Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse
Heritage Lighthouse
Bouctouche, New Brunswick
Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse
(© Contentworks Inc. / Parks Canada | Parcs Canada)
Address :
18 Pointe à Jérôme Road, Bouctouche, New Brunswick
Recognition Statute:
Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act (S.C. 2008, c 16)
Designation Date:
2022-03-21
Dates:
-
1916 to 1916
(Construction)
-
1883 to 1883
(Established)
Description of Historic Place
The Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse is a 6.3-metre (20.6 feet) square, tapered, wooden tower. Located near the town of Bouctouche, New Brunswick on the north side of Bouctouche Harbour, the lighthouse is surrounded entirely by a residential property. It is part of the 2nd generation of range lights to mark the harbour.
Heritage Value
The Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse is a heritage lighthouse because of its historical, architectural, and community values.
Historical values
The Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse is a good example of the expansion of the lighthouse system in New Brunswick, and in particular, the government’s effort to light Canada’s coasts and harbours in a cost-effective and expedient manner.
The lighthouse is also a good example of the socio-economic development of the communities nearby Bouctouche Harbour. The original lighthouse was established in 1883, the same year that the Moncton & Buctouche Railway was founded. The arrival of the railway may have been a catalyst to make improvements to navigation for a harbour expected to see more traffic.
Architectural values
The Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse is an excellent example of a small, square-tapered tower constructed using wood and sheathed in white-painted shingles. Square tapered wooden lighthouses first appeared in British North America in the 1840s and came into common use by Canada’s Department of Marine and Fisheries in the 1870s. The lighthouse offers a simple variant of this affordable and adaptable design.
The lighthouse is painted white and features a red daymark. The tower’s solid construction and durable materials, including the wood frame and shingles, speak to the quality of its original craftsmanship.
Community values
The Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse stands a few kilometers from the Town of Bouctouche in an area with seaside homes dotting the shoreline, and farms and forests in the vicinity.
The lighthouse is considered a local landmark in the Town of Bouctouche. It continues to serve as a marker for mariners navigating the channel into Bouctouche Harbour, and is a valued symbol of the community’s past.
Related buildings
No related buildings.
Character-Defining Elements
The following character-defining elements of the Pointe à Jérôme Front Range Lighthouse should be respected:
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 shingled sides; its slight raised entry door surmounted by a simple pediment; its ground level four paned window, topped with a plain pediment; its upper floor window for the lantern to shine through (when it was operational); its distinctive and traditional red and white colour scheme that consists of white painted shingles and a red daymark, and; its visual prominence in relation to the water and landscape.