A few weeks ago, the news broke that the Kincardine Municipal Council chose to slap vinyl siding on their historic lighthouse and call it a “restoration.” Their reasoning was that they had to stop the leaks. While yes, stopping leaks is a necessary part of lighthouse maintenance, the Council violated every historic property guideline in their zeal to “do the right thing.” And worse, although they’ve offered to sit down and talk with Heritage Kincardine, the talks have gone nowhere, even to the point of refusing to correct their mistake. And it’s worse than it actually seemed at first. The original and unique windows have been replaced, and the interior has been ruined.

Heritage Kincardine Fights To Reverse Desecration

Heritage Kincardine is a committee of volunteers appointed by Council (under the Ontario Heritage Act) to advise Council on heritage matters. According to Jane Rigby,

It seems that the whole problem with the lighthouse is that it needed painting and maintenance. We all know that municipalities here do not maintain anything - use and throw away, seems to be their motto. The wanton destruction of old lighthouses by our federal government because they are “no longer useful” is a case in point. History be damned!! These are the same people who go to Europe and gawk and rubber neck at the old castles, churches, etc. They do not seem to realize that those old things are there because no one tore them down!! Benign neglect? No matter - the fact is they are still there.

Although some of the newspaper clippings sent to me indicate the group is going to try for an historical designation of the lighthouse interior, that is not possible. The lighthouse interior has already been damaged beyond repair, with the original plasterwork (masonry) being replaced with drywall. At this point, all they can do is to try to get the former keeper’s house, the tower shape itself and the complete lantern into the proper designation before the council follows through with plans to “fix” the house and the rest next year.

Kincardine Lighthouse as it originally looked	Showing the unique windows

The Fight For the Light

At the council meeting when Heritage Kincardine first approached the council regarding the damage they’d done to the lighthouse, Jane Rigby gave a presentation. The text of her speech follows. What is not mentioned yet is the damage that will probably result from what they did, as so many other lighthouses have had happen. When you seal up a structure tightly, you’re looking at rot, mold and other problems down the road. Eliminating leakage can and should be done without changing the integrity of the original work.

When the lighthouse was re-roofed last year, the proper procedures were followed, and the correct type of shingles replaced the old. Yet when the work started this year, and it was noticed by a neighbor who contacted Heritage Kincardine, the work continued even after a public outcry against it. Heritage Kincardine was not contacted about it, and the contractor never even blinked when he began removing the siding in preparation for adding the vinyl covering.

To get the lighthouse approved for historical designation, the Council has to approve it. And there is now some question whether they will. From Jane:

This is why we need to keep up the pressure to have the plastic reversed. There is also a real problem of interior rot caused by the new vapour barrier and cladding. such as happened with the McNab Range Light near Southampton, Ontario. We cannot have the original elements again, but we can hire proper consultants and experts on lighthouses to make sure the restoration is correct.

What happened with McNab Range Light is similar. The structure rotted from the inside out after being covered with aluminum siding. To see pictures of the McNab Light and what happened to it, Carol Wallberg has photos at Facebook. Click the pictures for full size and to read the text.

The Text of Jane Rigby’s Presentation to Council

I am Jane Rigby, Member of Heritage Kincardine and Architectural Historian, former Chair of Doors Open Kincardine, for four years, and paid heritage consultant to other Municipalities. I am representing Heritage Kincardine (HK) for this presentation. I apologize for this document not reaching you before this presentation, but since I am speaking for HK, I had to have the content approved by HK at their meeting last night. I also live in a historic house that is being restored by my husband and me.

Heritage Kincardine wishes to apologize to Council for not being pro active in the case of our lighthouse. However, like many others in the Municipality, we were lulled by the assumed historic sanctity of the structure and elevated recognition status as the Municipal Symbol, into believing it would always be preserved, never be desecrated. We were wrong!

Why Protect our heritage??
Protecting heritage features, as an integral part of management of change, contributes in several ways to our feeling of well being and belonging.

