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Port Greville Lighthouse

8334 Highway 209, Wards Brook, Nova Scotia, B0M, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2001/05/05

Rear elevation, Port Greville Lighthouse, Port Greville, NS, 2009.; Heritage Division, NS Dept of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, 2009
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Front elevation, Port Greville Lighthouse, Port Greville, NS, 2009.; Heritage Division, NS Dept of Tourism, Culture and Heritage, 2009
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No Image

Other Name(s)

n/a

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

1907/01/01 to 1907/12/31

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2009/02/24

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

The Port Greville Lighthouse is a wooden, A-shaped lighthouse built in 1907 in Port Greville, Nova Scotia. The 8.3 meter structure stands near a river on the road-side property of the Age of Sail Heritage Centre on the outskirts of Port Greville over-looking the Greville River. Although it is no longer on its original site, it is close to its original community. The building and property are included in the municipal designation.

Heritage Value

The Port Greville Lighthouse is valued for its association with the sea-faring history of this area of Cumberland County. The important community landmark is also valued as being a good example of a typical Cumberland County lighthouse built during the turn of the century.

Historical Value: The lighthouse was built in 1907 and lit in 1908 to protect the many ships, crews and cargoes that travelled the rugged Nova Scotia shoreline along the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Channel. Shipbuilding and lumbering were the major industries of this area in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the lighthouse played a central role in the settlement and economic development of the Port Greville area by making travel safe for ships entering and leaving the port. Because land travel was so difficult here, all the communities in the area grew out of the ship-related economy.

In 1980, the lighthouse was decommissioned, cut into two pieces, loaded onto a flatbed truck, and moved to the Coast Guard College in Sydney, Cape Breton, where it stood until 1998, when a group of local citizens successfully lobbied to have the important community landmark returned to its home.

Architectural Value: The Port Greville Lighthouse is a typical turn-of-the-century lighthouse found in this part of Cumberland County. It is a white, A-shaped, square, wooden tower with a balcony completely surrounding the top just below the square lantern. The lighthouse has not changed since it was constructed.

Source: “Heritage Properties County, Port Greville Lighthouse” File, Cumberland County Museum

Character-Defining Elements

Character-defining elements of the Port Greville Lighthouse include:

- original form and massing;
- original wood shingles;
- 8.3 metre, tapered square, wood-frame tower topped with red hip roof;
- pediment red gable hood mouldings above door and windows;
- square lantern;
- balcony.

Recognition

Jurisdiction

Nova Scotia

Recognition Authority

Local Governments (NS)

Recognition Statute

Heritage Property Act

Recognition Type

Municipally Registered Property

Recognition Date

2001/05/05

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

n/a

Theme - Category and Type

Developing Economies
Communications and Transportation
Peopling the Land
Settlement

Function - Category and Type

Current

Leisure
Museum

Historic

Transport-Water
Navigational Aid or Lighthouse

Architect / Designer

n/a

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

"Heritage Property County, Port Greville Lighthouse" File, Cumberland County Museum and Archives, 150 Church St, Amherst, NS B4H 3C4

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

11MNS0178

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

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