*I came across the Little Red Lighthouse when I was touring Fort Washington Park one afternoon on the walk and did not realize how famous this landmark was in literature. It was part of the book, “The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge”. It is a small landmark but on a nice day it offers great views of the river and the surrounding park.
The Little Red Lighthouse & Fort Washington Park (Text is part of the Historical Signs Project).
The Little Red Lighthouse stopped being used as a functional lighthouse long ago but over the years this 40-foot-high structure has become a beacon of another kind. Located underneath the George Washington Bridge along this treacherous section of the Hudson River once known as Jeffrey’s Hook, this is one of the few surviving lighthouses in New York City and serves as a quaint reminder of the area’s history.
Long ago, Native Americans known locally as the Wiechquaesgeck-part of the Lenape tribe-inhabited much of upper Manhattan and eastern New Jersey. The Wiechquaesgeck and later the Dutch and English colonists, fished and hunted along the banks of the Hudson River. The Hudson was also an important route for travel, connecting upstate cities such as Albany to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean. As traffic increased along the river, so did the number of shipwrecks at Jeffery’s Hook. In an attempt to reduce the accidents, a red pole was placed at Jeffrey’s Hook jutting out over the river to warn travelers of danger. In 1889, two 10-candlepower lanterns were placed on the pole to aid navigation. Much of the land surrounding the lighthouse, including the riverbanks of Jeffery’s Hook was acquired by the City in 1896 and became known as Fort Washington Park.
In the early 20th Century, barge captains carrying goods up and down the Hudson demanded a brighter beacon. The Little Red Lighthouse had been erected at Sandy Hooks, New Jersey in 1880 where it used a 1,000 pound fog signal and flashing red light to guide ships through the night. It became obsolete and was dismantled in 1917. In 1921, the U.S. Coast Guard reconstructed this lighthouse on Jeffrey’s Hook in an attempt to improve navigational aids on the Hudson River. Run by a part-time keeper and furnished with a battery-powered lamp and a fog bell, the lighthouse, then known as Jeffery’s Hook Lighthouse was an important guide to river travelers for ten years. The George Washington Bridge opened in 1931 and the brighter lights of the bridge again made the lighthouse obsolete. In 1948, the Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse and its lamp was extinguished.
The Coast Guard planned to auction off the lighthouse but an outpouring of support fro the beacon helped save it. The outcry from the public was prompted by the children’s book, ‘The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great gray Bridge’, written by Hildegarde Swift and Lynd Ward in 1942. In the popular book, the Little Red Lighthouse is happy and content until a great bridge is built over it. In the end, the lighthouse learns that it still has an important job to do and that there is still a place in the world for an old lighthouse. The classic tale captured the imaginations of children and adults, many of whom wrote letters and sent money to help save the icon from the auction block.
On July 23, 1951, the Coast Guard gave the property to Parks and on May 29, 1979, the Little Red Lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historical Places. It did not receive much attention over the years until City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin worked with Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern to find funding for its restoration. In 1986, Parks hosted a party in honor of the lighthouse’s 65 anniversary and to celebrate a $209,000 renovation of the lighthouse that included reconstruction of the concrete foundation and the installation of new steel doors. In the year 2000, the lighthouse received a fresh coast of red paint that is true to its original, historic color along with new interior lighting and electric lines. Today the Little Red Lighthouse remains a stalwart symbol of the area’s heritage, lighting the way into the city’s past.
The Little Red Lighthouse is owned by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and is a member of the Historic House Trust of New York City.
*This information comes off the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation website. I would advise because of the isolated location of the lighthouse in the park to visit at daylight hours.
The front of the Hispanic Society of America at 613 West 155th Street
I visited the Hispanic Society of America in 2025 to see the new exhibition “A Room of Her Own”, where I saw where women made their homes their domain. In the exhibition, I saw how women made rooms in their homes their place of business, rest and socialization. They bought and designed these rooms with the most beautiful, tasteful and costly items that they could afford to show their taste and design. It showed how female Hispanic Society carved a place for themselves in a male dominated society. The elaborate objects showed the taste and the creativity of the artists themselves. It was a very unique exhibition.
The exhibition explores the rich history of the estrado—a woman’s private drawing room found in early modern Spain and the Spanish Americas—and illuminates the estrado’s long-overlooked role in female agency, social practices, and intercultural exchange. A Room of Her Own features decorative objects, paintings, textiles, rare books, and engravings from the Hispanic Society’s unrivaled collection, with many works on view for the first time (museum website).