1. Provision of where we came from and where we fit. Archaeological sites, for example, provide material evidence of human activity of prehistoric and historic societies.
2. Promoting community pride. Heritage features are reminders and evidence of people, places, events, and achievements, as well as cultural diversity. Man made heritage features which have evolved slowly over many years provide distinctive, visible characteristics of stability
3. Enhancing economic development. Protection and reuse of heritage buildings provides to local building industries and contributes to employment. Creation of prestige locations brings stability to real estate and investment opportunities.
4. Contributing to tourism and recreation. Places with historic buildings, a special atmosphere, or scenic attributes attract visitors and tourists from outside that locale. A new phenomenon, is Heritage Tourism. This is a more mature tourist who has more economic clout and wants an authentic, historic experience, such as Doors Open gives. They are not interested in plastic lighthouses!

HK is a volunteer advisory body set up by Council and enabled by the Ontario Government under the Ontario Heritage Act to advise Council on heritage matters, both built and natural, and recommend designations. The mandate is broad covering built heritage, man made natural heritage, archaeological sites and natural heritage.

Council has obligations under the act as well, among them are those of policy and decision maker. HK exists to advise Council and HK exercises the authority granted to it by Council. But Council?s role and involvement are integral to the successful implementation of a heritage conservation policy programme in the community. Council needs to be kept informed of HK activities, but at the same time, HK needs full in-put from Council (and staff) on heritage issues. The statutory power that Council exercises under the Ontario Heritage Act calls for Council to fulfill the following responsibilities (there are more, but for the purposes of this presentation):

1. Set Municipal budget to be used for heritage conservation
2. Establish heritage conservation policies, both those that stand alone and are under the Official Plan and amendments (in consultation with HK)
3. Receiving recommendations and consulting with HK and having due regard for HK?s advice on the powers under its mandate.

In other words, Council’s obligation is to request HK’s comments on ALL heritage matters, not just designated buildings, and require staff to alert both Council and HK on up coming issues pertaining to heritage.

In theory, the procedure should work. But it has broken down, and has been in disconnect, it seems, from the beginning. Both the former Town Hall and the old Post Office or Annex are designated structures owned by the Town (at that time), now the Municipality. Both have been ignored, not adequately maintained and in the case of the Town Hall, suffered much the same fate as the lighthouse
Communication has not and is not happening.

The system’s broken – let’s fix it ASAP!!

This is where the lighthouse came unstuck.
Notwithstanding the greater disconnect, the immediate problem is the lighthouse.
We agree the leakage must be stopped, but such Machiavellian destruction would not be necessary if routine maintenance and caulking with painting, etc., had been performed on an regular basis. When one owns such a historic building, it is a privilege, and is an obligation to honour that venerable structure. The lighthouse has survived so far, until now, and will outlive us all, if properly maintained.

Had HK been involved from the beginning of the problems, less drastic solutions could have been found - and that should have been initiated years ago! Unfortunately, we are not clairvoyant. Unless we are notified, as in this case, we cannot respond.
There is a stable of specialized heritage experts and consultants who may have been able to offer logical, cost effective solutions.

We also do not know exactly where the leakage has occurred, how long, or the extent, except that it has become epidemic. We also do not know what interim measures have been taken to remedy the leakage problem prior to the present.

We have lost the key architectural elements of the commensurate symbol, the most recognizable building in the Municipality of Kincardine - its logo, if you like. The original siding on the tower, cedar shingles are gone after 125+ years, and the original windows, with 4 over 4 lights, wavy glass, and three dimensional profile are gone forever. That the replacement windows do not replicate the original ones cannot be disputed. They not only fail to replicate them, they are not even the same size, or proportions. Please refer to the notes and photos of the windows provided in your information package.
There is also a question as to their function on a non-vertical surface.
There is a question of the function of the siding in sun glare and survival in the wind conditions of our Kincardine winter.

