Lilac was contracted for on August 16, 1931 as one of the vessels in the “VIOLET” class. The name vessel for this class of ships preceded her into service in August of 1930 in Wisconsin. The third vessel named “MISTLETOE” was later launched in 1938, and was assigned to Chesapeake Bay. A fourth vessel that was with nearly the same specifications as LILAC, called ARBUTUS was built in the same shipyard as LILAC in 1933, was treated as a one class ship and was assigned ironically to New York Harbor. Only two lighthouse tender vessels of the original thirty-three that were commissioned remain, FIR which has been converted to diesel propulsion, and has been taken as a preservation project by a group in Sacramento, California is one. LILAC which now resides at Pier 40 in Manhattan retains all of its steam machinery and seems poised now for becoming an active steamer once again.

Lilac’s keel was laid on August 16, 1932 at the Pusey & Jones Shipyard of Delaware. She entered into service in the newly formed U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1933, tending to aids to navigation, namely lighthouses, lightships and the increasing amount of buoys. She was assigned to the Fourth Lighthouse District, which covered the Delaware River, from Trenton, New Jersey south to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. She replaced the tender IRIS which dated from 1899