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Tender Mercies

Historic Vessel Flowers Into Second Life as a Floating Museum

In May 2023, Lilac returned to Pier 25 (with help from Miller's Launch tugs) after being refurbished at Caddell Dry Dock and Repair on Staten Island. Photo by Richard Paterson

Amid a local landscape dotted by cultural institutions subterranean (the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum) and minutely specialized (the Skyscraper Museum), there is only one that can make a literal claim to buoyancy: the Lilac. Moored at Pier 25 in the Hudson River Park (near Harrison Street) and open free to the public, this museum ship is a retired Coast Guard vessel that carried supplies to lighthouses and maintained buoys from 1933 to 1972. America’s only surviving steam-powered lighthouse tender, she is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I got involved with Lilac after spending several years as an independent preservation advocate, seeking to preserve former industrial sites like the Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn,” says ship director Mary Habstritt (at right in white cap, describing the role of a lighthouse tender to PS 234 students). She and her former partner Gerry Weinstein founded the Lilac Preservation Project in 2003 to save the vessel. “We operate on a shoestring and do a lot. We get wonderful young volunteers from local high schools, like Stuyvesant, and several have been promoted to part-time supervisory crewmembers and more than one has gone on to a career in the maritime field.”

“We explain the critical infrastructure of lighthouses, buoys and other aids to navigation to visitors to whom it is unseen,” she adds. “In a city of islands, it is surprising how few people know what a buoy looks like, or how important it is to keeping waterborne commerce moving.”

Walk up the gangplank. Clamber around the boat. Take the helm in the wheelhouse.

The ongoing restoration project is transforming Lilac into a venue for exhibits, maritime education, and community activities. During this metamorphosis, the historic vessel is open free to the public from 2pm to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays (weather permitting), and for special events through the end of October. Among these are an exhibit, “Beacons of the Delaware,” opening August 3, which will feature histories of the lighthouses tended by Lilac during her decades of service. The exhibition is timed to coincide with Coast Guard Day on August 4 and National Lighthouse Day on August 7.

Matthew Fenton

How Things Oughta Be

Community Board 1 Asks Lower Manhattan Residents to Share Priorities

The root level of government and the front lines of representation in New York City are the 59 community boards spread throughout the five boroughs. Serving Lower Manhattan, Community Board 1, is inviting residents to share opinions on the community’s most pressing needs. The results will inform the Board’s annual list of budget requests for the City’s next fiscal year. To help rank Lower Manhattan’s most urgent priorities, go to the CB1 survey here.

Read the full story here.

That Old Block Magic

Eight Years On, a Lower Manhattan Rite of Autumn Returns

Planning for the reboot of the Battery Park City Block Party, which originally was produced every September from 2002 through 2016, has kicked into high gear. Rosalie Joseph, a longtime local resident, is chairing the committee of volunteers who are joining forces to launch the Block Party 2.0. Ms. Joseph, who oversaw the original version of the event in partnership with the late community leader Anthony Notaro, says, “everything is coming together, and this year’s event is shaping up to be the best ever.” Read more...

DOWNTOWN CALENDAR

Thursday, August 1

8am-3pm

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Foot of Broadway

1pm-3pm

Craft Studio

200 Rector Place

Craft sessions for seniors. Free.

6pm

Fresh Prints

South Street Seaport Museum, Bowne & Co., 209 Water Street

This open house will feature printing equipment that participants can use. Established in 1775, the original Bowne & Co., Inc. was one of New York’s oldest printing firms. Today’s Bowne & Co. continues the age-old tradition of job (or small batch) printing. Advanced registration is encouraged but walkups will be accommodated as possible. Ages 12 and up. Free.

6:30pm

River & Blues: Abraham Alexander

Rockefeller Park

World-class blues-inspired music. Free.

6:30pm

Liars

McNally Jackson, 4 Fulton Street

Book reading. Sarah Manguso presents Liars, in conversation with Lyz Lenz. When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. But Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims, and ego, and as her career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage.

7pm

Film Screening: The House On Wannsee Street

Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place

When award-winning Argentinean filmmaker Poli Martínez Kaplun decided to dig into her family history, she found long-forgotten images of her great grandfather, who she learned was a German-Jewish philosopher persecuted by the Nazis. To save his family from the concentration camps, he was forced to flee Berlin and moved to Egypt, then Switzerland, and finally Argentina, where his family hid their Jewish identity. Poignant questions of identity, resilience, compassion, and the plight of displaced persons are brought to life. $10 suggested donation.

Friday, August 2

10:30am

Zumba

Irish Hunger Memorial Plaza

Easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography. Free.

5:30pm

Battle of the Bands

Irish Hunger Memorial Plaza

Youth bands will showcase their set to be judged by industry professionals for a chance to win prizes.

2022 photograph © Robert Simko.

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