Sassafras
Point Light
Location:
Off Sassafras
Point in the Providence River
 1872 - present Lat 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.
It was difficult finding suitable keepers for them because of
the low pay rate for tending these kinds of lights. Sassafras Point first lighthouse keeper, Joseph Pollard, was paid $160 a year. While the keeper at nearby Pomham Rock lighthouse was paid $500 a year. The Lighthouse Board wanted
to build a keeper's dwelling near the lights, as an offset to the low pay. In
1874, Congress appropriated $5,000 for it, but it was never built. The land near
the lights was being improved for business purposes. The property owners didn't
want to sell it to the government, as they feared it would reduce the surrounding
land value.
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 from lighthouse keeper to to a laborer and his
pay was cut in half.
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