On Wednesday, November 12, Lilac Preservation Project will host its first fundraiser at Cercle Rouge Restaurant in Tribeca. The organization is celebrating a record-breaking year of attendance at its public arts and education programs on board the lighthouse tender Lilac at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25.
Lilac Preservation Project’s Museum Director and President, Mary Habstritt will announce plans for 2015, including launch of a capital campaign to restore the steam boilers and overhaul the ship’s systems to operate as a sustainable seafaring vessel.
Habstritt says, “Historic ships, like Lilac, play an important role in waterfront education and revealing the value of skilled maritime trades. Our efforts to restore Lilac’s steam boilers will put a rare ship back into operation and showcase steam propulsion as a valuable and under-recognized energy system.”
The fundraiser will be a cocktail reception at Cercle Rouge restaurant, within view of the ship at 241 W. Broadway. A silent auction includes one 14-pound chocolate turkey donated by Li-Lac Chocolates, one naval pea coat donated by Schott NYC, one 1882 print of John Stobart’s “Maiden Lane by Gaslight from a Ship at Pier 19” privately donated, and one harbor cruise donated by Tribeca Sailing, among other exciting items. Tickets are available at $50 and $100 levels and may be purchased online at www.lilacpreservationproject.org.
Lilac is America’s only surviving steam-powered lighthouse tender. The U. S. Coast Guard Cutter Lilac was built in 1933, supplying lighthouses and maintaining buoys for forty years on the Delaware River until she was retired in 1972.
This unique ship, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and eligible to be a National Historic Landmark, is open to the public as a free museum from May to October at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25.
Founded in 2003, the 501c3 not-for-profit Lilac Preservation Program plans to overhaul the ship and restore the steam boilers, with a mission to preserve stories of the working waterfront, and help prepare for a sustainable future using steam technology. More information may be found at www.lilacpreservationproject.org.
Photo: Lilac from above, shortly after Hurricane Sandy by Milo Hess.
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