fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Going with the flow

by Megan Labrise
March 3, 2012
in Uncategorized
0
Photo by Dion Ogust
There are nearby places where the elements converge: earth, water, air and fire — or light, if you will. They are Hudson River lighthouses, established in the 1800s to guide ships and schooners safely to port in our riverfront towns, warning of shoreline curves and shallow depths, saving sailors from sinking crafts or running aground. The 1950s innovation of automated beacons extinguished the need for their keepers — the hardy men and women who performed domestic duties and heroic rescues around their remote residences — and the lighthouses cracked, decayed, rotted through. These symbols of salvation were now what needed saving.

Some communities rose to the challenge, fiercely fighting to protect the history and functionality of the lighthouses for future generations to understand and enjoy. They are keepers of the faith.

Midway between shores at Ulster Park, the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse gleams bright white on a sunny day. It is the sole surviving wooden lighthouse on the Hudson, the legacy of a bright, tenacious woman named Arline Fitzpatrick and a core group of dedicated volunteers known as the Save Esopus Lighthouse Commission (SELC).

As a young girl, Fitzpatrick spent summers with her beloved aunt Elsie “Ellie” Resendes, who worked alongside keeper husband Manny. When Fitzpatrick returned to the area in the early 1980s as a sexagenarian, “she was so upset to see the lighthouse in such ruinous condition,” said friend and Esopus Lighthouse Commission historian Pat Ralston. The U.S. Coast Guard had closed the lighthouse on August 25, 1965, boarding the windows and leaving it to its fate.

Brambles and fish bones covered the deck. The tower had cracked. Water pushed through, completely rotting floor sections and walls. The building was filled with branches, and had been victimized by vandals.

Fitzpatrick made it her mission to save the lighthouse. In 1979, the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. SELC formed in 1990, under her leadership, and leased the lighthouse from the Coast Guard so restoration could begin. The all-volunteer group secured funds and donations for a new roof, replaced picture windows and repaired the tower.

“It’s a very emotional thing with this lighthouse. We feel very protective of her. Arline Fitzpatrick said, ‘Take care of my baby,’ so we’ve done that. But she gave us a lighthouse to save. She repaired the roof; she put the windows back. She’s the one who saved the lighthouse. We just continued what she started,” said Ralston, who joined SELC in 1997.

In 2000, the house was girdled by turnbuckles and stabilized with massive I-beams. An Italian master plasterer rehabilitated the inner walls that volunteers and transition teams painted. The work continues: just last week, master craftsmen from Stanford Enterprises of Stanfordville, New York installed a custom banister on the restored main staircase.

Ralston, husband John, and daughter and current SELC director Barbara Ralston visit frequently by boat and barge to continue the work.

“We’ve had some rough days out here but the river has many faces. It has happy faces, it has angry faces, and it has calm faces. We love them all. Every day on the river is a treat. People say, ‘It’s boring.’ ‘How could you stand to go up and down for fourteen years?’ We love it. You come out here and it’s peaceful and just fabulous,” said Ralston.

One of SELC’s greatest achievements came on May 31, 2003, when, after nearly four decades of absence, a new light was installed in the tower. Maintained by the Coast Guard, it is an official, functional navigational aid. A second milestone was reached in 2010, as the first season of guided lighthouse tours performed by volunteer docents set sail from Kingston’s docks on the Rondout.

“It was extremely successful,” said Barbara Ralston. “We were so pleased with the response that we had from the public, and everybody who came out here said, ‘Wow, can we move in?’ That was always the response.”

Future plans include turning the lighthouse into a weekend bed-and-breakfast. A keeper will once again live on the premises, maintaining two rental rooms upstairs. The view from their windows is the same gentle waves, green shore and blue sky that greeted all of the lighthouse’s inhabitants.

“I want visitors to take a walk through history, to see what it was like to live back then,” said Pat Ralston. “Life may have seemed tough, but it was an easier life. Today, things are so rush-rush-rush. You come to the lighthouse, it’s tranquil, it’s peaceful. You listen to the lapping of the waves. The birds fly over. You don’t have a phone ringing in your ear.”

Page 1 of 3
123Next
Tags: esopushudsonlighthouserondout
Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Good stuff already popping up at South Pine Street City Farm

Next Post

Catch Irish traditional music superstars Hayes and Cahill in Red Hook

Megan Labrise

Related Posts

Letters to the editor (2/23/22)
Uncategorized

Letters to the editor (2/23/22)

March 8, 2022
Halloween was a real treat and at its peak in New Paltz
Uncategorized

Halloween was a real treat and at its peak in New Paltz

November 3, 2021
How Saugerties streets got their names, part II
Uncategorized

Town of Saugerties sets 7 p.m. Halloween curfew

October 28, 2021
Donna Smith to replace Jewell Turner as Gardiner’s deputy town clerk
Uncategorized

Gardiner bridge closing for $393,575 replacement

October 22, 2021
This week in sports (6/23/21)
Uncategorized

New Paltz Karate Academy’s Shiai

June 23, 2021
Woodstock Library funding proposal goes to voters November 3
Uncategorized

Woodstock Library officials discuss next steps for the library

May 24, 2021
Next Post

Catch Irish traditional music superstars Hayes and Cahill in Red Hook

Trending News

  • Bubbe’s Deli opens in Gardiner’s former Mountain Harbor 1.3k views
  • Woodstock Library bond passes 1k views
  • Saugertes man faces multiple charges after domestic disturbance 893 views
  • The moon is down in Central Hudson 572 views
  • Woodstock club can open its beer garden, but without musical amplification 404 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
61°
Partly Cloudy
5:34am8:10pm EDT
Feels like: 61°F
Wind: 0mph NNE
Humidity: 100%
Pressure: 29.76"Hg
UV index: 0
TueWedThu
72/46°F
73/48°F
73/54°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Login

© 2022 Ulster Publishing