How do I select a lighthouse to adapt to needlepoint? Sometimes it's the historical significance of the structure that intrigues me. Often I'm asked to work up a design because that lighthouse has personal significance to a customer. But when a friend sent me a photo of this one--Port Dalhousie Front Range lighthouse in St. Catherines, Ontario--the color scheme really grabbed me. I'd never seen a teal green and white lighthouse before!
The Front Range lighthouse and its sister Rear Range lighthouse, now decommissioned, are located at a marina in Port Dalhousie, which marked the northern tip of the Welland Canal from 1829 to 1932. The Welland Canal aided navigation by connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and allowing ships to bypass Niagara Falls. The Front Range lighthouse was commissioned in 1879 and, by the turn of the century, had become a popular destination for tourists from Toronto.
When the Welland Canal's northern terminus was moved to Port Weller in 1932, tourism at Port Dalhousie waned. Both lights were automated in 1968; the Rear Range light was deactivated in 1988 and put in use in 1999 by the Niagara College Sailing School. Under the supervision of the Canadian Coast Guard, the characteristic white light of the Front Range lighthouse--my next project-- still flashes today.
5 comments:
This is interesting - both in glorious color, and in the architecture and setting. No trees and bushes! I look forward to watching it develop.
Hi Anne,
Very interesting lighthouse.
I enjoyed reading about it's history and I'm looking forward to watching you stitch the lighthouse. :-)
Cynthia
Windy Meadow
Can't wait to see this one stitched.
I have a lighthouse in mind to send you, but I have to figure out a way to get down under the George Washington Bridge here in NY so I can take and send you a photo of it.
Edy-Please let me know which lighthouse you have in mind. I have a small arsenal of books here I can check, as well as online sources.
It's the "Little Red Lighthouse under the Big Grey Bridge". There is a small light house that still stands under the George Washington Bridge (spanning the Hudson River and connecting Manhattan with New Jersey).
My Dad and I used to go down there before they built the Cross Bronx Expressway (an oximoron of the first order as there is no "express" in that road) and connected it to the Bridge approach. There are pictures of it on line, but none of them are just "right".
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