Replacement windows are inclined, parallel with the slope of the tower. The unique window reveal feature of the tower has been completely removed.

These three things, 1) the siding, 2) the window reveals, and 3) the windows should be restored. They can be replicated, but the original can never be regained and is gone forever.

How to fix it??? That Council entertain a motion to designate the Kincardine Lighthouse and instruct HK to prepare the reasons for designation immediately. This will, we hope prevent further desecration of the remaining house structure. The designation includes the house and tower, the tower’s octagonal shape, the complete lantern inside and out with balcony including the elegant oversize brackets at the top. The present new windows and cladding on the tower shall be excluded.

As soon as possible, the tower wall cladding and windows must be restored. This will involve a qualified heritage architect and engineer, perhaps involving the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) and its expertise, to work with HK and Council to make sure the work is properly completed to pre 2008 appearance. When this happens, the designation will be expanded to cover the completed restoration work.

The Lighthouse Designation Statement

236 Harbour Street, Kincardine (Town)
Known as The Kincardine Lighthouse
Built in 1880, operational in 1881

Designation for The Kincardine Lighthouse (LH) shall be effective for named features listed below and in Appendices A, B and C as well as general coverage of all features of all exterior facades of both the house and tower with the exception of the vinyl cladding and vinyl windows with aluminum framing installed in June 2008.

Description of Property and Heritage Features/Attributes:
Its structure is typical of an integrated lighthouse combined with the keeper’s house. Although the elements of the LH are similar to others of its type, the pleasing proportions, the rhythm of the windows, the colour scheme of white with red and its location in the town scape make this LH unique.
Designated features include the entire exterior (all facades) of the house and octagonal tower with the exception of the vinyl windows, aluminum framing and vinyl cladding of the octagonal tower (installed in July 2008). All other exterior features, stone foundation, V board cladding of the house, 4 over 4 windows and storm windows, cedar shingle roof (installed in 2007), metal lantern with its gallery and 8 supporting corbel/brackets under the gallery, and other exterior elements not aforementioned shall be covered under the designation. When the tower cladding and windows with their proper dormer elements are restored, they will be covered by a designation amendment (See Appendix A) In addition, the anchor from the shipwreck Anna Maria, resting in the front yard of the LH garden, shall be included in this designation. The land footprint where the stone foundation sets into the hill shall also be designated and retained.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
It has become the symbol - the logo - of the former Town of Kincardine and now for the Municipality of Kincardine and is featured on the majority its promotional material. The LH is unique in its location within town limits and easily accessible to other heritage structures and downtown as well as the harbour. Its cultural heritage value is important to Kincardine as the guiding light to harbour. It also is important in the larger picture of Lake Huron maritime history. It was built at the zenith of Kincardine’s commercial harbour development.
(See Appendix B)

It has also become part of the legend of the Phantom Piper whose image has also become a symbol of Kincardine. (See Appendix C)

Appendix A - Description of Property and Attributes

236 Harbour Street, former Town of Kincardine may be the only lighthouse in the world with a street address! The pole light on the north pier of Kincardine Harbour and the LH together are actually Range Lights. When lined up as one light from the open water, they lead the vessel to safe harbour. The Lighthouse, or more correctly, Light Station was built in 1880 by the Federal Government and began functioning in 1881; it has been casting its light continuously since then out to sea guiding mariners to safe port. It was built by William Kay on a stone foundation built into the hillside that was the former Walker and Henry Distillery* which was built in the 1850s to furnish whiskey to Paddy Walker’s Tavern across the street. Kay was also the first keeper. The on-line Lighthouse Directory states the Kincardine’s beacon is ‘one of the most unusual’ in design and location.

