Lighthouse restoration earns volunteers prestigious award

Volunteers with Bruce County’s Marine Heritage Society are riding high.

They’ve taken home a prestigious award for restoring a battered lighthouse in Southampton.

IN PHOTOS: Southampton Range Light Lighthouse restoration

Marine Heritage Society volunteers spent hundreds of hours staining, hanging, and installing special cedar shingles on the exterior of the Front Range Lighthouse in Southampton in 2022.

Volunteers with the Marine Heritage Society stain cedar shingles to be installed on century old lighthouses in Southampton in the spring of 2024. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

For their efforts, they won the Peter Stokes Restoration Award from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO).

Marine Heritage volunteers didn’t have much time to celebrate though, they just wrapped up similar restoration work on the Rear Range Lighthouse in Southampton.

“While the Range Light restoration is considered a small-scale project by the judging standards, it required a big-time effort to fundraise and repair the beacon. The town is grateful to the Marine Heritage Society for leading the community effort and to the ACO for recognizing this important landmark,” said Cheryl Grace, chair of Saugeen Shores Municipal Heritage Committee, who nominated the Marine Heritage Society for the award.

Historic designation on Front Range Lighthouse in Southampton in the spring of 2024. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)