Rhode Island Lighthouse History

Location: South side of Newport Harbor
1854 - present --Lat 41 28 38 N - Long 71 19 33 W

Established: 1854

Lighthouse Constructed: 1854

Deactivated: 1927

Original Illuminating Apparatus: Sixth Order Fresnel Lens

Current Illuminating Apparatus: None

Height: Lighthouse: 13 feet (1906)
Skeleton tower: Light is 40 feet above water

Status: Yacht Club

Light Characteristic: Lighthouse: Fixed Red (1906)
Skeleton tower: Flashing White every 3 seconds (1940)
Flashing White every 5 seconds (1950)
None (2005)

Range: Lighthouse: 7½ miles (1906)
Skeleton tower: No range is given in the 1950 Light List. A similar light with the same
candlepowe(60) and Illuminating Apparatus (200mm) as Ida Lewis Rock Light had a range of 7 miles.
None (2005)

In 1854, a square granite tower was built on Lime Rock in Newport Harbor. It was equipped with a sixth order Fresnel lens. The keeper, Hosea Lewis, had to row 200 yards to reach to the light. During the winter storms this was difficult and at times impossible. A small one-room building was built on Lime Rock to serve as a temporary shelter if the keeper couldn't get to shore. In 1855, the Lighthouse Board recommended that a permanent dwelling be built on the rock. A keeper's dwelling was attached to the tower the following year.

Hosea had a stroke in 1857 and was permanently disabled. His wife Zoradia and their daughter Ida took over operation of the light. Hosea Lewis died in 1872. His wife was appointed the keeper. Her second daughter was very sick and required most of her time. This left Ida to care for the light. She was the keeper in everything but name.

In 1879, with help of Senator Ambrose Burnside, Ida was appointed the light's keeper after her mother resigned. It had been sugguested to Ida's mother that if she resigned Ida would replace her.

During her years at the Lime Rock Light, Ida saved over a dozen people from drowning. Ida became nationally knowns in 1869, when an article about her saving two soldiers appeared in Harper's Weekly. The rescue occurred on March 29, 1869, when she saved the two soldiers after their boat was swamped during a winter storm. She rowed out to the soldiers, clinging to their overturned boat and pulled them into her boat. The soldiers gave Ida a gold watch for saving them. The citizens of Newport presented her with a boat.

In 1881 Ida was awarded two medals life saving. The first medal was from the Humane Society of Massachusetts. The silver medal was given to Ida at Lime Rock lighthouse by Thomas Motley, vice-president of the society. A March 20, 1881 article in The New York Times described the medal.

The is medal 2½ inches in diameter, ¾ of an inch thick, and is of solid silver.
On the rim are the words, "Reward of merit, courage, and perseverance."
The face bears the inscription, "To Ida Lewis, the heroine of Lime Rock,
for her many heroic and successful efforts in saving human lives." On the
rim of the reverse are the words, "Humane Society of Massachusetts,
1791." In the Centre is a raised emblem of the society; at the top is a
represention of a small wooden hut, with word "Refuge" on a scroll;
underneath are two boats's crews, clasped hand, and a ship riding on the waves.

The second medal was a gold Life-saving Medal of the United States Life-saving service She recieved it for saving two men from drowning. The men were walking across the frozen harbor from Newport to Fort Adams. The ice broke and they fell into the water. Ida heard their cries for help. She ran out of the lighthouse with a clothesline and went across the ice to the men. She threw the clothesline to them and pulled them out of the water. An article in the November 5, 1881 issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper has a sketch of Ida recusing the men.

In 1889, Ida saved her seventy year old uncle Henry Lewis. He was returning from a fishing trip in a small boat and fell overboard near the lighthouse. Ida saw the accident and recused him.

Andrew Carnegie, one of the worlds richest men, places Ida on his private pension list, guaranteeing her a pension of $30 a month for life. Ida put the money in a bank account for her brother Rudolph, the assistant keeper of Lime Rock lighthouse.

On October 21, 1911 Rudolph found Ida laying on lighthouse's kitchen floor uncoscious from a stroke. He carried her upstairs and rowed ashore to get help. When the doctor arrived he found her in such a weakened state that he held out no hope for her recovery. Ida lingered for three days before she diied.

Rudolph believed the stroke was caused by a newspaper report that Lime Rock lighthouse was being closed. In a October 24, 1911 article in The New York Times he said, "It was a great surprise and shock to her".

In 1924 the light was renamed the Ida Lewis Light in her honor. A light on a skeleton tower replaced Ida Lewis Lighthouse when it closed in 1927. It remained in service until 1963, when it was deactivated. The land and building was sold in 1928. It was later turned into the Ida Lewis Yacht Club.