Three residents took on an artistic challenge over the past few weeks by transforming a sewer pump into a lighthouse, using a little paint and a lot of imagination.

Laura Jacobson, an artist, partnered with her husband, Dean, and friend and neighbor Rhonda Elston to create the S. Downing Street attraction, intending to inspire a positive difference in the neighborhood.

The residents, who are relatively new to the area, grew close when Jacobson hosted a private painting class, with Elston attending as a student. As they walked outside afterward, Elston remarked on the noisiness and unsightliness of the sewer pump, which is located in front of her house.

“She said, ‘What can we do with this?’ and just threw the question out there,” Jacobson said. “So we started thinking about it.”

They went through several ideas before deciding on turning the pump into a lighthouse, emblematic of the community’s love for the ocean.

Jacobson’s husband, a carpenter, fashioned a small tower out of leftover cedar planks that they attached to the pump, and the idea took off from there.

Once the residents got approval from the city’s Public Works Department, they set off to find special paint that could be durable enough to withstand the city’s downpours and harsh winds.

“I had in my mind the way I was going to paint it already, and it was just a matter of making it come to fruition,” Jacobson said. “And for the lighthouse part of it, I thought, ‘Let’s make it look like bricks,’ and I’ve done that kind of faux painting before, so I already knew how to do it.

“I told Rhonda, ‘Just trust me, it’s going to come out good, follow my lead.’ And she’s such a good student, I just show her one time how to paint something in a certain technique and she can do it. So we got our painting clothes on, got all the paints out, all of our supplies, hooked up a little speaker with some music, and we just went for it.”

Jacobson and Elston said there is a kind of synergy when neighbors come together to make their world a better place.

“We would yell ‘foghorn!’ every time the noise rattled from the pump and laugh,” Elston said. “Neighbors also came out from everywhere to cheer us on and lend assistance.”

As Jacobson and Elston worked, pedestrians and drivers passing by stopped to comment on the project.

“It was amazing, the responses we were getting,” Jacobson said. “People were stopping in their cars all day long, just praising it, telling us what a good job we were doing.”

Jacobson also posted the project on a local Facebook group, dubbing it the “South Downing Lighthouse” and garnering nearly 600 likes and almost a hundred positive comments.

While they don’t expect to undertake another beautification project anytime soon, Jacobson and Elston appreciated the chance to meet new neighbors and spread positivity. They said they’d like to inspire other neighbors, artists and craftsmen to take their talents to the street — literally.

“We’re hoping it sparks some interest in other artists, or maybe, like, the high school could get involved and have some kids do one, or get ahold of the high school art teacher and see what they could do,” Jacobson said. “I think it could be a really good community project.”