The items from “A Room of Her Own” that would have decorated their homes
This landmark exhibition traces the evolution of the sala de estrado from Islamic al-Andalus to the Americas, where it flourished until the collapse of the Spanish Empire. Described in the Diccionario de Autoridades (Madrid, 1732) as the “set of furniture used to cover and decorate the place or room where the ladies sit to receive visitors,” the estrado was a room or designated area where women engaged in elaborate social practices and displayed their collections of valuable objects from the Americas, Asia, and Europe (Museum website).
Some of the beautiful decorative items from the exhibition
The well-appointed estrado has long been a focal point of opulence and intrigue in traveler accounts, inventories, legal records and works of fiction. Designed for upper-class interiors and inhabited by elite women of European, Indigenous American and West African descent, the estrado paradoxically becomes a locus of female agency and subversion within a place of confinement. The exhibition engages a comprehensive array of archival sources and objects to question the values historically imposed on gender stereotypes and behaviors and highlights the estrado’s importance as a symbol of power, wealth, and virtue (Museum website).
The history of the Museum:
(From the Museum website)
The Hispanic Society of America was founded as a free museum and research library in 1904 by the American Scholar and philanthropist Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955). Over the past century, the Hispanic Society has promoted the study of the rich artistic and cultural traditions of Spain and Portugal and their areas of influence in the Americas and throughout the world. The Museum and Library constitute the most extensive collection of Hispanic art and literature outside of Spain and Latin America.
The main gallery of the Hispanic Society of America
Archer Huntington’s fascination with Spanish culture started at the age of twelve; by fourteen he had begun to study the Spanish language and by nineteen he revealed his aspiration to found a “Spanish Museum”. As Huntington’s enthusiasm grew he became increasingly committed to the creation of an institution that would encompass all facets of Hispanic culture. Working toward this goal, Huntington began his collection with Spanish rare books and manuscripts; then decorative arts; followed by paintings and sculpture-all of which now fill the galleries of The Hispanic Society of America.
The Catholic symbols and artifacts and artwork of the Hispanic Society of America
Today the Hispanic Society Museum and Library builds upon the legacy of Huntington through an active acquisitions program as well as public programs that reach out to new audiences through collaborative exhibitions, educations, and publications.
Portrait of the Dutchess of Alba by Goya
The Hispanic Society is especially rich in paintings, drawings and prints by Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), one of the most inventive artists of his time. Goya’s iconic 1797 Portrait of the Duchess of Alba dressed in black as a Spanish maja, is the most renowned painting in the collection.
Paintings:
(from the Museum website)
The Museum offers a panoramic survey of Spanish painting and drawing dating from the Middle Ages up to the early 20th century with particular strengths in the Golden Age (1550-1700) and the 19th century. Notable among 16th century paintings are the Portrait of the Duke of Alba by Antonis Mor (1516/19-1576) and the Holy Family by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614).
Three portraits by Spain’s preeminent master, Diego Vaelazquez (1599-1660), represent the heights of Spanish painting in the 17th century: Gaspar de Guzman, Conde-Duque de Olivares; Portrait of a Little Girl and Camillo Astalli, Cardinal Pamphili. The collection also includes works by other acknowledged masters of the period, such as Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652), Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664) and Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682).
The gallery of Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida’s “Vision of Spain”
“The Vision of Spain” gallery painting
The “Vision of Spain” painting
The sign explaining the artwork
The “Festival of Bread” painting as part of the display
Among the most popular works at the Hispanic Society are those by Spain’s “painter of light” Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1919), present a celebration of regional costumes and cultures that surround the visitor with the artist’s “vision of Spain”. The Museum also possesses an outstanding selection of works by late 19th and early 20th century artists.
The painting a “Day in Seville” as part of the display
The “Holy Week Penitents” in the display
The sign for “Holy Week Penitents”, people who admit to their sins and wrongdoings
Decorative Arts:
(from the Museum website)
The Hispanic Society is renowned for its decorative arts from Spain, Portugal, Latin America, the Philippines and Portuguese India. Ceramics represent one of the most significant facets of the collection, ranging from three-thousand-year old Bell-Beaker pottery to contemporary works. The collection of Spanish lusterware, numbering over 150 pieces, is considered the finest in the United States. This distinctly Spanish style of ceramics flourished between the 15th and 17th centuries as artisans combined Islamic and Western traditions to produce objects of incomparable beauty. Important examples of decorative and utilitarian earthenware and soft-paste porcelain from various workshops complete the collection-including works from Talavera de la Reina, Alcora and Buen Retiro in Spain and Puebla de lost Angeles and Tonala in Mexico.
