Location: Off Sassafras Point in the Providence River
1872 - presentLat 41 48 01 N - Long 71 23 31 W

Established: 1872

Lighthouse Constructed: 1872

Removed: 1912

Original Illuminating Apparatus: Six-Order Fresnel Lens

Current Illuminating Apparatus: None

Height: 14 feet

Status: No Longer Exists

Light Characteristic: Fixed Red (1899)
Fixed White (1900)
Fixed Red (1901)
None (2005)

Range: 7½ miles (1899)
7½ miles (1900)
7½ miles (1901)
None (2005)

Sassafras Point Light and its sister light, Fuller Rock, were built in 1872. The hexagonal shape tower was built on a granite pier on the West Side of the Providence River, near Providence. It was equipped with a six-order Fresnel Lens.

Sassafras Point was an unmanned light. The keeper had to row to it and Fuller Rock to light them. During one of these trips the keeper, Jack Mullen, almost drowned. His boat capsized, throwing him into the freezing Providence River. He grabbed hold of the overturned boat and cried for help. Edward Grogan was chopping wood nearby and heard Jack's cries for help. He rowed out and saved Jack.

In 1912 Sassafras Point Light was removed when the channel was widened. With just one light left to maintain, Keeper Mullen was demoted to a laborer and his pay was cut in half.