PAINTING WITH WORDS

I've run past it more times than I can count. I've known about its historic landmark status for years now. And while the little door at the bottom is so plainly visible, I'd never been inside. 

Formally it's the Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse, but it's more affectionately known as The Little Red Lighthouse. This forty-foot-tall cast-iron lighthouse began its life in Sandy Hook, New Jersey in 1880. With its vibrant red exterior and 1,000-pound fog bell and flashing red light, it was a beacon in the night guiding many ships to safety in Sandy Hook Bay just south of New York City. After becoming obsolete in 1917, it was relocated up the Hudson River to its new resting location in Washington Heights, providing safety to large ships navigating the narrows of the mighty Hudson. But just six years later the lighthouse's fate would be in question again as ground was broken on September 21, 1927, for the George Washington Bridge. With such a large structure looming overhead, surely the lighthouse wouldn't be necessary.

By 1948 it sat decommissioned, unlit, and lonely.

Enter author Hildegarde Swift and artist Lynd Ward. Watching the construction of the bridge over the lighthouse, Swift and Ward decided to breathe life into the lighthouse by creating an illustrated children's book: The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. The book humanized that cast-iron structure, imbuing it with personality, all the while forming a bond with every child who read it. So, when the lighthouse was slated to be sold at auction in 1951, who stepped forward to save it? Those children. Coins and dollars were sent in from all over America, saving the lighthouse - where it's remained ever since. 

I've thought of those children and their crusade to save the Little Red Lighthouse every time I've run past. But would I ever be granted the opportunity to venture inside its historic iron walls?

As it turns out: YES! 

The New York Parks Department offers tours of the lighthouse every once in a great while, and last week I had the great fortune to attend one. It's hard to describe the giddy joy I experienced as the park ranger pulled out the gold, ornate skeleton key. One by one, the small group of us climbed through the iron door and began the forty-foot climb up the interior spiral staircase. With a quick bear-crawl moment through another door at the top, there we stood with fresh perspective: looming above us was that great gray bridge, and to the south was the wooded tree line of Fort Washington Park and the brilliant skyline of NYC. As I stood at the iron railing looking out over this epic scene, I sent up a quick thank you to those two artists who, with their pen and paintbrush, had used their artistry to inadvertently save this structure. Eighty-two years later, thanks to them, it's still standing - affording me a new, unique view of the city I love with all my heart. 

I can't help but connect these moments that feel far removed from my Broadway-centric life, back to those blocks that surround Times Square. I'm hard at work creating a new interior tour of a theater that's been part of the fabric of Broadway for over 120 years. I've walked past it tens of thousands of times over my twenty-one years in this city, but had rarely ventured inside. As I've recently dug into its humans, histories, and stories through the decades, I've been overcome with a sense of immense responsibility. Like those two artists, as I share this theater's tales, can I imbue this brick structure with enough humanity to bring it to life before our tour-goer's eyes? I might not have a pen or paintbrush like those artists, but I do have my voice.

I paint with words to provide fresh prospectives of the hallowed halls of Broadway.

It's a responsibility that I don't take lightly. And while I can't yet reveal which theater has been occupying my every waking moment over the past few months of my life, I can tell you that this theater was also saved by children just like that little red lighthouse. A perfect parallel to my recent uptown adventures! 

I can't wait to show you the "painting" I'm creating...soon.