Description of Historic Place

The Victoria Beach Lighthouse is an 8 metres (26 feet) square-tapered, wooden tower topped by a superimposed gallery and a square wooden lantern. Constructed in 1901, it is the first lighthouse on the site but the fourth navigational aid erected on the Digby Gut–Annapolis Basin water corridor. It is located at Battery Point on the east side of the Digby Gut.

Heritage Value

The Victoria Beach Lighthouse is a heritage lighthouse because of its historical, architectural, and community values.

Historical values
The Victoria Beach Lighthouse is an excellent example of the development of the system of marine aids to navigation along the Digby Gut–Annapolis Basin water corridor. As a coastal light, it directs coastal trade and recreational craft in and out of the Digby Gut and warns of particularly fast tidal waters just off its shores.
The Victoria Beach Lighthouse supported the economic development of Digby Gut as commercial traffic grew in the area from the steam ferry service along with the shipbuilding, fishing, and apple industries.

Architectural values
The Victoria Beach Lighthouse is a simple, but well-executed example of a tower with a superimposed gallery that represents an economical approach to tower construction that is lighter and less robust than a tower with a structurally integrated gallery. The picturesque octagonal iron lantern with its metal weathervane ventilator illustrates the structure’s 19th-century industrial design.
Built using standard construction technology and materials of its time, the Victoria Beach lighthouse presents no technological innovations, but does represent well in the choice and use of materials and in the execution of its compact and efficient design. The lighthouse has withstood more than a century of exposure to Atlantic Canada’s weather, a tribute to its materials, craftsmanship, and ongoing maintenance.

Community values
Located on a rise overlooking the Digby Gut with the adjacent wharves, fishing plant buildings, and fishing vessels of Battery Harbour, Victoria Beach Lighthouse is prominent in its white and red colour scheme and reinforces the area’s maritime character.
The Victoria Beach Lighthouse is highly valued by the local community as a picturesque reminder of the region’s rich maritime heritage. It is also a popular attraction for tourists travelling by ferry between Digby and St. John, and for land borne tourists as well.

Related buildings
No related buildings are included in the designation.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of the Victoria Beach Lighthouse should be respected:
— its location on a small rise overlooking Digby Gut;
— its intact, as-built structural form, height, profile, and balanced proportions, based on the standard design of square, tapered wooden towers;
— its square, wooden structure with tapered sides rising from the concrete foundation base;
— its superimposed square, wooden gallery supported by plain iron brackets;
— its plain metal railing that surrounds the gallery;
— its square, wooden lantern with its metal weathervane ventilator;
— its sole entry door with shed-roof that projects from the façade;
— its traditional red and white exterior colour scheme consisting of a white tower, gallery, and lantern, accented by red features such as the door pediment and the railing of the gallery;
— its visual prominence in relation to the water and landscape.