If you are near New York City over the Memorial Day Weekend, be sure to stop by the Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 to help celebrate the 86th birthday of the USCG lighthouse/buoy tender Lilac. The historic cutter will be opening for the summer season on Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26 from 2:00 until 6:00 PM. Birthday cake will be served to all visitors.
Lilac will also be staying open late for a special reception Sunday evening. The reception will celebrate the start of the season, the cutter’s birthday and the opening of a new exhibition of photos by Jean Miele. (Read more below.) The reception is also a celebration of our country’s Sea Services during Fleet Week New York.
There will be a cash bar and a drawing for $100 gift certificate from at Montauk Distilling Co. Members of the Coast Guard, Navy and Marines receive one complimentary drink. This reception is free and open to the public but guests must be 21 years of age or older. All proceeds go to Lilac‘s restoration and educational and cultural programs.
The Lilac’s first exhibit of the season is “Reflections on New York City’s 20th-Century Seafaring History — Photos by Jean Miele“, a collection of gritty photographs documenting our maritime heritage through the objects and vessels that survive. Photographer Jean Miele, a third-generation Brooklynite, is a commercial and fine-art photographer. He says of these photos, “As New York is surrounded by water, so are we all surrounded by the virtually invisible remnants of our own history. If you listen carefully, these images will whisper to you. Their stories will transport you to another world as surely as a time machine. Their fragile presence, and the ongoing disappearance of their kind, begs the question: ‘What became of the people who forged these ships and shipyards – who left work one day, never to return?'” For more on Jean and his photos, click here.
The USCGC Lilac (WAGL/WLM-227) is a former Coast Guard lighthouse tender located in New York City. The Lilac is America’s only surviving steam-powered lighthouse tender. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2005. She is a museum ship, docked at Pier 25, near North Moore Street in Manhattan.