Vancouver Icons: Prospect Point Lighthouse
byWhen the S.S. Beaver ran aground in 1888, Prospect Point was known as Calamity Point. The accident followed years of shipping mishaps caused by rocks and strong tidal currents. Three months later a light was established, just four days after Stanley Park itself was established.
The first light was a fixed white beacon housed in a square lantern room perched atop the pyramidal roof of the keeper’s dwelling. In 1900, the characteristic of the fog bell was changed from two strokes in quick succession every minute to one stroke every twenty seconds. Keeper John Grove had to wind up the weights that powered the fog bell every thirty minutes. A boat and boathouse were also supplied to the station in 1900.
In 1906, the MV Princess Victoria sliced through the tug Chehalis just off Brockton Point, two kilometers southeast of Prospect Point, killing eight passengers and crew aboard the Chehalis. To prevent tragedies like that of the Chehalis from occurring in The Narrows, a new duty was given to Keeper Grove, the operation of semaphore signal masts starting in 1909. [Source]
A signal station went in at Stanley Park’s highest point in 1923 and the original Prospect Point Lighthouse remained standing after 1938, when the Lions Gate Bridge was constructed. The lighthouse we know today was built in 1948. [Source]. This beacon is today’s Vancouver Icons photo feature:
Photo credit: Fabio Slongo on Flickr
Photo credit: The West End & The West End on Flickr
Photo credit: Don Janus on Flickr
Photo credit: colink. on Flickr
Previous Vancouver Icons posts: Engagement, Ovaltine Cafe, The English Bay Slide, Freezing Water #7, Cleveland Dam, Heritage Hall, School of Theology Building at UBC, Gate to the Northwest Passage, St Paul’s Hospital, Capilano Lake, Stawamus Chief, Nine O’Clock Gun, Malkin Bowl, Search, Vancouver Rowing Club, Echoes, Point Atkinson Lighthouse, English Bay Inukshuk, Hollow Tree, Hotel Europe, Lions Gate Bridge Lions, LightShed, Granville Bridge, 217.5 Arc x 13′, Canoe Bridge, Vancouver Block, Bloedel Conservatory, Centennial Rocket, Canada Place, Old Courthouse/Vancouver Art Gallery, Dominion Building, Science World, Gastown Steam Clock, SFU Burnaby, Commodore Lanes, Siwash Rock, Kitsilano Pool, White Rock Pier, Main Post Office, Planetarium Building, Lord Stanley Statue, Vancouver Library Central Branch, Victory Square, Digital Orca, The Crab Sculpture, Girl in Wetsuit, The Sun Tower, The Hotel Vancouver, The Gassy Jack Statue, The Marine Building, and The Angel of Victory. Should you have a suggestion for the Vancouver Icons series please feel free to leave a note in the comments. It should be a thing, statue, or place that is very visible and recognizable to the public.
