On an uninhabited island just off the community of Westport, N.S., a part of the community’s past is quietly disintegrating.
But this summer, a group of volunteers will be arriving on Brier Island from across North America, to bring that structure back to life.
The Peter Island lighthouse was built in 1909 to guide ships through treacherous tides and thick fog at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.
“The lighthouse is such an iconic looking lighthouse on … this rugged island with the tides and the huge waves smashing against the rocks,” says volunteer John Schwinghamer. “It really doesn’t get more beautiful than that.”
The Canadian Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse in 2014. By the time the Municipality of Digby acquired it in 2023 after years of effort, it was already falling apart.
Since 2015, volunteers with a community group called Save an Island Lighthouse have been working to preserve the structure, along with two other lighthouses on Digby Neck.
This September, volunteers will spend three weeks repairing the Peter Island lighthouse, which is covered in lichen and at risk of being destroyed in a major storm.
The lighthouse is recognized under the federal Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, which designates and preserves historically significant lighthouses.
But when the community group applied for funding through Parks Canada to cover the cost of repairs, it was unsuccessful. That meant the prospect of hiring contractors for $200,000 worth of work.
Schwinghamer lives in Westport, where he runs an artist residency with his wife; he can see the lighthouse through the windows of a 19th-century church he owns, and restored, on Brier Island.
He said the quotes the group were getting from contractors were “outrageous,” in part because of the logistical challenge presented by the site. “It’s a bit of a nightmare to work on an island that not only is it only accessible by boat, but you’ve got the tide issues also.”
So, he made a suggestion to the group. It would ask volunteers to come do the work and he would co-ordinate.
“It was time to step up, and I have the skill set, and it was really, I thought, a cool idea to bring in all these volunteers from all over.”
The first phase of the work will involve replacing rotten sections of wood and weather-proofing the structure. New shingles and fresh paint is part of the plan for next year.
Starting at the end of August, about a dozen volunteers from Saskatchewan to the southeastern U.S. will spend three weeks doing repairs. They’ll be fed and housed in the community.
John Penner is joining from Saskatchewan. Before retiring, he worked on heritage architecture with the Municipality of Saskatoon. “The project was so unusual, it piqued my interest.”
He said heritage buildings are being lost on the Prairies, too, which made the opportunity to save a historic building on the East Coast appealing.
“[Heritage buildings] are not only symbols, but physical representation of history.”
Steven Sparks first heard about the project through social media. As a longtime fan of the show The Curse of Oak Island, Sparks had joined several Nova Scotia community Facebook groups, and saw the call for volunteers posted there.
Sparks, a contractor who lives in Greensboro, N.C., has never been to Nova Scotia, but saw the project as a unique opportunity.
“How many times in your lifetime do you have the opportunity to say, ‘Yeah, I worked on a lighthouse?’ I can understand a community’s desire to preserve the work of its past and have that as a beacon.”
Sparks said he’s been struck by how welcoming and friendly people in the community have been, even at a time when the relationship between Canada and the U.S. has been on the rocks.
“I support all people. I support Canadians, I support Americans. I think working together, working peacefully, being respectful of our neighbours and our community is what makes us a great and successful society, both Canada and America. And I think that we need to continue to look at ways to work together.”
Tyler Pulley, the CAO of the Municipality of Digby, said the municipality sees the lighthouse as an integral part of the community, and has committed $60,000 of its budget to repairs. “We chose to take over these lighthouses. And ultimately, we have a responsibility to ensure they’re maintained for years to come.”
But the cost of even minor repairs can add up, which is why Pulley said he admires the work of the community group, and of volunteers, who are willing to pitch in on preservation.
“They’ve worked very hard for a long time to acquire and restore the lighthouses and their diligent work and the pride they have in the community is admirable,” he said. “It’s amazing, it honestly is.”
When the lighthouse was decommissioned in 2014, it was replaced by a simple metal structure with a light to guide seafarers. Though the lighthouse is no longer needed for navigation, Schwinghamer said preserving it can still offer a guiding light.
“If you reduce everything to sheer numbers, then … maybe it doesn’t make sense to save these buildings, but that just doesn’t capture at all what makes a community a good place to live,” he said. “If we just eliminated everything that was rotten or falling down … we would lose a lot of beautiful, beautiful buildings.”
