Plum Beach Lighthouse

Year Built

1897

Cost

$60,000

Type

Conical "sparkplug" tower

Height

52 feet

Location

Narragansett Bay north of the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge

Automated Year

White flash every five seconds

First Lit

2003

Lens Type

Fourth-order Fresnel lens - Present optic: VLB-44 (LED)

Fog Signal

Bell Struck By Machinery (1912)

Year Deactivated

1941 - 2003

Color

White and the upper half brown

Last Keeper - Date

Reuben W. Phillips (1935 – at least 1939)

Description

The tower still stands as a private aid to navigation

Brief History

•  On January 28, 1928 a minor snowstorm hit Rhode Island. Keeper Ormsby was on shore when the storm hit Rhode Island and the lighthouse was unattended.
•  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.
•  In 1974 two scientists were studying the pigeon colony that lived in Plum Beach Lighthouse.
•  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.
•  During the summer of 2010, Abcore Restoration painted the lighthouse.