A Light Station consists of the lighthouse and house and any other structures, such as fuel house, boathouse, fog signals, etc., that form a maritime aid structure. The lighthouse part is the tower only. In the case of Kincardine, both are built of wood with the octagonal tower sitting on top of the keeper’s house. The two elements form an octagonal integrated Light Sation. The octagonal lighthouse tower forms a complete architectural structure with the house. The two are integrated on the interior space as well. The dodecagonal iron lantern is blocked out on the east side with solid metal panels. This lantern room on top of the tower is a glassed in room that houses the lamp and lens. The glass storm panes are supported by metal astragal bars which help reinforce the glass against the blast of wind and water. A ventilator on top provides air flow to remove smoke and heat from the lamp, especially in the early days when the lamp was lit with kerosene. The roof of the lantern room is called a cupola. The open platform or balcony outside the lantern room is called a gallery. This is used mainly to clean the windows of the lantern room, but in Kincardine, it is also where the Piper stands. (See Cultural heritage below.)

Shutters rotated around the lamp by a weighted clock-works and created the lamp’s red flash pattern (flash 1s, eclipse 5s).

The exterior painting of a lighthouse is called its daymark. Lights near each other are painted in a similar unique pattern so they can easily be recognized during daylight from sea. This can be in spiral red and white or black and white, or horizontal stripes, or vertical stripes….any marking that shows well on the horizon. Kincardine’s light is traditionally painted white with red details in the lantern, gallery and brackets. At one time the corner boards (vertical dividers between the cedar shingles on the octagonal faces of the tower) under the tower brackets were painted, but all have been white since the beginning of the 20th Century, according to early photographs. The recent changes to the cladding of the tower removed the long orange vertical daymark from the west side of the tower.

The original windows were 4 panes over 4. There were three in each of four alternate sides of the tower and lit the 69 steps up to the lantern. The kerosene had be hauled up these steps as well! The original windows and cladding still exist on the house portion.

*Paddy Walker owned The Walker House Tavern across Harbour Street from the LH and James Henry was the first Postmaster appointed by the village, then known as Penetangore. In 1858, the name was changed to Village of Kincardine after the Governor General of the day, The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine.

Appendix B - Cultural Heritage Value

The history of lighthouses is long and rich. The most famous lighthouse is the Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt, built in 280BC. The word comes from the Greek for lighthouse, pharos, which is the root for lighthouse in many languages; the study of lighthouses is called Pharology. The first lighthouse in North America was the Boston Light on Little Brewster Island (1716). The first in Canada was at Fort Louisburg in 1731-1734. The first Great Lakes lighthouse was built in 1804 at the mouth of the Niagara River by the British. During the war of 1812, it was spared any damage by the Americans who realized its importance.

Expansion of settlement in the Great Lakes and the resultant trade both up and down the lakes and to the USA, and the coming of the steamship in the mid 19th Century forced harbours to expand and offer better facilities. The large number of shipwrecks near Kincardine as well as all around the Great Lakes attested to the need. In the 1850s the Crown approved the erection of a string in ‘Imperial Lighthouses’ built by John Brown about 1859. There were to be 11 but only 6 were built, Point Clark Lighthouse just south of Kincardine is one of these.

William Kay was not only the builder of the LH, but also the first keeper. Perhaps this is why the two elements were so well integrated, he knew the hard work, and weather and the hazards of tending the beacon in foul weather. Among his duties were the following:
1. Light the lamps so they became fully burning by nightfall
2. Turn down the wicks, trim them, light them and raise the wicks gradually until they reached their full flame.
3. Remain in the tower for a full 30 minutes to be sure the flames were correct and sable.
4. All chimneys should be vertical and clean.
5. In heavy weather, he must not leave the lights unattended.
6. He must also clean the reflectors and the glass enclosure.
He also tended to the other range light on the pier. In 1899 the keeper earned $600 per year.
In July 1902 the range light on the pier burned and was replaced by a 28′ (8.5m) pole light. In 1922 electricity replaced kerosene. In th 1950s the light-keeper was also the harbour master. By 1970 the light s became automated and in 1977 the keeper’s position was discontinued. In 1980 the Canadian Coast Guard leased the LH to the Kincardine Yacht Club. In about 1998, the LH became the property of the Town of Kincardine, now the Municipality of Kincardine.

The LH, however did not save the two most notable shipwrecks near the harbour. The Erie Bell sank in 1883 and the Anna Maria in 190; it is her black anchor that rests in the Lighthouse front garden.

Kincardine choose the LH for its visual symbol presumably because it is a focal point for the downtown uniting it with the harbour. Its picturesque landmark position, seen from both Lake Huron and the land makes it the most photographed structure in Kincardine. Wittingly or not, they choose a powerful symbol. Lighthouses stand for unselfish giving in that they exist for the public good - ships benefit for no charge - to find safe harbour. They are a beacon of truth, a guiding light, with all that applies to these concepts.

Appendix C - Legend

There is a third Cultural and Mythic/Apocryphal tradition associated with the LH - the Phantom Piper. There is the legend of Donald Sinclair, who with his family, was bound for Kincardine in 1856. But his boat foundered in a storm and dense fog and the captain could not find the shore. In despair, he picked up his pipes and began a lament. To his surprise, his lament was answered from the shore. The boat followed the sound and they were brought safely to Kincardine Harbour. Was this an early form of fog-horn?

In the late 1900s, the Kincardine Scottish Pipe Band** decided to honour the memory of the Phantom Piper and Donald Sinclair. Every evening during the summer months, a member of the band pipes the sun down from the gallery of the Lighthouse. It creates an melancholy yet thankful mood with the skirl of the piping floating across the harbour as the sun slips below the horizon. The lighthouse is the foundation for reminding citizen and visitors alike of the seafaring tradition it symbolizes and the safe harbour that is Kincardine.

** The Kincardine Scottish is a non-military Pipe Band that performs a parade every Saturday night in the summer months and a small concert in Victoria Park after the march. The close association of the band with the Phantom Piper and the LH add to the legend. The band is celebrating its 100 year in 2008. Its Saturday parades began after World War II.

What Others Have Said

Jane was nice enough to send along some press coverage clippings, including editorials, letters to the editor and news stories. These are all in pdf format and will open in a new window. Or you can right click them and save to your computer for later reading. If you don’t have Adobe Reade, which you need to view the files, you can get it at www.adobe.com.

• Short editorial in the Independent (May 28)
• News story from June 4
• Letters to the Editor
• Winging It - A column by Fred Kirby in the Independent
• News story about decision to leave vinyl in place
• An editorial and a news story about the discussions

What Can We Do?

We can send emails to the Municipal Council asking them to reconsider their decision to leave the vinyl siding and poorly fitted windows in place. E-mails should be addressed to the Mayor and Council, Municipality of Kincardine, and sent to clerk@kincardine.net. A well planned campaign by lighthouse lovers from around the world might do more to change their minds than anything.

A sample e-mail might read (feel free to copy and paste):

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To the Mayor and Council of the Municipality of Kincardine:I have read with interest the controversy surrounding the recent renovations at the Kincardine Lighthouse, one of your town’s icons. The removal of the cedar siding and the original and unique windows to be replaced with vinyl siding and poorly fitted windows goes against the grain of historic preservation everywhere.Disabling the built in protections against the weather by the original builders will cause more (and more expensive) problems down the line. There are numerous instances where “waterproofing” lighthouses has resulted in rotting, mold and other structural problems. A far better way is to replace the leaking areas with in-kind materials.Please reconsider your decision to leave the “repairs” in place, and preserve your truly beautiful lighthouse for generations to come.Sincerely,Your name here

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Of course, you may use your own words, which would be better. But at least this should give you an idea on what to write. Please do it now. No lighthouse should be treated the way Kincardine Lighthouse has been treated.

Photo Credits:

• Kincardine Lighthouse by CWBash. Some rights reserved.
• Kincardine Lighthouse by ASAP. Some rights reserved.
• Kincardine Lighthouse at dusk by Mike Wood Photography. Some rights reserved.
• All restoration photos by Jane Rigby. All rights reserved.

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