Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society

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Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society

Securing the future of Nova Scotia lighthouses by creating and promoting a culture of preservation. Currently, many of these lighthouses are deemed surplus.

The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society (NSLPS) was founded in 1993 by lighthouse enthusiasts while on a visit to Sambro Island. The Sambro Island Lighthouse (1758) is the oldest working lighthouse in North America. They were concerned about the condition of the lighthouse and the keeper's houses. They set up the non-profit society to benefit all the 150 lighthouses in Nova Scotia.. NSLPS

looks to assist and support local communities and community groups preserve their lighthouses, their heritage value, and their symbolic and social meaning to the nearby communities and the public coastal land where many of them are situated.

06/15/2026

In 1913 a white wooden pepper-shaker style lighthouse was erected on Tanner Island 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Lunenburg. It was a seasonal light operating from April 1 to January 10 when local fishermen were out on the water. Still a 5th order Fresnel lens was installed in its lantern to shine a light that could be seen 16 km (10 mi) away.

As there was no house on the island, the lightkeeper had to row over in his government-supplied dory at dusk to light up and then row home again. This exercise was repeated at dawn to extinguish the light after which the lightkeeper spent time getting the light ready to shine that evening before rowing home. How did he row across in stormy seas? No one knows.

In 1963 it was decided to unman the lighthouse that then deteriorated over time. It was replaced in 1986 with a narrow fiberglass tower that was topped with a tiny (20 cm; 8 in) plastic airport beacon powered by a solar panel. Not only did Tanner Island get a new type of aid to navigation but also a new name, Gunning Point Island. Does anyone know why?

Today the fiberglass tower is gone and in its place a skeletal steel tower flashes a white light year round. Does anyone know when?

06/05/2026

A white wooden square tapered lighthouse with an attached lightkeeper’s house was built in 1874 on Whitehead Island west of the Pubnicos in Yarmouth County. While the island may have looked white from a distance, the French-speaking locals called it “Ile Rouge” (Red Island) as the lighthouse shone a red light in its early years.

No matter the name, the lighthouse leaked badly and there was little fresh water on the island. So in 1875 the island became a test site to see if shingles were more waterproof than clapboard siding and if a brick cistern in the basement that filled with rainwater pouring off the roof made up for the lack of water. They were and it became common practice to build new lighthouses that included both these features.

In the 1950s the lightkeeper’s 15-year old son was home alone when the lighthouse was hit by lightning. It set the gallery deck on fire and the lighthouse burned to the ground. The next year a tall square concrete tower was built with a separate lightkeeper’s house. It was this house that was towed on a barge to a new home in 1986 when the lighthouse was automated. Its journey over the water was so unusual that students were let out of schools to watch it float by!

In 2017 the fog horn building was removed from the base of lighthouse and two red bands painted around the lighthouse tower to tell it apart from other lighthouses in the area.

05/25/2026

A lighthouse was built in 1886 at Cape Sharp to mark the narrowest point of the Minas Channel before it opens up into the Minas Basin. The first lighthouse was a white wooden tower combined with a lightkeeper’s dwelling. Many such lighthouses had an attached dwelling that had the same sloped walls as those of the lighthouse. However at Cape Sharp it looked as if a local two-storey house had been pushed up against the back side of the lighthouse. Despite its boxy look, the dwelling was probably more spacious and comfortable compared to the ones that followed official Department of Marine blueprints, for example, Hortons Bluff.

A 6th order Fresnel lens was installed and in clear weather its red light could be seen 16 km (10 mi) away. Given the significant fog in the area, the lightkeeper got a hand foghorn in 1899 before a fog alarm building was erected in 1904. Surprisingly while most fog signals have been silenced, a fog horn still blows at Cape Sharp today but must be triggered by mariners using channel 65 on their VHF radio.

In 1973 a standalone white wooden pepper-shaker tower was built along with a standalone lightkeeper’s house. In 1989 the lighthouse was automated and the house was sold and removed to a new site nearby.

05/15/2026

On June 1 the Battery Point Provincial Park in Cape Breton will open for the 2026 season and has as its landmark the Jerome Point Lighthouse. This lighthouse was built as a combined lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling in 1883 to indicate to the mariners the nearby entrance of the St Peter’s Canal, now a National Historic Site. This canal is the only one in North America to have tidal locks.

The lighthouse was an essential aid to navigation as it guided steamers with passengers and mail travelling from Mulgrave on the NS mainland to Sydney Cape Breton via the canal leading into the Bras d’Or Lake. During World War II the lighthouse signaled a safer inside passage for smaller navy vessels acting as es**rt ships for the Slow Convey leaving Sydney for England.

With the arrival of bigger ships following the war, St Peter’s Canal was limited to fishing and pleasure craft. Still in 1956 a new white wooden pepper-shaker tower was built that included a hookup to electricity. Lightkeeping duty passed to the canal lockmaster in 1962. With the installation of a 4-bulb automatic changer and an on/off light sensor switch in 1965, the lighthouse became automated and now operates seasonally from May to November.

05/05/2026

Two little known facts about the first Brier Island Lighthouse built in 1809: it was originally to be a stone tower and after changing to wood for building material, both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick paid for its construction. This lighthouse was said to be “so vilely constructed and ill lighted” that in 1834 it was replaced with a tall wooden tower that shone an adequate light until it burned down in 1944.

One of the first lightkeepers was John Suthern who had served in Admiral Nelson’s fleet and on the ship that took Napoleon to exile on St Helena’s. John started at Brier Island in 1820 and tended the light until 1867 when he died at the age of 83. One of his grandsons was Joshua Slocum who was the first person to sail solo around the world in his sloop, The Spray.

