Summerside Back Range Light

The Summerside Back Range Light is a 19.7 metre tall "square pyramidal wooden tower" lighthouse located on the Glover's Shore Road in Summerside. The registration is confined to the footprint of the building. The wood shingled light tower is tapered at the top with a bracketted platform and small square red lantern. Three pairs of windows each with a shed roof are arranged down the length of the tower.

The Summerside Back Range Light is valued for its historic use as an aid to navigation, its continuing visual presence, and as a symbolic working reminder of Summerside's vital historic role as a marine transportation centre. It has survived in the enclosed form adopted for it in 1904 in contrast to the front range light located on the end of the railway wharf which was replaced by a metal tower with a light in 1961.

The Summerside Back Range Light was constructed in 1895 to aid navigation into Bedeque Bay by the many international and regional vessels that used the Summerside harbour, including the mail/passenger steamer "Northumberland." Ships entering Bedeque Bay around the Indian Head lighthouse would line up the beacons on the Summerside Range Front Light (located at the foot of the railway wharf) and the Back Range Light at Glover's Shore to ensure they were in the channel into the harbour. Therefore it was seen and relied upon by thousands of residents and visitors to Summerside over the years. As a crucial navigation beacon, the light contributed to the development of the local shipping industry.

Source: City of Summerside, Heritage Property Profile

The heritage value of the Summerside Back Range Light is shown in these character-defining elements:

- the square tapered pyramidal wooden tower sheathed in wooden shingles and painted white with a red painted lantern casing and door

- the 19.7 metre height from base to vane

- three vertically alligned windows on the west elevation

- a red stripe running from the lantern platform to the bottom of the second window

- the lantern platform protruding from the base of the lantern

- the lantern

- the continued use of the building as an aid to navigation (uninterrupted line of sight out to the end of railway wharf)