6

Map of Lighthouse Park from 1973 lease.
1970
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

7

Phyl Munday Nature House and Native Plant Garden.
2003
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

8

The park is also used for school outings, summer day camp groups and the Girl Guides. The Guides have set up one of the former army barracks as a "Nature Hut" to present displays to educate young people about the flora and fauna of the southwest coast of British Columbia. The Phyl Munday Nature Hut is open to the public some Sundays and has a Native Plant Garden behind the building to provide examples of local flora.

9

The interior of the Phyl Munday Nature House
2003
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

10

Garden at Phyl Munday Nature House.
2003
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Credits:
Courtesy of the Phyl Munday Nature House Committee.

11

Plaque indicating Point Atkinson Lighthouse is a National Historic Site.
2004
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


12

National Historic site

In 1994, Point Atkinson Lighthouse was declared a national historic site. The light tower was considered significant because it was the first building in the port and is a good example of buildings designed by William P. Anderson, the Chief Engineer at the Department of Marine. Anderson was known for talent in designing reinforced concrete buildings. Among its aesthetic qualities were "the incised lines of the ribbed buttresses [that] provide a clean and uncluttered look to these towers. Continued reliance on pure functionality suggests the ascendancy of new design influences at this time…echoing Le Corbusier's 'purist sensibility'" of modernism. In addition to its historic and aesthetic qualities, its accessibility to the public and prominent place at the entrance to the port of Vancouver made it important to Canada's heritage.

13

Inside of invitation to ceremony to designate Point Atkinson Lighthouse a National Historic Site.
1994
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


14

On September 18th, 1994, a ceremony was held to designate the Point Atkinson Lighthouse a National Historic Site. The ceremony included presentations by:
· Dr. Charles Humphries, BC Member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada,
· Mark Sager, Mayor of West Vancouver,
· Don Graham, Assistant Light Keeper at Point Atkinson,
· Bill Dancer, Director General of the Western Region of the Coast Guard,
· Bob Robertson, Director, BC District, Pacific and Yukon Region, Canadian Heritage, and,
· Anna Terrana, Member of Parliament for East Vancouver.

15

Automation

Designation as a National Historic Site did not spare Point Atkinson Lighthouse and its light keepers from automation. Despite protests of the light keepers, petitions from supporters and local residents, and reports from district government, the Federal Ministry of Transportation implemented cost-saving measures to automate British Columbia lighthouses in 1996. The last light keepers at Point Atkinson, Garry Watson and Don Graham, worked their final day on May 31, 1996.

Note the new, smaller light in the tower in the automated lighthouse.

16

Point Atkinson Lighthouse
September, 2004
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

17

Don Graham on steps to Lighthouse.
2000
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Credits:
Courtesy of Elaine Graham.

18

This exhibition is dedicated to Don Graham who passed away in 2003. He devoted much of his life to lighthouses and was an enthusiastic historian of the lights of the British Columbia Coast. He was an ardent advocate of light keepers and their livelihoods.

19

Don Graham with two books he wrote about Britrish Columbia's lighthouses
July, 2004
Point Atkinson, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada