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.
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Kincardine - The Plastic Lighthouse
