Wikipedia (
visit link) has a brief history of the lighthouse:
"Construction was started in 1803 and it started operating in 1808. It was built to a height of 52 feet and extended to 82 feet in 1932. The diameter ranges from ~7 m at the base to ~2.1 m at the top. The base is made from stone quarried in Queenston and the extension from Kingston stone.
The tower initially used sperm oil from 1832 and switched to coal in 1863. The original lamp structure was wood and replaced with steel in 1878. An electric light was installed in 1916-17 and updated in 1945. In 1958 Metro Parks took over operations and made renovations in 1961-62.
It once stood on the shore but over time sand has built up in front of it so that it now stands about 100 m inland. It is currently unused and shut. It stands as a testament to Toronto's history as a Great Lakes port.
Haunting
Local legend purports the lighthouse tower to be haunted. In 1815 the first keeper, J.P. Radan Muller was murdered. It was thought to have been drunken soldiers from Fort York who were looking for bootlegged beer. They chased him up the stairs and knocked him unconscious. They chopped up the body and buried him. The soldiers were charged with his murder but later acquitted. In 1893, George Durnan found a coffin buried in the sand nearby that contained a jawbone. It wasn't clear whether this belonged to Muller. The sound of moaning can be heard on misty nights and some people claim to see an apparition wandering the grounds that is believed to be Radan Muller's ghost.
Lightkeepers
J.P. Radan Muller 1809-1815
William Halloway 1816-1831
James Durnan 1832-1854
George Durnan 1854-1908
Captain P.J. McSherry 1905-1912
B. Matthews 1912-1917
G.F. Eaton 1917-1918
F.C. Allan 1918-1944
Mrs. Ladder 1944-1955
Mrs. Dodds 1955-1958
Replacement
Since the decommissioning of the lighthouse, smaller automated lighthouses (two located at Humber Bay Park in the west and Bluffer's Park to the east), Toronto Harbour Light, as well as floating bell or light buoys, navigational masts have been used to replace the lighthouse to provide navigational aid along Toronto's waterfront and Toronto Harbour."
Two signs at the site (
visit link) add:
"Though now away from the lake and nestled among the trees, this is the oldest surviving lighthouse on the Great Lakes and the second oldest surviving lighthouse in Canada. It was constructed in 1808-09 when this site was only eight metres from the shifting shoreline of Lake Ontario and exposed to violent lake storms. Guiding sailors into York (now Toronto) harbour, this lighthouse was also used to hoist flags signalling the approach of ships to the town and fort.
At a time when most buildings in York were built with local materials, the lighthouse was constructed of stone from Queenston, near Niagara Falls. Its walls are almost two metres thick at the base, and were raised to their existing height by adding stone from Kingston in 1832. Its wick lamps, which were visible many kilometres out over the lake, were fuelled with hundreds of litres of whale oil per year, then coal oil, until an electric light was installed in 1917. In 1809, the lighthouse was the only major light on York's dark, forested horizon. In 1945, the light was changed from white to green to distinguish it from the bright lights of the modern city."
The second sign continues:
"The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was once accompanied by the whitewashed clapboard homes of the ligthouse keepers, the first civilian residents on the island. The third and fourth keepers, James Durnan and his son George, maintained the wick lamps and the lighthouse from 1832 to 1905. After 1878, George also rewound - every 48 hours- the new mechanism which revolved the light. Over time, the keepers and their families formed the nucleus of a growing island community.
At the end of the 1957 shipping season, the light of the Gibralter Point Lighthouse was extinguished for the very last time by Dedie Dodds, the last of the keepers. After nearly 150 years of service, the stone lighthouse was replaced by the federal Department of Transport with a fully automated, modern skeletal tower. The ownership of the old lighthouse was transferred to Metropolitan Toronto Parks Department in 1958. The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse has since been restored, the remaining homes of the lighthouse keepers demolished, and the surrounding land integrated into Toronto Island Park.
HERITAGE TORONTO 2008"