Photos

This is from the first stop on yesterday's trip with Avene and Zmey. We were exploring the southern NE coast and having a wonderful time.

The note today is a bit longer than usual and I apologize, but there is quite and interesting hostory to go with this light. The note is redacted from the website of Lighthousefriends. com

Congress approved $20,000 of funding in 1882 to build a lighthouse on Little Cormorant Rock at the entrance to the Sakonnet River, 800 yards off Rhode Island's Sakonnet Point. The construction began in early 1883, with a break at the end of the year due to the harsh winter weather. Work resumed in the spring, and the beacon was lighted on November 1, 1884.

The Sakonnet Lighthouse is a cylindrical, cast-iron tower that sits atop a cast-iron, concrete-filled caisson foundation. Situated beneath the lantern room, the top deck of the tower functions as a watchroom, while the four lower decks serve as living quarters and storage. The first beacon was a fourth-order lens that produced a fixed white light punctuated with an intermittent flashing red light. The lens was rotated by a clockwork mechanism, powered by weights that dropped through a central tube. In 1891, the light was changed to a kerosene-powered lamp, and the following year, fourteen steps, seven on the east side and seven on the west side, were carved into the rock to aid boat landings.

A violent storm in August of 1924 swept all the station's boats away, damaged the boat dock, and broke the windows in the tower. William Durfee, the keeper on duty at the time, saw waves breaking on the main galley's roof, and spray easily reaching above the top of the lantern room, seventy-five feet above sea level. The force of the waves shook the station to its foundation.

Like many lighthouses in New England, Sakonnet Point Light was damaged during the great hurricane in September, 1938. Over seventy homes on Sakonnet Point were destroyed, and thirteen lives lost. Four men tried to escape the rising water by perching on the roof of a two-story home. The wind lifted the entire roof off the house and dropped the four men into the water near the lighthouse. Fortunately, a boat was able to pick them up before they were carried out to sea, and all four survived.

In 1954, the Sakonnet Point Lighthouse was severely damaged by Hurricane Carol. The estimated cost of tearing the structure down and rebuilding it was $100,000. The Coast Guard decided the repairs were too expensive, and the station was deactivated the following year. The Coast Guard planned to blow the tower up, but the citizens of Little Compton objected and fought for its preservation. Ownership of the light was transferred to Little Compton with the proviso that the station was maintained and left permanently unlighted.

In 1961 the lighthouse was sold for $1,300 to Carl and Carolyn Haffenreffer. They maintained the tower for several years and then in 1985 offered to donate the lighthouse to any nonprofit group that could raise the estimated $75,000 needed to renovate and restore the station. The Friends of Sakonnet Point was formed in response, and in a little more than a year was able to raise $100,000.

The lighthouse has since been fully and beautifully restored, although it is not open to the public. Sakonnet Point is one of about thirty surviving "sparkplug" lighthouses, so called because of their appearance. (Most of the sparkplugs were built before the gasoline engine came into common use, and so were originally referred to as "coffee pots" or sometimes "bug lights.") The sparkplug lights were typically prefabricated on shore, barged to the site, and put into place with floating cranes. They are usually located offshore, and most of them are found in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states.

After the station was restored, the Coast Guard made an offer to reactivate the Sakonnet Point Light, but as owners of the light, the Friends of Sakonnet Point had concerns about possible liability should a shipwreck occur near the lighthouse. Eventually these issues were resolved, and on March 19, 1997 the Sakonnet Point Lighthouse was relighted as an active aid to navigation during a ceremony that attracted several hundred people.