{"nrhp_refnum":"04001441","name":"LILAC, United States Lighthouse Tender","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Pier 40","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.732781930000044,"lon":-74.01229439999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-01-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Maritime History","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"LILAC is a steel-hulled, steam-powered lighthouse tender built in 1933 by the Pusey & Jones shipyard of Wilmington, Delaware. She is moored at Pier 40 on the west side of Manhattan, New York City.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that LILAC has national significance as the last unaltered steam-propelled, steam-hoisting lighthouse tender designed for open-sea and sound work. She is also the last surviving vessel of her type operated by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, and she was the last steam lighthouse tender in service when retired in 1972. Her design reflects the specialized work of servicing buoys, lightships and lighthouses.","narrative":"LILAC is a 174-foot steel lighthouse tender completed in 1933 by Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware, and now berthed at Pier 40 on Manhattan's west side. She was designed for servicing buoys, lightships and isolated lighthouses. Her stable hull, shallow draft, high bow, wide wheelhouse, and heavy steam hoisting gear could lift buoys weighing up to 14 tons. Twin triple-expansion steam engines and two oil-fired boilers drove her. Her riveted construction, galley, mess rooms, crew quarters and the captain's stateroom largely survive. She served the U.S. Lighthouse Service and later the Coast Guard, including wartime port security duty and response to tanker collisions and fires on the Delaware. She was decommissioned in 1972, then used as a union training facility and later as scrap-yard offices in Virginia. A non-profit group bought her in 2003 and brought her to New York. She is considered nationally significant as the last unaltered steam lighthouse tender of her kind.","period_of_significance":"1932-1933","architect_builder":"Pusey & Jones shipyard, Wilmington, DE","architectural_style":"OTHER: lighthouse tender","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Owned by a non-profit preservation group, moored at Pier 40 in Manhattan, with renovation under way and a stated aim of returning her to steaming operation as an educational exhibit.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.853572-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/04001441.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001441/405f215022-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001441/405f215022-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Jim.henderson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lilac_n_McKean_Pier_40_jeh.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jim.henderson</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lilac_n_McKean_Pier_40_jeh.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319696","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Lilac","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6547498"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/lilac-united-states-lighthouse-tender-04001441/"}