The decorative items in the collection
Other decorative arts include silver, glassware, secular and ecclesiastical furniture, decorative ironwork and textiles dating from between the 15th and 19thy centuries. The processional custodia by Cristobal Beceril (1533-1585) is one of the highlights of the magnificent collection of Spanish and Latin American gold and silver ars sacra and jewelry. Textiles in the collection range from luxurious silks of medieval Islamic Spain to domestic needlework of the early 20th century. Hispano-Muslim textiles include fine gold, silk, and satin brocades from the 13th through the 15th century. An exquisite ‘Alhambra silk” (ca. 1400) from Granada recalls the repeating geometrical pattern and Kufic inscriptions which decorate the famous Alhambra palace.
Archaeology:
(from the Museum website)
Huntington’s fascination with the ancient past of the Hispanic world led him to sponsor significant archaeological expeditions and excavations in Spain and the Americas. He conducted excavations in 1898 near Seville at the site of the Roman City of Italica, birthplace of the emperors Hadrian and Trajan. Through these excavations and subsequent acquisitions, the Hispanic Society has been able to assemble the most important collection of Spanish antiquities outside Spain. This wealth of objects from Spain’s Bronze Age to the period of Roman rule features works from Ibero-Phoenician, Greek and Celtiberian cultures in addition to the extensive collection of Roman ceramics, glass, metalwork, mosaics and statuary.
Sculpture:
(from the Museum website)
In addition to Ancient and Classical sculpture, the Hispanic Society collection contains extraordinary Islamic and Christian works dating from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. A cylindrical ivory box signed by the Islamic master Khalaf (ca. 966) at the Umayyad court at Madinat al-Zahra stands out for the beauty of its intricate carving. Supreme examples of the heights which Spanish sculpture reached in the 16th century are found in the Gothic and Renaissance tombs of the Bishop of Palencia and the Duchess of Albuquerque from the monastery of San Francisco de Cuellar, along with the two magnificent effigies of Suero de Quinones and Elvria de Zuniga by Leone and Pompeo Leoni.
The Hispanic Society of America has some interesting pieces of art
Pedro de Mena’s haunting representation of the young Saint Acisclus, patron saint of Cordoba, stands out as one of the finest examples of 17th century Spanish polychrome sculpture of her era, are rich in exquisite detail. An impressive ensemble of monumental sculpture also graces Audubon Terrace with the iconic equestrian statute of El Cid and limestone reliefs of Don Quixote and Boabdil, all by noted American sculptor, Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973).
Library:
(from the Museum website)
With more than 600,000 books, manuscripts, documents and letters dating from the 10th century to the present day, the Library of the Hispanic Society offers unparalleled resources for researchers interested in the history and culture of the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds. The manuscripts and rare books section comprises over 15,000 books printed before 1701 including some 250 incunabula (books printed before 1500) as well as first editions of the most significant literary works in the Spanish language such as Tirant lo Blanc, Celestina and Don Quixote.
The collection of Hispanic manuscripts, extraordinary rich in material and scope is the most extensive outside Spain. It encompasses medieval charters, holograph royal letters, sailing charts, illuminated bibles and books of hours as well as historical and literary manuscripts from the 10th to the 20th century.
The library’s invaluable holdings from the America’s include some of the earliest books printed in Mexico, Peru, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. First editions of works by many of Latin America’s greatest writers, such as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, form an integral part of the collection. The library also conserves one of the largest and most important collections in the United States of historical manuscripts and documents pertaining to Latin America and the Philippines from the 16th through 19th century.
Prints & Photographs:
(from the Museum website)
Over 15,000 prints afford a unique glimpse of the graphic arts in Spain. The collection contains incomparable engravings by 17th-century artists such as Ribera, yet its greatest strengths are in the 18th and 19th centuries including almost all of Goya’s prints, many in multiple editions. The department also has an extraordinary assemblage of illustrations of Don Quixote, totaling more than 4000 engravings, etchings and lithographs.
The section of photographs holds over 176,000 black and white images documenting life and customs in the Hispanic world. Many of these images now preserve a way of life irrevocably lost. Among the most notable and rarest are those from the 19th century but the department also features more than 15,000 photographs made by Hispanic Society curators and staff who traveled throughout Spain and Latin America in the 1920’s.
Publications, Group Visits & Education:
(from the museum website)
For over a century, the Hispanic Society has maintained an active publication program. Books and other publications relating to the collections as well as postcards, note cards and posters are available from the Museum bookstore.
The Hispanic Society is dedicated to educational programs for students of all ages. The education department provides gallery talks, group tours and activities and materials for educators.
The Hispanic Society gift shop
For further information on current programs, group tours, special events and on becoming a member of The Friends of the Hispanic Society visit our website, hispanicsociety.org or call (212) 926-2234.
(This information is taken from the Hispanic Society of America’ brochure)
Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical 