Titanic Memorial (New York City)

The Titanic Memorial is a 60-foot-tall (18 m) lighthouse at Fulton and Pearl Streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It was built, due in part to the instigation of Margaret Brown, to remember the people who died on the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.[1] Its design incorporates the use of a time ball. Margaret "Molly" Brown was born in Hannibal Missouri, on July 18th, 1867. She was born Margaret Tobin and was the second of 4 children born to John and Johanna Collins Tobin. She also had two-siblings. Margaret's Irish immigrant father, John Tobin worked at the Hannibal Gas Work. Margaret attended private school taught by he aunt Mary O'Leary until she was thirteen. She then worked at the Garth Tobacco Factory in Hannibal to help support her family. Helping and assisting people is what made her a hero on Titanic when the famous ship sank. She was on lifeboat 6 and was influential in assisting those survivors to reach the Carpathia, so that they could find shelter and medicine and respite from the tragic loss of lives when Titanic sank in the Atlantic on April 15th, 1912.( The State Historical Society of Missouri)

Titanic Memorial Lighthouse
Dedication plaque on the Lighthouse

History

The lighthouse was originally erected by public subscription in 1913. It stood above the East River on the roof of the old Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey at the corner of South Street and Coenties Slip.[2] From 1913 to 1967 the time ball at the top of the lighthouse would drop down the pole to signal twelve noon to the ships in the harbor. This time ball mechanism was activated by a telegraphic signal, from the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

In July 1968 the Seamen's Church Institute moved to 15 State Street. That year, the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse was donated by the Kaiser-Nelson Steel & Salvage Corporation to the South Street Seaport Museum. It was erected at the entrance to the museum complex, on the corner of Fulton and Pearl streets, in May 1976, with funds provided by the Exxon Corporation.[3]

Other memorials

Straus Park, 6 miles (9.7 km) away on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at Broadway and West 106th St., is a memorial to Ida and Isidor Straus, who died on Titanic.[4] Additional memorials exist in Canada, England, Northern Ireland, and Washington, D.C.

References
  1. Boardman, Mark (March 12, 2012). "Unsinkable Margaret Brown". True West Magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  2. Gray, Christopher (September 11, 2005). "Remembering Victims of a 1912 Disaster". The New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  3. Mariners Weather Log. United States Department of Commerce p. 20. 2014.
  4. Russell, Gareth (2019). The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era. Atria Books p. 299. ISBN 978-1-5011-7672-2.

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