A dilapidated Port Dalhouise Lighthouse is in need of caring hands, so says St. Catherines, Ontario councilman Bruce Williams.

Williams says he would like to see a "Friends" group formed to restore and maintain the beacons, which officially became listed as Canadian National Historic Sites last year.

"They are romantic structures," said Williams, whose grandparents were lighthouse keepers at Port Weller.

"They are probably the most visual reminders of this part of this major transportation system, The Welland Canal," said Arden Phair, curator of the St. Catherines Museum.

Both lighthouses were tended by a keeper until they were automated in 1968. The outer lighthouse was built in 1879, and the inner light was built in 1898, replacing a 1893 lighthouse that had been destroyed by fire.