Little Red Lighthouse

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Jeffrey's Hook Light
Little Red Lighthouse
Map
LocationFort Washington Park, Manhattan, United States Edit this at Wikidata
Coordinates40°51′01″N 73°56′49″W / 40.8503°N 73.9469°W / 40.8503; -73.9469
Tower
Constructed1921 Edit this on Wikidata
Constructionconcrete (foundation), cast iron (tower) Edit this on Wikidata
Height40 ft (12 m) Edit this on Wikidata
Shapeconical Edit this on Wikidata
Markingsred (tower), white (lantern) Edit this on Wikidata
HeritageNew York City Landmark, National Register of Historic Places listed place Edit this on Wikidata
Light
First lit2002 Edit this on Wikidata
Deactivated1947–2002
Lens12 inches (300 mm)
CharacteristicFl R 3s Edit this on Wikidata
Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse
Built1920
MPS
Hudson River Lighthouses TR
NRHP reference No.79003130[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPMay 29, 1979
Designated NYCLMay 14, 1991

The Little Red Lighthouse, officially Jeffrey's Hook Light, is a small

Fort Washington Park along the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York City, under the George Washington Bridge.[2][3][4] It was made notable by the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge, written by Hildegarde Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward
.

The lighthouse stands on Jeffrey's Hook, a small point of land that supports the base of the eastern pier of the bridge, which connects Washington Heights in Manhattan to Fort Lee, New Jersey.

History

The first attempt to reduce Hudson River traffic accidents at Jeffrey's Hook was a red pole that was hung out over the river.[5] A 10 candle-power light was added to the pole in 1889 to help alert the increasing river traffic to the spit of land at night. The land around Jeffrey's Hook was acquired by the city in 1896 and later became Fort Washington Park.[5]

The early structure was built as the North Hook Beacon at

Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where it stood until 1917, when it became obsolete.[5] It was reconstructed at its current location in 1921 by the United States Lighthouse Board as part of a project to improve Hudson River navigational aids, and originally had a battery-powered lamp and a fog bell. It was operated by a part-time lighthouse keeper.[5]

Construction on the George Washington Bridge, immediately above the lighthouse, started in 1927.[6] When George Washington Bridge was completed in 1931,[7] the lighthouse navigational light was considered obsolete,[8] so the Coast Guard decommissioned it, and put it out in 1948, with the intention of auctioning it off.[5] The proposed dismantling of it resulted in a public outcry, largely from children who were fans of the 1942 children's book, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.[9] This led the Coast Guard to sign its deed to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation on July 23, 1951.[5]

The lighthouse was listed on the

New York City Landmark in 1991.[5] In 2002, it was relit by the city.[4]

Access

Public access to the lighthouse is by the

West 158th Street or 151st Street.[11]

Tours of the lighthouse are given infrequently. They are arranged by the Parks Department's Urban Park Rangers, especially on the Little Red Lighthouse Festival day in late September and Open House New York day in October. The October Little Red Lighthouse Festivals in 2018 and 2019 were run by the organization Summer on the Hudson[12] in conjunction with the Riverside Park Conservancy[13] and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The festival was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it resumed in 2022.[14]

In other media

The lighthouse is an important setting in the final scenes for the 1948 film Force of Evil, and Jane Campion's neo-noir film In the Cut features the lighthouse as motif and as a filming location.[15]

See also

  • List of New York City Landmarks
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in New York County, New York

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 312.
  3. ^ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: New York". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Rowlett, Russ (December 28, 2009). "Lighthouses of the United States: Downstate New York". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Historic plaque on the lighthouse
  6. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  7. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved March 6, 2010.
  8. ISBN 978-0-19538-386-7
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1
    ., p.213
  10. ^ "Little Red Lighthouse" Archived 2010-12-30 at the Wayback Machine, Washington Heights & Inwood Online, NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation, August 2001, accessed February 27, 2012
  11. ^ Walsh, Kevin (January 16, 2018). "HERMAN "DENNY" FARRELL BRIDGE, Washington Heights". Forgotten New York. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  12. ^ "Summer on the Hudson". www.nycgovparks.org. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  13. ^ "The Riverside Park Conservancy". The Riverside Park Conservancy. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  14. ^ "Summer on the Hudson: Little Red Lighthouse Festival". www.nycgovparks.org. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Archived from the original on May 16, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  15. ISBN 9780813545547
    .
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