| Beavertail Jamestown (1749, 1754, 1856) The first Beavertail Lighthouse was the third lighthouse built in Colonial America, a 58 foot wooden tower completed in 1749. It was rebuilt in 1754 with a 58 foot tall brick and rubble tower after the previous tower had burned down the year before. In 1779 the British removed the opic and set fire to the lighthouse. The heat of the fire warped the masonry, but repairs kept the tower in service. Beavertail was the site of experiments: in 1817 David Melville was permitted to try out a new and cheaper method of illuminating the light by piping coal gas. The whaling industry successfully lobbied against this. In 1851 a foghorn was powered by compressed air, using a horse tethered to a revolving walker to pump air into a tank. The present Beavertail is composed of granite completed in 1856. | |||||||||||
| Block Island North Light Block Island (1829, 1837, 1857, 1867) Four lighthouses have been built on Sandy Point on Block Island, R.I., in 1829, 1837, 1857 and the present structure in 1867. The foundations of the 1837 and 1857 lighthouses can still be seen farther out on the point. The lighthouse is 52 feet tall, but its base is only two feet above mean high water. The station was deactivated in 1973, then the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the lighthouse and the land around for use as a wildlife refuge. The Block Island Historical Society reached an agreement with the Service and restored the lighthouse, reactivating (aerobeacon) it in 1989. | |||||||||||
| Block Island Southeast Light Block Island (1875) Congress first decided that Monhegan Bluffs on Block Island, R.I., needed a lighthouse in 1854 and two years later $9,000 was appropriated. However, that money was spent to rebuild the Block Island North Lighthouse on a site farther inland on Sandy Point. After the Palmetto was lost on the reef below the bluffs in 1858 many urged action and in 1872 President Grant signed the congressional appropriation bill. The 67 foot tall tower is has a 25 foot diameter base and tapers to 15 feet at the lantern deck. The Coast Guard deactivated the light in 1990, transferring its warning mission to a beacon on a nearby steel tower. In recent years this lighthouse was moved away from the eroding cliffs. | |||||||||||
| Castle Hill Newport (1890) Equal interval red 6s. Height above water 40 ft. This 34 foot light tower stands west end of Newport neck in Rhode Island. It style is of the Richardsonian Romanesque. Its upper half of the tower is painted white and the bottom half is unpainted. In 1938 a hurricane destroyed the associated dwellings. There used to be stories of the area being haunted by ghosts, but it turned out that the keeper's wife had a habit of going for walks on hot summer nights in her white nightgown. | |||||||||||
| Conimicut Light Warwick (1868, 1883) Flashing white 2.5s (red sector). Height above water 58 ft. The light is located midway between Nayatt Point and Conimicut Point in Warwick, RI. The current cast-iron tower replaced the former granite structure. Conimicut Light used Kerosene for illumination until 1960. It was the last lighthouse in the US to be electrified. | |||||||||||
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Fort
Adams | |||||||||||
| Hog Island Shoal Mount Hope Bay (1901) Equal interval white 6s. Height above water 54 ft. This lighthouse is a caisson supported iron tower. It rests on round cast iron piers filled with concrete. The tower itself has a total of 5 decks: galley on the first, living quarters on the second and third, workshop and storage on the fourth, the lantern on the fifth. It was orginally equipped with a 5th-order Fresnel, refitted in 1903 with the present 4th-order optic. This light marks the shoal at the entrance to Mount Hope Bay in Rhode Island. | |||||||||||
| Newport Harbor Goat Island, Newport (1823) Flashing white light. Height above water 45 ft. The first lighthouse was completed in 1823 at the south end of Goat Island, a 20 foot tall stone tower. Unfortunately this location confused ships and many wrecked on the north end of the island. In 1838 the light station was moved to the north end. In 1865 a new tower replaced the '38 tower. The exterior was rough-hewn granite, the interior hammered stone. In 1922 the keeper's quarters was damaged by an American submarine that rammed the pier. The dwelling was removed, personnel withdrawn and the light was electrified. The station was automated in 1963 and the USCG renovated the 33 foot tall lighthouse. 
Plum
Beach | Western passage of Narragansett Bay (1897) The Light is located at the western passage to Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island). The structure is a caisson-type light. The light was deactivated in 1941. 
Point Judith | Narragansett (1810) The light is situated at the westerly point of the entrance to Narragansett Bay. In 1931 it became the first station in Rhode Island to have a radio beacon. These beacons allow ships to navigate at night or in fog without depending upon the light or the foghorn. 
Pomham
Rocks | Riverside section of East Providence (1871) This light is on one of the islands known as Ponham Rocks in the Providence River. It is a square, wood-framed two-story house with a Second Empire Mansard roof enclosing the upper floor. The 67-foot tall station was retired in 1974 and the Mobil Oil Company purchased the island and lighthouse. There is a group (2003) trying to negotiate with Mobil/Exxon to see if we can begin a partnership to restore the inside of the lighthouse and return the fresnel lamp,which is in a museum in Massachusettes. 
| Rose Island  Watch Hill Westerly (1807, 1856) Watch Hill lighthouse is located on the north side of the east entrance to Fishers Island Sound in RI. The second tower built at this site is a 45 foot square granite structure attached to a square dwelling. It was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1986. It is still an automated active light. | |||||||
