Hudson-Ahtens Lighthouse coin

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society (HALPS) has been in the process of studying, with the help of Crawford & Associates Inc. P.C. of Hudson, NY, an engineering firm, the stabilization/restoration of the foundation of the lighthouse. (See article in Lighthouse Digest, May 2004). Work is commencing this August and will cost $400,000 to complete the stabilization of the 43 pilings. This requires HALPS to take out a $100,000 loan from the Bank of Greene County to begin the work. One project to raise money and also commemorate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s trip up the Hudson River in 1609, is to offer for sale the coin pictured below which has the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse on one side and Henry Hudson’s ship the half moon on the other. This coin is one and one half inches in diameter, with three dimensional images and a bright silver finish. The Rosewood Box permits the coin to be flipped over and viewed on both sides without actually touching it. The box is cool with its flip-ability feature. The coin has been designated as an Official Quadricentennial Coin by the City of Hudson and the Village of Athens and comes with a card which authenticates it.

To learn more about the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse visit:
www.hudsonathenslighthouse.org

To purchase a coin, Rosewood Box and card send $30.00 which included shipping in the US and a check made out to HALPS to:

Bob Taylor
181 Eleanor Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201

This is a really neat coin especially the flip display. My check will be going in the mail to you.

Nice website and they take PayPal.

The box the coin is in is one of the coolest ways to display a coin I have seen. When I fist saw it I didn't have the benefit of knowing why the box was designed as it is, but it was easy to figure out. Not only does it work very nicely to let you admire both sides of the coin, it is a nice looking and well made little case. Nice way to help raise funds for their projects.

Yes, but apparently not for the coin.

Dennis

Moby and I had the opportunity to photograph this lighthouse from a distance in July 2007. Thanks for posting information about the coin; check is in the mail.
[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1060/765963534_e1444aef09.jpg?v=0[/img]

That is a great photo of the lighthouse! The foundation problem is on the left side going back into the photo. The shipping channel is behind the lighthouse and before the land which supports CSX railroad tracks.

Thank you.

Bob

That really is a great picture. Received my coin Saturday's mail and it is a beautiful piece. Will be a nice addition to the North Bend, OR Chief Petty Officers Association Bronze Medallions I've started collecting

Sandy.

Received my coin in yesterday's post and it is absolutely beautiful! Thanks Bob!

Received my coin yesterday.
Wonderful job on the coin and box.

AN UPDATE: Work started on fixing the piles under the lighthouse on September 8 th by Easters States Construction Company of Valley Cottage, New York. The entire package will cost just under $400,000.00 to fix the 38 defective piles. The process is to saw off the top (4 to 5 feet) of the deteriorating pile and add a new section of pile. A metal collar is placed around the joint and bolted together. Work is anticipated to be completed by mid December and is all being done under the lighthouse and under water. A special thanks to all who have helped with the coin project so far to pay for this. I am working on photos.

Bob Taylor

This photo shows the top four feet of one of the piles that is being replaced. Note that the right side is much smaller at the top, hense the reason the lighthouse is sagging.



edited to make image display

These small bumps on the pile are zebra mussels - an invasive species.

These are the caps to be put on the new section of pile - all underwater and under the lighthouse. The left two are upside down. To the left is a lighthouse cellar window to enable the viewer to get a sense of the size. These pieces are heavy! There is also a collar that goes around the splice and is bolted on by the divers.

The concrete block behind the upside down caps also gives us an idea of the size of these caps. Standard concrete block are 8"x8"x16". Which tells me those base caps are about 14" tall and around 13"-14" wide. Wow !!!

The construction folks finished replacing the tops (5-6 feet etc.) of 48 piles and cleaned up their work area. This is all done under the lighthouse and below the water. We who volunteer at the lighthouse have strung up the holiday lights back in November when it was warmer and last Saturday had Emily Brunner, a lady who as a young girl lived at the lighthouse when her dad was keeper, flip the switch to turn on the lights for the season. Now all we need to do is raise the rest of the money to pay back the bank loan.

Have a great holiday season.

Bob Taylor

During the month of February I visited the Hudson River from Albany, New York down to Hudson, NY checking on the commerce using the river. Needless to say, our Coast Guard was busy breaking up the ice to allow the boats to move through. Below are three of the many images I captured.

Bob Taylor



A smaller ice breaker under the bridge, Route 20 going into Albany, NY



The larger ice breaker going past the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse

Great pics Bob !!!

I love the last one.

I like the last one also. May have to do Hudson River tour.

