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Things are looking up for Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay lighthouses. Rose Island Light, near Newport, RI, is a famous preservation success story, and Plum Beach Light, in the west passage of the bay, is on the road to restoration, thanks to the Friends of Plum Beach Light. At the southern tip of Conanicut Island, the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum is thriving. The American Lighthouse Foundation now has leased Newport Harbor Light from the Coast Guard and will assume management of the tower after some masonry repair and work on the granite pier supporting the tower is finished by the Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, Dutch Island Light, in the bay’s west passage, has been abandoned for more than 20 years. Recent developments will, hopefully, bring the structure back to life, completing an incredible comeback for the area’s lighthouses.
Dutch Island, between Jamestown to the east and Saunderstown to the west, was known to the local Indians as Quotenis. The 81-acre island became known by its present name because the West India Company established a trading post there in the 1630s. They traded Dutch goods in exchange for furs, meat and fish from the Indians.
The Lighthouse Service acquired six acres at the southern tip of the island in 1825, and a year later, Dutch Island Light was established to mark the western passage of Narragansett Bay and to aid vessels entering Dutch Island Harbor. The first 30-foot tower was built of stones found on the island.
The first keeper was William Dennis, who had fought in the Revolution and was present at the Boston Tea Party. Dennis was 80 years old when he became keeper, and he remained keeper until 1843, when he was 95.
Other than the lighthouse station and the pasturing of sheep, the island saw little activity until a Civil War encampment was established. Gun batteries were added after the Civil War, and the batteries were expanded around the turn of the century. By the late 19th century, the fortifications were named Fort Greble, after Lieutenant John T. Greble, one of the first officers killed in the Civil War. The facility housed as many as 495 personnel during World War I, but other nearby defense installations rendered Fort Greble expendable. The island’s military use ended in 1947, but remnants of the buildings and gun emplacements remain.
The four-room keeper’s dwelling and the lighthouse were described around the mid-nineteenth century as the “worst constructed of any in the state,” and the lantern was described as “wretched.” An 1850 inspection did praise Keeper Robert Dennis (William's som), saying he was “a good honest man, and I think he shows a good light, although a moderate consumer of oil.” The inspection stressed the poor construction of the leaky keeper’s dwelling, mentioning toadstools and moss growing inside the house.
A second 42-foot brick tower and house were constructed for $4,000 in 1857, with a fourth order Fresnel lens showing a fixed white light. The new square white tower was attached to the keeper’s dwelling. A fog bell was installed on the side of the lighthouse in 1878. The bell’s striker was operated by a clockwork mechanism inside the tower.
The lighthouse almost met a premature demise in 1923. Someone was burning trash in the back yard of the keeper’s house when the wind picked up and almost set the tower ablaze. Men stationed at the fort helped put out the fire, and only a storehouse was lost.
One of the more prominent wrecks at Dutch Island was the Roslaie, which ran up onto the island in the early 1900s with a cargo consisting of barrels of white beans. It was reported that local boys found plenty of ammunition for their bean shooters that year.
John Paul, previously at Fall River’s Borden Flats Light, was one of the last keepers at Dutch Island. Keeper Paul’s son Louis later remembered that his father maintained a garden and kept ducks at the station. Keeper Paul found the fishing around the island first-rate; he would catch a “bushel of blackfish” before breakfast, according to his son. Keeper Paul would ride ashore occasionally on a ferry to pick up supplies in Saunderstown or Jamestown. He would buy huge quantites of food, sometimes a whole side of beef that he would salt for extended use at the light station.
In 1924, the light’s characteristic was changed to occulting red. The light was automated in 1947, the same year the military left Dutch Island. The keeper’s house was demolished by the Coast Guard in 1960. All that remains today is the lighthouse, a 1938 concrete storage building with no roof, and the remains of a cistern.
The Coast Guard proposed discontinuing the light in 1972, saying it had outlived its usefulness. They pointed out that in January of that year the light had been out for several days before anyone reported the problem to authorities. There was tremendous opposition to discontinuing the light.
Several petitions and 40 to 50 letters opposing the move were received by the Aids to Navigation office in Boston, and the Rhode Island Natural Resources Department said the light was needed to guide small craft to Dutch Island Harbor. As a result of this pressure, the Coast Guard not only retained the light, but actually increased its intensity.
Due to rampant vandalism, the Coast Guard again proposed discontinuing the light in 1977. In that year alone, vandals smashed the door and stole equipment. Someone even poured liquid steel into a lock. It was just too expensive for the Coast Guard to keep up with the repairs and Dutch Island Light was officially discontinued in 1979, replaced by offshore buoys. Today the tower is in a state of severe decay.
Shirley Sheldon of Saunderstown and other nearby residents initiated a preservation effort some years ago. The effort was abandoned when the group realized the deterioration of the lighthouse was worse than they had feared.
The island and lighthouse are now owned by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
A group from the American Lighthouse Foundation (including me) visited the lighthouse in May 2000, accompanied by Chris Powell of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Division of Fish and Wildlife. Also on the May trip were Dave Lombardi and Keith Fornal of Providence. Dave has founded the Dutch Island Lighthouse Society, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation. The society will work with the ALF to formulate a plan for the stabilization, and ultimately the restoration, of the lighthouse.
Dave Lombardi, Keith Fornal, and I visited the lighthouse again in late June, accompanied by Roberta Randall and Ginger Hesse from the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation Office. Ms. Randall and Ms. Hesse found the structure to be in basically sound condition. It will take a great deal of effort and money, but the lighthouse can be restored.
If you’d like to help save Dutch Island Light, contact:
Dutch Island Lighthouse Society
PO Box 435
Saunderstown, Rhode Island 02874
Email: peterrandallmd@netreach.net
This story appeared in the
August 2000 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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