Shelter Island ‘illuminated’: Heights residences glowing on a summer evening

At 7:15 on last Sunday, Aug. 11, Patricia Foulkrod was perched on a ladder next to Grand Avenue, installing paper lanterns on the porch of her Shelter Island Art House, for the second time in two days.

Illumination Night in the Heights, a three-year-old tradition, had been postponed due to rain and high winds on Friday, but by Sunday night, after a glorious, red and orange sunset, the lanterns were back in place, and the Heights was transformed into a midsummer’s night dream.

Groups of two and four people walked every quiet, winding Place, Court, Street and Road in the cool of the summer night. Ms. Foulkrod didn’t seem to mind the fact that she was on her second installation. “Just doing this makes me happy,” she smiled.

The porch of Catherine and Robert Harper’s 1880 Queen Anne at 14 Spring Garden Avenue was the center of activity. Festooned with large Japanese-inspired lanterns, their wrap-around porch was full of friends and neighbors, some of whom had never met before.

Catherine and Robert are restoring the grand old house to its period glory and were delighted to participate in a tradition of illumination, which has been practiced in Methodist summer enclaves — which the Heights once was — since the late 19th century, a time when fashionable people gathered Japanese objects like Taylor Swift fans collect bracelets.

Catherine and Robert developed their love of Japanese arts during time spent in Japan on Fulbright Scholarships.

“We have an affinity for things Japanese,” Catherine said. “The lanterns are a Methodistish-campground thing.”

Lantern displays at the cottages along Wesley Avenue were charming and restrained, from the refined look at Kirsten Lewis’s 22 Wesley home that used few lanterns — credit to her grandson — to Andrew and Lise Chapman’s home at the end of the block where two strategically-placed lanterns graced the front porch. 

Terry and Kathy Brockbank strolled along Wesley enjoying the glow. This was their first time coming to Illumination Night, tipped off by the announcement of the date change at Sunday morning’s Union Chapel service.

They promptly got turned around in the dark. Reoriented, they were relying now on word of mouth for direction and were headed down to Sylvan Park where they heard that neighbors had decorated all the trees.

And so they had. Sylvan Park and the houses surrounding it were radiant with white lanterns of all sizes and shapes, thanks to Megan Hergrueter at 4 Sylvan, who had organized and supplied a lantern-hanging effort earlier in the day.

Rich and Sharon Surozenski, joined the neighbors working beside Megan unfolding lanterns, climbing ladders and turning on LEDs the size of guitar picks to create a dream.

By 10 p.m., the streets were mostly clear, and so were the skies. With the Perseid meteor shower providing an additional blaze of light every few minutes, the lanterns glowed on.