The burned lighthouse was replaced with one made of reinforced concrete and it also sports three red bands around its white tower just like the previous lighthouse did. In 1987 the lighthouse became automated and in 2022 its ownership was transferred under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act to the Municipality of the District of Digby with non-profit group, SAIL2, responsible for its maintenance.

04/25/2026

More than 3,800 islands surround Nova Scotia and those off the Atlantic coast offered suitable sites for lighthouses of which Pearl Island was one. There in 1873 a tall white pyramidal wooden tower was erected to mark the turn left into Mahone Bay and straight ahead to St Margaret’s Bay. A dwelling was attached to the lighthouse and was hopefully big enough for the lightkeeper, his spouse and eight children.

Continually exposed to the Atlantic storms it was necessary to build a new 2-storey square house with a lantern on top in 1929. By 1962 this second lighthouse was in bad enough shape that the lightkeeper’s family had gone to live on the mainland. Sadly one evening the solitary lightkeeper disappeared from the island, a mystery to this day.

One year later in 1963 an acetylene light was installed that allowed the lighthouse to be unmanned. Then in 1973 a strange-looking aid to navigation was erected in the form of a tall square tower covered with white aluminum siding and a flat top where a solar powered light sits exposed to the Atlantic elements. Surprisingly it is still working 53 years later.

04/15/2026

Being the lightkeeper on Margaree Island off Cape Breton was a hard job. Not only was the Island 3.9km (2.4mi) from the mainland but the first lighthouse built in 1855 was a square four-sided wooden tower with a tiny attached house for the lightkeeper and his family. There was so little space that the kitchen was in the basement that flooded often!

In 1883 it was decided to build a bigger lantern room to support a brighter lighting system of two tiers of seven large flat-wick lamps with twenty-one-inch reflectors and five lamps with eighteen-inch reflectors. Can you imagine cleaning and filling these on a daily basis, let alone lighting them every evening?

In 1908 a new octagonal, wooden lighthouse was built along with a standalone lightkeeper’s quarter. However those high-maintenance tiers of lamps and reflectors weren’t replaced until 1921 when a 2nd order Fresnel lens was installed.

During the period 1956 to 1958 a new hexagonal tower made of reinforced concrete was erected and the lightkeeper got a new wooden frame house! He only got to enjoy it 13 years before the light was automated and his job eliminated. Today only a huge colony of Great Cormorants live on Margaree Island where a lighthouse has shone a guiding light for 171 years!

04/05/2026

A positive post on Peter Island Lighthouse! This time last year the top of the lighthouse’s wooden structure was rotting, barely supporting the lantern room and gallery. A call went out to come for volunteers to spend a working holiday in return for their room and board. The response was overwhelming!

Volunteers first had to carry all material over a plywood trail up to the lighthouse whose island is a designated bird sanctuary. Then new supports were installed and rotten wooden ones removed. The outside gallery was completely rebuilt and fresh red paint applied to the lantern roof, gallery rails and lighthouse door. What a difference three weeks of hard work made!

Now the call has gone out again to find workers for phase 2 of the restoration of the Peter Island Lighthouse One NSLPS member who helped out last year, said that it was “a unique experience in a beautiful setting, with a chance to make a lasting impact to keeping these important historical buildings around.” Think you want to be part of this? See for details below how to volunteer or share this post!

Hammer and Sky Studios 24 March 2026 at 18:42 Facebook post

Phase 2 of the Peters Island Lighthouse Restoration is on.
Volunteer now! Please share!

Working on siding, solar panels and lights. We offer an incredible volunteer experience: the chance to help restore an iconic lighthouse on a remote island only accessible by boat. We put you up, feed you and supply the tools. You arrange your travel.
When: From August 15 to September 5th of this year.

For more information, contact John Schwinghamer at [email protected] Send me a paragraph on why we should choose you.

03/25/2026

Range lights using a pair of lighthouse tower structures were once common in Nova Scotia but in 2026 only three such pairs remain. One exceptional pair is located at the north end of the Bras d’Or Channel where its narrow width produces a severe tidal current for mariners to navigate.

In 1903 a short white pepper-shaker style tower was built to act as the Front Range light with a very tall white pepper-shaker style tower acting as the Rear Range light. In fact this Rear Range tower at 16.8 m (55 ft) is the tallest wooden tower in Nova Scotia and the same height as the Louisbourg Lighthouse.

Their fixed white lights became fixed green lights in 1956 with red vertical stripes painted onto the towers in 1984. Once sun switches to turn the lights on and off were installed along with backup battery lights in 1958, two lighthkeepers saw their jobs eliminated. Both then were hired as caretakers until 1968.

With the re-opening of the gypsum mine in Little Narrows this year, this pair of range lights will once again guide commercial traffic through the hazardous waters of the Bras d’Or Channel.

03/15/2026

There are more than ten Green Islands listed for Nova Scotia and three of them are located close by Isle Madame, Cape Breton. This must have confused mariners until the middle Green Island got a lighthouse in 1867. It was a rectangular dwelling with its lantern placed on the roof at the front of the house.

In spite of its having a revolving red and white light, the schooner James R. Lithgow run aground off the island in 1875. Lightkeeper Patrick Duann threw a rope out to the ship and all nine sailors made it to shore safely but the ship was a write-off.

On 1922 a new square two-storey dwelling was built with a lantern rising from the centre of its roof. Then in 1968 a new style of lighthouse was erected: within a metal skeletal tower, a staircase enclosed with fiberglass panels led up to the lantern. There were few of this style in Nova Scotia and they did not last long!

Fibreglass was used again to mold a round lighthouse tower that was capped with a red lantern. As soon as its light was lit in 1986, the lighthouse became unmanned and surprisingly is still operating 40 years later.

Address

Halifax, NS

Website

http://www.nslps.com/

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