Description of Historic Place
The Wallace Harbour Sector Lighthouse is an 8 metre (26 feet) square wood-frame tower which tapers to a cove moulding supporting a square metal-railed platform on which rests a wooden rectangular lantern. The lighthouse is painted white with a broad horizontal red band across its front as a daymark. It is situated on the side of a main highway near the shoreline of Wallace Harbour. Built in 1904, it was originally one part of a pair of range lights, but was converted to an individual sector light in 1990.
Heritage Value
The Wallace Harbour Sector Lighthouse is a heritage lighthouse because of its historical, architectural, and community values.
Historical values
Originally the front half of a pair of range lights guiding vessels through the narrow entrance to Wallace Harbour, the Wallace Harbour Sector Lighthouse is a very good example of the federal program of marine aids to navigation for small harbours and rivers.
The lighthouse was built to assist the local fishing industry. It is an excellent example of the socio-economic development of the region, assisting not only the fishing industry but also facilitating the shipping of the famous Wallace sandstone used for building and ornamentation.
Architectural values
The Wallace Harbour Sector Lighthouse is a very good example of a simple well-proportioned square tower that tapers to a cove moulding, which supports a square platform surrounded by metal rail, upon which rests a lantern, typically square or octagonal. In this case, the lantern is rectangular to accommodate a modern lighting apparatus.
The Wallace Harbour Sector Lighthouse is a very good representation of a common design for lights seen at the entrances of harbours on coastal waterways throughout Canada. Square, tapered, wooden lighthouses were economical to build, using materials readily available in nearby forests and mills, and were built by local labour. They are durable and able to withstand heavy winds due to their low centre of gravity.
Community values
Sitting on a bank overlooking Wallace Harbour and surrounded by trees, the lighthouse blends into its rural Nova Scotian environment. Route 6, the local highway, passes very close to the doorway of the lighthouse. The lighthouse’s highly visible and accessible location contributes to its familiarity, facilitates its appreciation by the public, and reinforces the maritime character of the community.
The community takes great pride in the lighthouse and sees it as a focal point. The lighthouse appears on all the area’s tourist brochures and literature as a symbol of the community. In recent years, a local association interested in preserving the lighthouse as a landmark assumed responsibility of the maintenance of the building and its landscaping.
Character-Defining Elements
The following character-defining elements of the Wallace Harbour Sector Lighthouse should be respected:
— its location on the edge of the highway on a bank overlooking Wallace Harbour;
— its intact, as-built structural form, height, profile and balanced proportions based on the standard design of square, tapered, wooden towers;
— its square wood-frame structure with tapered sides;
— its sandstone foundation;
— its exterior walls covered with clapboard;
— its rectangular wooden lantern surmounted by a red gable roof;
— its square platform surrounded by metal rail;
— its traditional red and white exterior colour scheme, consisting of a white tower and gallery, accented by red features such as the door, horizontal daymark band across its front, the railing of the gallery, and the roof; and
— its visual prominence in relation to the water and landscape.
