Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse

A beacon on Belle Isle

We drove into Belle Isle for the first time on the Fourth of July. Elegant art deco lamps flank both sides of the bridge from the city to the park. It was packed with families hosting barbecues at every picnic structure on the island, swimming on the beach, climbing the playgrounds, and fishing on the pier. With the windows rolled down, we heard speakers blasting classic hip-hop and Motown music and ice cream truck jingles as we moved through the park. After the dysphoria of seeing our dilapidated home for the first time, I felt immense relief as I absorbed the joy of celebration throughout Belle Isle.

This is one of many articles I plan to write about Belle Isle. It is the largest island city park in the United States and is one of the most visited, second to Niagara Falls. It is home to an aquarium, a conservatory, a casino event hall, a yacht club, a nature center, a museum of the Great Lakes, multiple playgrounds, an ornate fountain, picnic structures, ponds, a skating rink, prairie restoration, swimming beaches, fishing piers, and hiking and cycling trails throughout the island. The zoo and giant slide and skating rink are closed, and numerous structures throughout the park are boarded up as well. The park was initially designed by Frederick Olmstead in the 1880s, with many of the historic art deco structures built in the 1920s and ‘30s by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn. The William Livingstone Memorial lighthouse is one of my favorites.

I have been drawn to lighthouses as far back as I can remember (which makes sense—they were created to draw ships safely to harbor). I grew up in New England where most historic lighthouses were manually operated, usually by a lighthouse keeper who lived in the structure. For this reason they are wide at the bottom and narrow upwards to the light. I think most have been converted to electric lights now and have museums, nature centers, and aquariums open to the public. The William Livingstone Memorial lighthouse is surrounded by an iron fence to deter vandalism. It was designed to be electric, historic and modern all at once.

Steps lead to a locked door like a mausoleum. But on the top of the marble structure there is still an electric light to guide ships along the Detroit River through fog and rain and snow.

I often feel lost. Lost in a new city. Lost in my life—directionless. Some days I have too many choices. Others I have no choices at all. When I drive to Belle Isle, the lighthouse is a guide. It makes Detroit familiar and draws me in. I am grounded by its presence. Belle Isle and its lighthouse guided me to write about Detroit, to explore it, to find and create spaces I feel I can belong.