From an article by Sue Strachan in The Times-Picayune: "Today, the Lighthouse Building is used as an event rental for pop-up shops and art shows, and most recently, as Essence Festival’s Wellness House.
But it was created for a far different purpose, and its design, mimicking a real lighthouse, carried a symbolic message.
In 1924, Simon James Shwartz, CEO of Maison Blanche Department Store on Canal Street, wanted to create a workshop for the blind.
Ned Hemard, who writes a weekly history column for the New Orleans Bar Association, cites a story in The Times-Picayune dated Nov. 16, 1924, which said that Shwartz “conceived the idea of the workshop for the blind on Camp Street: that now faces the world in surprising architecture of a literal lighthouse, unequivocally indicating its foundation and purpose of leading its beneficiaries from darkness to light.”
The architect of the lighthouse was Emile Weil, who also designed the Saenger Theatre. Oscar Gwin Jr. was in charge of construction. The lighthouse portion of the building was modeled after the Milneburg lighthouse, located on the UNO campus where Pontchartrain Beach amusement park was located.
Inside the downtown building, Lighthouse clients learned job skills by making brooms. These brooms played an important part in two major events.
Hemard said the brooms were used by women supporters of the “clean sweep with Morrison” movement during the 1946 mayor's race. DeLesseps “Chep” Story Morrison won the election.
The other occasion was one Judge J. Skelly Wright recounted in the book “Unlikely Heroes,” by Jack Bass. Wright watched black blind people and white blind people being guided into separate entrances at the Lighthouse to do their jobs. “The blind couldn’t segregate themselves. They couldn’t see,” he said. “There was an effect on me.”
The Lighthouse building became the headquarters for Fletcher Equipment and Supplies, a construction and road-building firm. Family member Mrs. Fletcher Maumus sold the building in 1994 to Martha Robbins and two partners, who founded Lighthouse Glass.
Renovations made it one of the largest glass studios in the South. Post Hurricane Katrina, Robbins scaled back operations, but the three glass ovens are still there. The building is just over 10,000 square feet, but the lighthouse area is empty because it is hard to access: One must climb a ladder from the first floor, through a trap door, to the second floor, where a staircase starts." (
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