The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse and a 1946 Magazine Cover

Please enjoy this Hudson-Athens Lighthouse throwback: Emil J. Brunner kept the light at the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse from 1930 to 1949. For the first seven years, Brunner and his family lived at the lighthouse, but as the children grew older, the family moved into a house in Athens. Each night, Brunner would then row out to tend the light. In 1946, an artist for the Saturday Evening Post had the family pose at the lighthouse for its December 28, 1946 cover. The painting shows Brunner rowing to the lighthouse with his son and a Christmas tree on board. The rest of the family (with the artistic license of a few extra children added) is shown standing on the lighthouse deck anxiously awaiting their arrival. Brunner, the last civilian keeper at the lighthouse, retired in 1949 when the light was automated.