New programmable Boathouse Row lights go live: ‘A renewal of hope’ along the Schuylkill

Philadelphia’s iconic Boathouse Row was relit Thursday night after a year of darkness, offering a glistening debut of 6,400 programmable LED lights illuminating the 19th-century houses along the Schuylkill and evoking joyful exclamations from spectators who watched from across the river.

City leaders, parks and recreation advocates, and tourism proponents joined with ordinary citizens on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near the Fairmount Fish Ladder to relish a stunning upgrade for one of Philadelphia’s most popular photo attractions. According to the Fairmount Park Conservancy, 3,325 people had registered to attend.

A countdown started and then at 7 p.m. Boathouse Row came alive in bright red lights, eliciting oohs and aahs.

“Impressive,” said someone in the crowd. “It almost doesn’t seem real,” said another.

Then a house turned blue, followed by one in yellow, and another in orange, and purple and pink. At one point the lights started to sparkle like the stars in the night sky above this long-awaited reveal. And of course the theme song to Rocky started playing.

Members of City Council whose districts include the area spoke sentimentally about Boathouse Row, with Jeffery Young Jr. calling it “a testament of the enduring spirit of the city and a symbol of community,” while to Curtis Jones Jr. it’s simply “home.”

Referencing the “very difficult week in Philadelphia” that included eight Northeast High students shot at a bus stop Wednesday, Nina Ahmad, a councilmember-at-large, referred to the lighting as “a renewal of hope for our city.”

Rachel Barns, 42, came to the lighting ceremony with two friends toting folding chairs. When Barns arrived in Philadelphia in 2013, the Boathouse Row lights were the first thing she fell in love with: ”They made me feel like I was meant to be here,” said Barns, who added that even in her darkest times biking by the boathouses at night felt like “a way to light up the darkness.”

The new display allows for 16 million color combinations and can be “booked” for events such as anniversaries, birthdays, and weddings. They replace lights that went dark in March 2023 to allow crews to install the transformative upgrade.

Fairmount Park Conservancy partnered with Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation on the $2.1 million project funded primarily by the Joanna McNeil Trust.

The new system uses durable electrical housing boxes designed to protect against weather and wildlife. To install the system, the Schuylkill Navy, an association of amateur rowing clubs founded in 1858, coordinated with 15 rowing clubs that occupy 12 buildings along Kelly Drive, one of the city’s most scenic entrances.

Philadelphia-based The Lighting Practice designed the array and upgraded system. Eagle Industrial Electric installed the lights. Nanometer made custom lighting materials.

The new system feeds to a central control at Lloyd Hall, which is just behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The lights are scheduled to go on at sunset and off at sunrise.

Sadly, the man who had the original idea to light the boathouses did not live to see the latest iteration, dying Wednesday night in Jenkintown at 96.

Raymond Grenald was a onetime assistant Philadelphia city architect who went on to start his own architectural lighting design firm on Walnut Street in the 1960s, according to his daughter, Bethany Grenald.

He approached then-Mayor Frank L. Rizzo in the 1970s with an idea to light the houses, inspired by Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. At the time, there were rumors some of the aging boathouses would be razed, Bethany Grenald said.

“He thought if he could bring attention to the buildings with lighting, they would gain more interest and be saved,” she noted. “His idea was to create a kind of impressionistic view that would reflect on the water with this very delicate, hazy, beautiful reflection.”

To achieve that, Grenald used large, white lightbulbs strung fairly far apart. He went so far as to rent a helicopter to fly over Boathouse Row to gain perspective, recalled his son, Seth Grenald.

Ray Grenald told The Inquirer last year that when he first approached boathouse officials about the project, some were enthusiastic and others “appalled.”

What was then a $55,000 project — about $220,000 in today’s dollars — was finally approved by Rizzo, even though at the time the administration of President Jimmy Carter was campaigning hard for conservation. This was an era of oil shortages, rocketing gas prices, lines at the pump, and anxieties over nuclear energy in the wake of the Three Mile Island disaster near Harrisburg.

» READ MORE: Boathouse Row lights along the Schuylkill are about to go dark for a major upgrade

The boathouses were lit in October 1979, just in time for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Philadelphia. Grenald’s family, however, said stories got passed down that the houses were lit specifically for the pope, which was not true.

“The lighting was intended to put an exclamation point on the houses,” Ray Grenald had told The Inquirer. “It is classic architecture.”

Those original lights that dazzled the east side of the Schuylkill were replaced with LED lights in 2005, and the system was refurbished in 2016. However, the system was struggling with connectivity, power outages, and problems with mountings, leading to the project that culminated with Thursday’s relighting.

Officials say it will cost from $1,000 to $6,000 to book the lights, depending on the use. The lights would be programmed by the staff of Fairmount Park Conservancy through a custom web application. People interested in making a request can email info@boathouserowlights.org or visit boathouserowlights.org.