Coal Dock at Rockwood Asylum

The Rockwood Asylum complex is notorious and now vacant - more likely to be used as a movie set than anything else. Yet the provincial government continues its upkeep and security patrols, mostly to keep urbex bandidos out, not the spirits within. The circa 1920 aerial view (top photo) clearly shows a dock along the Lake Ontario shoreline. It's just visible at left of this calm-water reflection shot (below) from Archives of Ontario. It appears there was a coal-fired boiler associated with that brick smokestack. It's easy to imagine a coal boat unloading its cargo onto the dock.

Plans were announced to rebuild and enlarge the dock as early as 1953 (Whig photo):

It was completely filled-in (below-SkEye Stream photo) to hold more coal. The dock was equipped with bollards and other associated docking equipment: tires, cables and davits for a small boat on the eastern side of the dock. These were all on the site until recently. 

The davits, with custom-cut steel bases and no identifying marks visible, are now down and likely headed for scrap:

The coal dock was originally built in 1878 to supply heating coal to the asylum, which later became known as Kingston Psychiatric Hospital. The concrete capped wharf with steel sheet pile walls became a popular place for swimming once its use as a coal dock ended, but it has been crumbling over the decades. It was closed for safety reasons in March 2011. The dock likely has contaminants due to the historic nature of coal storage in the area.

The site was used as a parking lot until a couple of years ago, when it was fenced and posted. Now a Doornekamp wheeled excavator is parked there, having cleaned away all the junk that littered the site and scraped it clean. 

The dock was a federal property until last year when Doornekamp Construction purchased it with the understanding that the dock would remain a marine asset.  :

Looking south-west, from the nearby Lake Ontario Park waterfront trail that reaches through the Rockwood property towards Portsmouth Olympic Harbour.

Currently sharing the site is the footbridge that forded another small dock-like inlet just west of the apartments on the Portsmouth Harbour western edges. The walkway is being upgraded and footbridge will likely be returned there after the work is complete.

Now...to find a photo of said coal boat disgorging its carboniferous cargo there! A blue tarped item appeared there at the end of August. Turns out the site will be a cruise ship dock as of 2022. Earlier plans included the Marine Museum and Queen Street areas for such a dock. This sign says otherwise; the letters wiill spell out the word Kingston: