Rhode Island Lighthouse History

Courtesy of the National Archives

Location: West Passage of Narragansett Bay near the Jamestown Bridge
1897 - present --Lat 41 31 48.990 N - Long 71 24 18.810 W

Established: 1897

Lighthouse Constructed: 1897 - 1899

Deactivated: 1941 - 2003

Reactivated: 2003

Original Illuminating Apparatus: Fourth Order Fresnel lens

Current Illuminating Apparatus: Solar Powered Beacon

Height: 53 feet

Status: Restored/Private Aid To Navigation

Light Characteristic: Flashing White every 5 seconds (1906)
Flashing White every 5 seconds (2005)

Range: 12 miles (1906)
3 miles (2005)

In 1895 and 1896 Congress appropriated a total of $60,000 to build a lighthouse and fog signal on Plum Beach Shoal. Captains of ships using the West Passage of Narragansett Bay had been asking for a light at Plum Beach for a number of years. In foggy weather ships avoiding Dutch Island would sometime sail too far west and go aground on the shoal.

In 1896 a pneumatic caisson, an air tight square wooden structure, with the lower part of Plum Beach light's thirty-three foot diameter metal foundation attached to it, was towed from Providence to Plum Beach and was sunk. Once the caisson settled to the bottom, the water inside was pumped out and it was filled with air. Workers went into caisson and removed the soil underneath it, allowing it to sink to thirty-eight feet below mean low water. As it sank, metal plates were added to the top of the foundation. In early December, a test boring showed a seven-foot layer of quicksand at the thirty-eight foot depth. If the caisson was left at this depth the lighthouse would be unstable. The caisson would have to placed seven feet deeper. This also meant that the foundation would have to be heightened but there wasn't enough money in the budget to do that. The lighthouse Board stopped construction on the light. The top of the unfinished foundation was covered with wood and a temporary red lantern was placed on it.

In 1898, $9,000 was appropriated to complete the light. An additional row of metal plates was added to the foundation, before weather halted work in January 1899. In April work resumed on the lighthouse. It was finally finished on June first. A fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in the lighthouse and it was first lighted on July 1, 1899.

On September 21, 1938, substitute keeper Edwin Babcock tried to row ashore to see his family but wind and high waves caused by the approaching 1938 Hurricane forced him back to the lighthouse. He and assistant keeper John Ganze knew a bad storm was coming. They secured the light and waited. As the storm grew in intensity, the light was hit by bigger and bigger waves. A thirty-foot wave hit the lighthouse and tore open the kitchen door. Water poured into the lighthouse. The keepers climbed up to the fog bell room. It was the highest, non-exposed point on the light. They tied themselves, back to back; to the pipe containing the weights that turned the Fresnel lens in hope their bodies would be found together if the lighthouse were destroyed. The keepers survived, but the light was badly damaged. Minor repairs were made to the lighthouse and it was put back into service.

In 1941, the first Jamestown Bridge was built almost on top of Plum Beach Lighthouse. The lighthouse was no longer needed as an aid to navigation and was closed. The Coast Guard put the lighthouse up for auction. The high bidder would have to tear it down and remove it. No one bid on it.

The Cannon Paint Company of Philadelphia was hired to paint the Newport Bridge in 1973. James Osborn, Cannon employee, was taken off his job painting the bridge and was ordered to paint Plum Beach Lighthouse. While he was painting the lighthouse, he contracted histoplamosis, an eye disease, from pigeon feces that filled the lighthouse. In 1984 he sued the state for $500,000. The case was in court for years.

In 1988 O'Connell Development of Quincy, Massachusetts wanted to move Plum Beach Lighthouse to a breakwater at Marina Bay, its condominium development in Quincy. There was a problem; they could not find the owner. The Coast Guard said ownership of the lighthouse reverted to Rhode Island when they abandoned it. The Rhode Island Attorney General's Office disagreed. It said, the Coast Guard may have abandoned the lighthouse, but it never gave the state the title. Without a title, the state does not own it. Neither side wanted to claim the lighthouse, because of the lawsuit. O'Connell Development later hired an architect to plan a lighthouse from scratch.

The Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse, Inc. was formed in response to O' Connell Development's attempt to buy the lighthouse. The group wanted to acquire the light and restore it. Their efforts to get the lighthouse were frustrated for a number of years because of the uncertain ownership.

In 1998 the Rhode Island Superior Court decided that the state owned the light. The court ordered the state to pay $42,000 to James Osborn. With the question of ownership finally resolved, the state decided to give the Friends of Plum Beach title to the lighthouse.

In 2003 Abcore Restoration started on the restoration of the lighthouse. The first step of the restoration was the removal of over 50 tons guano left by the birds that lived in the lighthouse. After the interior was cleaned out the lighthouse exterior was repainted and repaired. In December a new light was placed in the lighthouse and it was lighted for the first time in 62 years.