The Oliver Evans Chapter, Society for Industrial Archeology
presents

U.S. Lighthouse Tender Lilac

A presentation by Mary Habstritt

Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 6pm

She was launched in 1933 at the Pusey & Jones shipyard in Wilmington, De, and her original base was at the U.S. Lighthouse Service Depot in Edgemoor. In 1939, when duties for tending aids to navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard, she became part of the Coast Guard fleet. After WWII, she was stationed at the former immigration pier in Gloucester City, NJ. Lilac was decommissioned there in 1972. After two other owners, she was purchased by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project with the intention that she would be restored to run on her triple-expansion steam engines. That is still to come, but we operate as a dockside museum in Manhattan’s Hudson River Park and tell of the important work that the Coast Guard still does tending to the Aids to Navigation (ATON) network and about reciprocating steam propulsion.
USCGC LILAC is America’s only surviving steam-powered lighthouse tender and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Our speaker: 
Mary grew up in Minnesota and graduated from the College of St. Catherine with degrees in library science and humanities. She received a master’s in library science at Columbia University, which then had the oldest library program in the country.
She was elected to the national SIA Board of Directors in 2000 after running the SIA’s conference in Duluth. She soon volunteered the Roebling Chapter, a NY/NJ organization, to run the 2002 conference based in Brooklyn, N.Y.  Following this, Mary became president of the Roebling chapter.
Mary held several positions with the national Society for Industrial Archeology organization, including being its first Events Coordinator, and in 2008 she became its President.
In 2009 she took on a project to restore America’s oldest lighthouse tender, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Lilac. She founded the Historic Ships Coalition to to advocate for historic ships.
This year again she took on the presidency of the Roebling chapter which hosted a successful fall symposium in October at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.
The national SIA just honored Mary with the General Tools Award. It is the highest honor the SIA can bestow. It recognizes individuals who have given sustained, distinguished service to the cause of industrial archeology

It is possible the event will be available virtually. A link will be sent in a later post.

Location: 
Parkway Central Free Library, 1901 Vine Street, HEIM Center Conference Room with an entrance off Wood Street at the back of the library.
The room will be open at 5:30 for members and visitors to mingle.
There is metered parking around the library building and a paid parking lot behind the library with an entrance off Callowhill Street.
The Free Library has Bicycle Racks at the main entrance on Vine Street, and is directly served by the following SEPTA routes:  32, 33 and 49 and within 2-3 blocks by SEPTA routes 7 and 48