Newport Harbor Lighthouse - Goat Island Light - Newport, Rhode Island USA
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N 41° 29.596 W 071° 19.623
19T E 305751 N 4596131
The 35-foot tall Newport Harbor Lighthouse, also known as the Goat Island Light, is made from roughly cut granite blocks and sits on a pier at the north end of Goat Island in Newport, Rhode Island.
Waymark Code: WM10N7N
Location: Rhode Island, United States
Date Posted: 05/31/2019
Views: 4
The Newport Harbor Lighthouse, also known as the Goat Island Light, is on a pier at the north end of Goat Island in Newport, Rhode Island.
From the National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form (May 1988):
Newport Harbor Light stands at the end of Goat Island along
the northern entrance to the harbor on a 20-foot-square granite
pier. Although the station was established in 1838, the original
lighthouse was replaced by the present structure in 1856. The
light is still active.
The freestanding octagonal white tower, which measures 29
feet from the base to the lamp, is constructed of roughly cut
granite blocks. Two window openings pierce the sides of the
tower; one at the second floor and the other at the third floor.
Both windows originally had six-over-six sash but these have been
replaced with small fixed glass blocks.
At the top of the tower is an octagonal cast-iron lantern,
painted black. A band of iron around the lantern's bottom half
supports twelve panes of triangular glass above, each held in
place with iron frames. A balustrade surrounds the lantern
gallery, and a cast-iron ventilator with a lightning rod spike
caps the structure.
A heavy iron door on the south side of the tower opens on to
a circular stairway, which leads to the lamp and lens in the
lantern. The green fourth-order fixed light, 33 feet above the
water level, can be seen for 11 miles.
Originally, the tower was attached to a two-story stone
keeper's dwelling. The house was torn down in 1922 after it was
struck by a submarine.
Newport Harbor Lighthouse in 1884
Photograph courtesy of National Archives
A more thorough and colloquial narrative by Kraig Anderson on his LighthouseFriends.com website lays out the history of the Goat Island Lighthouse. He tells of:
- its funding, iterations, and locations;
- the island's use by the military, first as a defensive fortification and later as location for research, development, and production of torpedoes -- paradoxically "While, While Goat Island Lighthouse was serving to save vessels, the rest of the island’s inhabitants were busy developing the best method to destroy them."
- and its keepers -- there were nine, between 1824 and 1921, after which the light was electrified and tended by personnel at the torpedo station and then automated in 1963. To this day "it remains an active aid to navigation."
SOURCES:
LighthouseFriends.com
United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service [pdf]