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The Little Red Lighthouse, Fort Washington Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America

The Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse, erected in 1880 and moved to its current site in 1921, has become widely known as the children's literary landmark, "The Little Red Lighthouse." The story of the lighthouse in Fort Washington Park was popularized by the children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, by Hildegarde H. Swift with illustrations by Lynd Ward, which was published in 1942; in this fictional account of the Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse, the structure was presented as a symbol of the significance of a small thing in a big world.

The lighthouse became a celebrated "child's landmark," representing importance and permanence, after the proposed removal of the lighthouse in 1951; the public outcry of children and their allies prompted the preservation of the structure through its transfer to the jurisdiction of the Department of Parks of the City of New York.

The Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse, which formerly had stood as the North Hook Beacon at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, from 1880 to 1917, was reconstructed in 1921 by the United States Bureau of Lighthouses as part of a project to improve the navigational aids on the Hudson River. A standard type conical iron tower, painted red, the lighthouse was in operation at Jeffrey's Hook from 1921 to 1947 with a flashing red light and a fog signal.

The Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse, the southernmost fixed navigational aid on the Hudson River and the only lighthouse on the island of Manhattan, marked a prominent point projecting into a deep stretch of the river below Mount Washington and is a reminder of a more natural river shoreline than exists today.

The erection of the lighthouse at its current site was associated with the importance of river shipping in the first decades of the twentieth century when the New York State Barge Canal system was improved and the Deeper Hudson shipway and the Port of Albany were under development.

Jeffrey's Hook

Ten miles north of the tip of Manhattan, a small point extends out into the Hudson River which has been known since the colonial era as Jeffrey's Hook.

The point is slightly elevated and exists today as a low-lying grassy plain below Washington Heights, although, as depicted on historic maps, it had originally a more irregular shoreline and topography. Jeffrey's Hook has played an identifiable role in many eras of New York City history. Around the turn of the century, archaeologists, including the prominent local authority Reginald Pelham Bolton, uncovered American Indian artifacts on the south shore of the point, which was probably used as a fishing site.

Nearby was the large cultivated field on the plateau to the east, known to Dutch colonists as the "The Great Maize land." The archaeological and documentary evidence suggests a long period of Native American settlement in the area although there is no known record of an Indian name for the point of land.

The name Jeffrey's Hook appears to date from the Dutch colonial era since the term hook, used to name many small points along the rivers and seacoast of the former colony of New Amsterdam, is an anglicization of the Dutch word hoek or hoeck, meaning literally an angle and also a small spit of land.

Reginald Bolton searched, with little success, for the origin of this place name in conjunction with his study of the .Washington Heights area and found no prominent Dutch-era family associated 'with -the site.

He did suggest, however, that Jeffrey or Jeffery may have been an anglicization of the Dutch word juffrouw, which means young woman. Bolton also noted the presence in New York during the mid-eighteenth century of an English family with the name Jeffrey that included several mariners.

There certainly is a possibility that the name is of combined English and Dutch origin — Jeffrey from the English and Hook from the Dutch — since "Jeffrey's Hook" seems to first appear on maps of the late eighteenth century.

At the end of the British colonial era, the name Jeffrey's Hook was in common usage and appeared on maps drawn during the Revolutionary War.

Located just to the south of the highest elevation in Manhattan, named Mount Washington in 1775, the small point of land was an element in the defensive plans of the colonial army during the Revolutionary War. In conjunction with the construction of Fort Washington in 1776, a small demi-lune battery with a single gun was erected at the extreme end of Jeffrey's Hook and a rifle redoubt was constructed on the rocky slope above the point.

Until at least the mid-nineteenth century the remnants of the earthworks near Fort Washington remained visible, including mounds of earth on the tip of the point, which was known after the War, and throughout much of the nineteenth century, as Fort Washington Point.

Jeffrey's Hook had been included within a large tract of

A decorative necklace made with soothing and subtle colors. One of my favorite color combos.

The pendant was made entirely with sterling silver wire and gemstones. The wire was shaped, soldered, hammered and woven into the design. The gems used are faceted apatite rondelles and a faceted whiskey quartz briolette---luscious! The chain portion is embellished with lustrous beige, top drilled pearls and more apatite. The pearls create this beautiful, lush fringe.

The necklace is finished with a handmade hook clasp and 2 inch chain extender. The whole piece has been oxidized and then hand polished to a matte finish. This brings the wire textures out beautifully.

All metal components are sterling silver.

Measurement: Adjustable between 18 3/4 and 20 3/4 inches. I can re-size it smaller if needed.

Pendant dimensions: About 1 1/2 inches in diameter