Low Point Lighthouse

The name

This lighthouse and station are located on low lying, flat point of land that thrusts over 0.6 kilometres (0.37 mi) out into Spanish Bay. The point has been called both Low Point and Flat Point since at least 1882. The Lighthouse and Lightstation have been entered into the official lists of lights under either name, and often both. Locally, both names are still in common use. The name was formerly approved as Flat Point on June 1, 1909. It was changed to Low Point on October 1, 1953.

The first light

After 1826, the General Mining Association consolidated the various coal mines around Sydney Harbour and greatly increased the shipping of coal to ports on the Atlantic coast. In support of this effort, a lighthouse was built at Low Point in 1832 to aid vessels entering Sydney harbour. This first lighthouse was built at a cost of £770. The tower was octagonal, wooden, with its sides painted alternately red and white, 15.54 metres (51.0 ft) high, base to vane. During its first winter the lead roof was blown off in a heavy gale and the light was out until the lantern could be replaced with a new iron lantern. It was so exceedingly cold that the lightkeeper, Robert McNab, was forced to put pans of hot coals around the inside of the lantern to keep the light going; it was nearly impossible to keep up a flame from poor-grade oil when the temperature was minus 25 to 30 degrees Celsius. In 1856, McNab complained that there had been no repairs or improvements of any consequence in the 19 years of the light's operation. In particular, the tiny dwelling required considerable repair, and the light leading into the increasingly busy Sydney Harbour was considered to be inadequate. New lamps were supplied immediately, which did improve the light, but it was another seven years before a new octagonal iron lantern was installed, providing the room necessary for larger oil burners and reflectors.

By 1878, it was once again necessary to increase the size of the lantern; to accommodate it, the tower had to be strengthened structurally. A temporary light was fitted 4.87 metres (16.0 ft) below the lantern deck while new frames and knees were fitted under the gallery deck. The new iron lantern was 12 sided, 2.95 metres (9.7 ft)in diameter, and able to hold the new lighting apparatus of 13 burners, each with its own 40.6 centimetres (16.0 in) reflector. A light was first shown from the new lantern on July 13, 1878, and with all the buildings repaired and painted, the station was in first-rate order.

By October 12, 1881 Low Point was a signal station at which the International Code of Signals was in use and was one of two stations on Cape Breton Island of the Maritime Telegraph System . The Port War Signal Station was located at the Flat Point Lighthouse during WWI (1917 - 1918) and WWII.

In 1922 a third-order Fresnel double bullseye dioptric lens, group flashing white (5 sec.), manufactured in France by Barbier, Bénard et Turenne was installed. replaced the 1857 fixed white, fountain lamp.

A steam fog-horn was established at this station in 1903, followed by many alterations and additions over the years to the horn and lighting mechanisms as technology advanced. One of the more serious problems that plagued this station, as it did many others, was erosion. Through the years, upwards of half a million dollars was spent on building and maintaining the breastworks and cribbing.

The lighthouse today

In 1938, the wooden tower came to the end of its days and the existing octagonal reinforced-concrete tower was built in its place, reusing the lens and lighting apparatus from the old tower, a circular iron lantern housing built by Chance Brothers, England's famous builders of lenses and lanterns.

In 1953, a new dwelling was built for an assistant keeper and electric power was brought to the station. By 1954, the station consisted of the lighthouse tower, fog-alarm building, stores building, oil stores, head keeper's dwelling, and the assistant keeper's dwelling. The old house was torn down, the materials used for general improvements around the station. In 1962, with the addition of a diaphone horn and associated machinery, a third lightkeeper was taken on and a third dwelling built to accommodate him and his family.

In 1970 an electronic horn was installed, eliminating the need for engines and compressors used with the diaphone horn-and the third keeper. His dwelling, now surplus, was sold and removed from the station in August 1977. Further downgraded to a one-person station in January 1979, the older two-storey dwelling was first converted to a survival station, then sold and removed in 1987. In the meantime, the third-order Fresnel lens was replaced in October 1984 by a DCB-36 optic, a 91.44 centimetres (36.00 in) diameter rotating airport beacon. The Fresnel lens is reported to be in storage at the Coast Guard base in Dartmouth. The round, iron, first-order lantern remains atop the lighthouse tower, the last classic lantern of this type still in use on an operational lighthouse in Nova Scotia.

The Low Point Lighthouse was destaffed in 1988 but the newest of the lightkeeper's houses remains onsite, one of the few lightstations to retain its keeper's home. The house has been restored and is in the care of a community non-profit group.

The lighthouse, an iconic landmark, has been recognized as a heritage building by the Federal Heritage Building Review Office (FHBRO).

An uncertain future

The Low Point Lighthouse, while still active, has been declared surplus under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act as Canadian Coast Guard officials have determined Low Point Lighthouse could be replaced with a simpler structure whose operation and maintenance would be more cost-effective. Because the Low Point Lighthouse was declared surplus by the Canadian Coast Guard in June 2010 (along with almost all lighthouses in Canada), the lighthouse had until May 29, 2012 to be nominated under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act by a group willing to look after it, or the lighthouse would face disposal. The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society made a number of lighthouse petitions in advance of this deadline to make sure a request was submitted, while hoping some community group would then take on the responsibility. One of these applications was made for Low Point Lighthouse, although a NSLPS spokesman expressed fear that no one would take it on. Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Parks Canada had received requests from community groups for 26 Cape Breton lighthouses by the 2012 deadline but only seven made the June 1, 2013 deadline for the business plans that are the next step in the guidelines outlined in Canada’s new Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act. Debbie Lee Pearson, a director of the Low Point Lighthouse Society (formerly the New Victoria Lighthouse Society), submitted a business proposal in May 2013 for the Low Point Lighthouse.

In a Cape Breton Post article, dated April 14, 2014, Stephen Bornais, a communications officer with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said the department has received the business plan for the Low Point lighthouse.

"The preliminary assessment has been completed," he said.

"The department has also received letters of support from the community. The department will be in contact with the community group in the near future with the next steps."

The Low Point Lighthouse tower stands prominently near the water’s edge and erosion of the bank is visibly threatening its foundation. Unless a new breakwater is installed, it is only a matter of time before this large, historic, octagonal concrete tower will topple into the sea.

List of lighthouse keepers

After 1988 the lighthouse was automated.