Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site

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Fisgard Lighthouse

Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site is a historic site located in Victoria, British Columbia, adjacent to Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site. It is the site of Fisgard Lighthouse, the first lighthouse on the west coast of Canada.

Fisgard Lighthouse was built in 1860, automated in 1929 and, as of 2006, it is still used for navigation. The lighthouse keeper's residence is open to the public and contain displays and exhibits about the site's history. Fisgard's tower, accessed from the second storey through what was a bedroom, is not open, due to public safety concerns and the fact that it is still a working lightstation.

Fisgard Lighthouse and its sister station Race Rocks, were constructed in 1859-60, to ease the movement of naval ships into Esquimalt harbor and merchant ships into Victoria harbour. The lightstations were also seen as a significant political and fiduciary commitment on the part of the British government to the Colony of Vancouver Island, partly in response to the American gold miners flooding into the region: some 25,000 arrived in 1858 for the Fraser gold rush.

Fisgard, the first purpose-built lighthouse on the west coast of Canada, has a 47-foot tower with an 18-foot high lantern room at the top. The elevation of the light is 95 feet above mean sea level.

Local legend claims that the brick and stone used in construction were sent out from Britain as ballast; in fact local brickyards and quarries supplied these materials, while the lens, lamp apparatus and lantern room were accompanied from England by the first keeper, Mr. George Davies, in 1859. The cast-iron spiral staircase in the tower was made in sections in San Francisco.

Fisgard first showed a light from the tower at sunset on 16 November 1860.