The third one is cool, but the first one is my favorite.

Love the Ice Breakers images, Bob, thanks for sharing them! We went on a US Lighthouse Society boat and bus tour down the Hudson and some of the Long Island Lighthouses right before the Baltimore Reunion and it was great!

Great pictures Bob. The last one is my favorite.

The last one is really quite cool. Love the tug in front of the light. Makes the light look so small. Thanks for sharing these unique images.

Very "cool" pics Bob.

Where were you standing to get the 3rd shot looking down on the lighthouse? I have always just taken pictures from the water level. Very neat perspective.

If you leave the Hudson, NY public boat launch area, which is were the lighthouse tours leave on the second Saturday from July - October, and go two blocks east, take a right at the light on one of the Route 9 variations, go about a mile and then go right again. This road circles up and around for three miles and comes back to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Halfway up the hill the first time a few years ago I saw in the rear view mirror the light. I stopped in the middle of the road, jumped out and took some pictures. There is really no parking there. Sometimes I pull into a driveway and get out and shoot. 200 mm, hand held with image stabilizer. One hopes if a cop comes he/she likes lighthouses!

Bob Taylor

Great photos Bob!
I like the first and the last...very cool!
One of the signs of Spring!

Enjoy your images very much Bob. Thanks for sharing.

Ron

We have been in the planning stages for our 2009 season of open houses and fund raising events to help pay off the debt for the foundation restoration project (all below the low tide water level). This should be a great year as it is the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson sailing up the river that today bears his name. Many events all along the river are scheduled.

Check out the web site where I also have some photos. http://www.hudsonathenslighthouse.org/

Bob Taylor

link wasn't a hot link - should be now.

Thanks for the link, Bob, I made it active so people could just click on it and not have to copy and paste. Nice pictures on the website. Sue and I went on a US Lighthouse Society boat/bus tour of the Hudson and Long Island in 2001. The captain and crew managed to dock the boat we used down the Hudson at the lighthouse. The boat was much langer than the dock and provided a bit of scare when one of the captains son's went in the chilly waters at one point. But after docking safely we all enjoyed our tour of the lighthouse, very special lighthouse I might add. We enjoyed seeing all of the Hudson lighthouses and would recomend a tour down the Hudson to everyone!

Nice website Bob, thanks for the link!

I see there are some tours running in the summer and fall months.

Cool photos. I especially liked this one:



Did anyone else see the shark's head at the right end of the old piling?

Bob, if you still have these old pilings, you should offer them for sale to potential donors. Not often someone can buy a piece of history like that!

Beautiful pictures. Looking forward to seeing that light in person.

Hi John

I checked at the monthly meeting this past Wednesday and they did save some of the tops of the pillings. They most likely come with zebra mussels at no extra charge! Last week our engineering/consulting firm had a diver go back down to check the condition of the work and video it to sign off on paying (loan) for a job well done. The report was that the restoration was done correctly. Now if we start patching the cracks in the walls and painting them they should stay in place over time. Up until now we could redo the fixup work on a annual basis.

Thanks for the report, Bob.

You may remember a few years back when the St. George lighthouse lantern room was demolished accidentally when the helicopter lifting it flew too close to the beach.

They turned that tragedy into a fund raiser by using wooden parts and broken glass into items you could buy to help raise funds.

Those pilings could be sold as is, or turned into a base for a glass top table or the wood could be sectioned and laser-etched with an image of the lighthouse and sold.

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society is still selling the coins as a fund raiser to pay for the foundation restoration project. The work and loans were completed last fall and we just now need to pay the bank back. In June the Halfmoon ship came up the river spending a week visiting ports along the way and allowing the public to board it. Also in the boat parade was the Onrust and Pete Seegar's Clearwater plus two Coast Guard Cutters.

Any pictures, Bob ???

I did go over on three different days to take photos between Hudson and Albany, which is a one hour drive one way for me.


In June there was a week long quadricentennial celebration of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson River 400 years ago. Leading and bringing up the rear were two Coast Guard boats.


The replica of the Half Moon was another one of the boats.


The fire boat Harvey that was brought out of retirement and used again during 9/11 was in the parade.


Pete Seeger's boat Clearwater that has been going up and down the Hudson River for decades educating each new generation about the importance of keeping the river clean. He just celebrated his 90 TH birthday last month!


Onrust is also one of Henry Hudson's boats that was just built and launched in May 2009.

Bob emailed me some images and I sized them and added them to his post above..

Great pics !!!

Thanks Bob & Paul for the posting.