Ida Lewis Rock Lighthouse

Year Built

1854

Cost

$1,000

Type

Square

Height

13 feet

Location

Newport Harbor, Newport

Automated Year

1927

First Lit

1854

Lens Type

Sixth order Fresnel Lens

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

1927 (Original light) - 1963 (Automated light)

Color

White with black lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Evard Jansen (1911 – 1927)

Description

The original light was replaced with an automated, acetylene light on a skeleton tower.

Brief History

•  Ida Lewis Rock Lighthouse was originally known as Lime Rock Lighthouse, due to its location atop Lime Rock, about 300 yards offshore from the southern side of Newport Harbor.
•  The station’s present name comes from its famous female keeper, Idawalley (Ida) Zoradia Lewis, who was the daughter of Hosea Lewis, the light’s first keeper.
•  Hosea Lewis died in 1872, and even though Ida had been keeper for years, it was the custom to appoint the keeper’s widow as a replacement, and Ida’s mother was officially given the position.
•  In 1927, the light was transferred to a thirty-foot steel tower placed in front of the dwelling and automated.
•  In 1995, the Coast Guard named the first of its new keeper class of coastal buoy tenders in honor of Ida Lewis.