Port Burwell’s 1840-vintage wooden lighthouse – the oldest one on Lake Erie’s north shore – is so rickety it’s sealed off and at risk of being blown over.
Port Burwell’s 1840-vintage wooden lighthouse – the oldest one on Lake Erie’s north shore – is so rickety it’s sealed off and at risk of being blown over.
More than a month after a three-day storm battered the lakeside community, downing trees and power lines and ripping the roof off a restaurant, part of the main road running past the lighthouse is closed.
Robinson Street is closed from Pitt to Brock streets, under the watchful eye of police, after the municipality of Bayham warned on its website of the building’s “structural stability issues.”
That shocked a neighbor who’s lived across from the 183-year-old lighthouse for a decade.
“For them to post something like that was a surprise, I don’t think it’s really going to fall down, I hope,” said Tracy Farmer, whose bedroom window looks out on the structure, just meters away. “If this thing falls, I’m losing the front of my house.”
Bayham shut the lighthouse Jan. 19 after an in-depth structural review, chief administrator Thomas Thayer said. The road that leads to the public beach was closed Wednesday due to “risk of (the lighthouse) overturning in a significant wind event.”
“Concrete is porous and (the water) has nowhere to go – it gets whipped in the wood,” Thayer said.
Temporarily stabilizing the landmark could cost $84,000, the report says. The municipality has $125,000 set aside for lighthouse restoration.
Built in 1840, the lighthouse was deactivated as a navigation aid in 1963. Now a designated heritage property, it’s part of the Port Burwell Marine Museum and Historic Lighthouse tourist site.