Location: South side of Newport Harbor
1854 - present --Lat 41 28 38 N - Long 72 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 Idawalley and their daughter Ida took over operation of the light. In the years that followed Ida saved over a dozen people from drowning. Ida became nationally knowns in 1869, when a 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.

Hosea Lewis died in 1872. His wife was appointed the keeper and remained at the light until 1879. Ida became the keeper and served at the light until her death in 1911. In 1924 the light was renamed the Ida Lewis Light in her honor.

A light on a skeleton tower replaced Ida Lewis Light, 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.