Aerial view of Sakonnet Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

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.

Sakonnet Point wasn't the easiest duty for a lighthouse keeper. Lucius E. Chadwick battled a constant series of steep swells as he struggled to row his small boat 800 yards in the bitter January cold to his new post. The cramped accommodations in the tower were not to his liking, and after climbing the wooden staircase to the lantern room, he looked out at the ice-cold waters and promptly returned to land and resigned the appointment that he had accepted just two days previously.

While the keepers did not always appreciate the lighthouse, it was definitely appreciated by mariners relying on the beacon in foul weather. The following poem by Lydia Avery Coonley, published in The New England Magazine of August, 1897, captures the importance of the lighthouse.

SAKONNET LIGHT

Our boat is out upon the sea;
The winds blow soft, the sails are free;
Her white bow tosses diamond spray
Upon the swell that glides away.
Across a royal road the sun
into the west his course doth run;
Far out, a boat with shining sail
Calls to the sun farewell and hail;
The waves shake out their flags of white
And evening signals to the night.
The billows strong and stronger grow,
The white keel beats them into snow;
We rise upon the sea's high crest
And dip into her deep curved breast.
The lighthouse, like a soldier dressed,
Looks out into the glowing west,
With shining helmet, coat of mail
By day, by night, he greets each sail,
And, Hail, Sakonnet! each replies
Across the waves, 'neath arching skies.
If on these rocks you did not stand,
Death signs would mark the peaceful strand.
So hail! bright beacon of the night,
Hail, aud thrice hail, Sakonnet Light!

Getting to and from the lighthouse was often difficult and sometimes impossible due to the heavy seas. The tower was cold and damp during winter. 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.

The lighthouse also somehow survived the hurricane, but a large crack was later found in the tower's base. The Coast Guard made the necessary repairs, including replacing the beacon with an incandescent vapor lamp, again powered by kerosene. A foghorn was also installed at that time.

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.

In 2007 a campaign was launched by the Friends of Sakonnet Lighthouse to raise funds to refurbish the lighthouse, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Friends have obtained an $840,000 grant from the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and are seeking another $125,000. An inspection of the tower made a few years earlier revealed that the steel bolts holding the tower's large cast-iron plates together are starting to fail. In order to access the bolts, a brick lining has to be removed. The work, which will include replacing the bolts, sandblasting the plates, and rebuilding the lining is scheduled to begin in 2009, the year of the lighthouse's 125th anniversary.

References

1. America's Atlantic Coast Lighthouse, Kenneth Kochel, 1996.
2. Northeast Lights: Lighthouses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, New Jersey, Robert Bachand, 1989.

A portion of the fourth-order Fresnel lens from the Sakonnet Lighthouse is on display at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine.