sister station Race Rocks Light, were constructed in 1859–60, to ease the movement of naval ships into

and merchant ships into

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in ...

. The light stations were also seen as a significant political and fiduciary commitment on the part of the British government to the

, partly in response to the American gold miners flooding into the region: some 25,000 arrived in 1858 for the

Fraser Gold Rush The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, (also Fraser Gold Rush and Fraser River Gold Rush) began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's c ...

. Colonial Governor James Douglas petitioned the British government to build the lighthouse. Captain George Richards supported his position, recommending the construction of a lighthouse at the mouth of Esquimalt Harbour. Fisgard Island, which had been named after , a British Navy ship that spent time in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and had surveyed the island in 1848, was chosen as the location for the new lighthouse.

Construction (1859 – 1860)

Architects John Wright and Hermann Otto Tiedemann designed the lighthouse and the picturesque gothic red brick residence adjoining it. Colonial surveyor and engineer

Joseph Despard Pemberton Joseph Despard Pemberton (July 23, 1821 – November 11, 1893) was a surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company, Surveyor General for the Colony of Vancouver Island, a pre-Confederation politician, a businessman and a farmer. He was born in 1821 ...

was awarded the contract for the construction of the lighthouse. Excavation on Fisgard Island began September or October of 1859. Cast-iron spiral stairs inside the Fisgard Lighthouse tower

Cast-iron spiral stairs inside the Fisgard Lighthouse tower

Local legend claims that the brick and stone used in construction were sent out from Britain as ballast; in fact local brick yards and quarries supplied these materials. Construction of the buildings was complete by June 1860. The lens, lamp apparatus and lantern room were accompanied from England by the first keeper, Mr. George Davies, in 1859. The cast-iron spiral staircase in the tower was made in sections in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Operation (1860 – 1928)

Fisgard first showed a light from the tower at sunset on 16 November 1860. Permanent steel shutters were added to the landward side of the lantern room some time after 1897, when concussion from the 6-inch guns at newly built

Fort Rodd Hill Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site is a 19th-century coastal artillery fort located on Esquimalt Harbour in Colwood, British Columbia, Canada. It was constructed in the 1890s by the Royal Marine Artillery to defend the Esquimalt Naval Base. I ...

caused cracks to appear in the lantern windows. The last keeper to actually live full-time at Fisgard was George Johnson; Josiah Gosse, Fisgard's final keeper, had permission from the lighthouse authority to live ashore (nearby on Esquimalt Lagoon), and row out to Fisgard every evening.

Later history

In the early 1940s, the acetylene lamp in Fisgard's tower was replaced by a battery-powered electric light. In 1950–51, a causeway was built out to Fisgard Island from the foreshore at Fort Rodd Hill by the

Canadian Armed Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

; this was intended as a military obstacle, but also provided direct access to Fisgard Lighthouse. In 1957, a fire in the lighthouse, possibly caused by vandalism, gutted the interior of the lighthouse, leaving only the checkered floors and steel staircase. The interior was restored, and the lighthouse and the keeper's dwellings declared a National Historic Site the following year, with

assuming administration of the site.

Light and access

A causeway from the adjacent

provides access by land. The former lighthouse keeper's residence is open to the public and contains displays and exhibits about the site's history. The attached tower is not open to the public as it is an operational aid to navigation.

Historical designations

The lighthouse was designated a

in 1958. It is also a

Classified Federal Heritage Building The Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office (FHBRO) was established in 1982 after the Government of Canada adopted an internal policy on managing heritage buildings. Today, federal heritage is incorporated into the Government of Canada's Treasury ...

Keepers of Fisgard Lighthouse

Twelve people served as lighthouse keeper from 1860 until 1928: *George Davies, 1860–1861 *John Watson, 1861 *William H. Bevis, 1861–1879 (Died on station, 1879) *Amelia Bevis, 1879–1880 *Henry Cogan. 1880–1884 *Joseph Dare, 1884–1898 (Drowned in

, 1898) *W. Cormack, 1898 *John Davies, 1898 *Douglas MacKenzie, 1898–1900 *Andrew Deacon, 1900–1901 *George Johnson, 1901–1909 *Josiah Gosse, 1909–1928

References

External links

Official website
– (Parks Canada)

{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1860 Lighthouses in British Columbia Historic buildings and structures in British Columbia Buildings and structures in Victoria, British Columbia National Historic Sites in British Columbia Museums in British Columbia Lighthouse museums in Canada Maritime museums in British Columbia Lighthouses on the National Historic Sites of Canada register Classified Federal Heritage Building