Gull Rocks Light

Last updated
Gull Rocks Light
Gull Rocks Light
Location Narragansett Bay near Newport, Rhode Island
Coordinates 41°30′8.5″N71°19′59″W / 41.502361°N 71.33306°W / 41.502361; -71.33306 Coordinates: 41°30′8.5″N71°19′59″W / 41.502361°N 71.33306°W / 41.502361; -71.33306
Tower
ConstructionWood frame
Automated1960
Height33 feet (10 m)
ShapeA-frame house with skeleton tower added in 1928
Light
First lit1887
Deactivated1969
Lenstwo lens lanterns

The Gull Rocks Light was a lighthouse at the entrance to Newport harbor northwest of Rose Island. A unique A-frame structure, it was supplemented with a skeleton tower in 1928.

Contents

History

The Gull Rocks obstruct the passage north of Rose Island, and in the mid-19th century the Old Colony Steamboat Company took steps to mark the reef. Initially an employee of the company was stationed on the rocks with a horn; later, a lamp on a post was erected.

In 1885 the Lighthouse Service made its first request to replace this lamp with a federal lighthouse, but the replacement was not constructed until 1887. The wooden A-frame house was unlike anything else in the area, and it had neither tower nor lantern room. Instead, a lamp was hung in either gable: red on one end, and white on the other. The unique roof caused some problems with the usual practice of collecting rainwater in cisterns, as it was prone to contamination from salt spray. The first keeper, Frederick Purinton, was badly injured in 1894 by an assailant believed to be a local lobsterman, and quit the post two weeks later.

In 1900 the original lamps were replaced by brighter lanterns, but the same arrangement of hanging them obtained. Then in 1928 a small skeleton tower was erected next to the house, sporting an acetylene lamp. The station survived the devastating hurricane of 1938 and was manned until 1960, when the light was automated and the house demolished. In 1969 construction of the Newport Bridge, which passes immediately adjacent to the rocks, rendered the light useless, and the tower was likewise removed, leaving the tiny oil house as the sole remaining trace of the station.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lighthouse</span> Structure designed to emit light to aid navigation

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddystone Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse in Cornwall, England

The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles (14 km) south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Throgs Neck Light</span> Lighthouse

Throgs Neck Light in Throggs Neck, the Bronx, New York, was a wooden lighthouse that was replaced by an iron skeletal tower that is still there. The lighthouse protects ships in the Long Island Sound from running up against the rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Canaveral Light</span> Lighthouse in Florida, USA

The Cape Canaveral Light is a historic lighthouse on the east coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The light was established in 1848 to warn ships of the dangerous shoals that lie off its coast. It is located inside the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and managed by the Space Launch Delta 45 of the U.S. Space Force with the assistance of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation. It is the only fully operational lighthouse that is owned by the United States Space Force.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brant Point Light</span> Lighthouse

Brant Point Light is a lighthouse located on Nantucket Island. The station was established in 1746, automated in 1965, and is still in operation. The current tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1987; it has the distinction of being the tenth light on the point, in addition to several range lights. Four of the others burned or blew down, two were condemned, two were unsatisfactory, and the remaining one stands unused.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dumpling Light</span> Lighthouse

North Dumpling Light is a lighthouse on North Dumpling Island in Long Island Sound off Fishers Island, New York. It was constructed in 1849, rebuilt in 1871, and deactivated in 1959, with the aid to navigation being moved to an automated metal tower placed nearby. The lighthouse itself and the grounds around it were sold to a private party. Around 1977, a new owner convinced the U. S. Coast Guard to return the light to the lighthouse and remove the skeleton tower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marblehead Light (Massachusetts)</span> Lighthouse

Marblehead Light is situated on Marblehead Neck in Essex County, Massachusetts. The current tower is a skeletal structure that replaced the original 1835 brick and wood tower in 1895. It is the only tower of its type in New England, the next similar tower is to be found at Coney Island, New York. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, on June 15, 1987 as number #87001479 under Lighthouses of Massachusetts Thematic Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ida Lewis Rock Light</span> Lighthouse

Ida Lewis Lighthouse, which was formerly the Lime Rock Lighthouse, is in the Newport harbor in Rhode Island. It is named after Ida Lewis, who lived and worked at the lighthouse from 1857 and was the official lighthouse keeper from 1879 until her death in 1911. She was celebrated for many acts of bravery in saving lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishing Battery Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Fishing Battery Light was the last lighthouse constructed in Maryland by John Donahoo. While still standing, it has been supplanted by a steel tower which stands adjacent to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch Island Light</span> Lighthouse

Dutch Island Light is a historic lighthouse on Dutch Island off Jamestown, Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayo Beach Light</span> Lighthouse

The Mayo Beach Light was an early lighthouse on Cape Cod. Deactivated in 1922, the second tower was moved to California and re-erected as the Point Montara Light in 1928.

The Bullock's Point Light was a lighthouse in the Providence River. It was irreparably damaged by the hurricane of 1938 and was replaced the following year by an automated light on a steel tower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gull Rock Light Station</span> Lighthouse in Michigan, United States

The Gull Rock Light Station is an active lighthouse located on Gull Rock, just west of Manitou Island, off the tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. The light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, even as its condition deteriorated, resulting in its placement on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Capricorn Light</span> Lighthouse in Queensland, Australia

Cape Capricorn Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on Cape Capricorn, a coastal headland on the northeast point of Curtis Island, in Gladstone Region, Central Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse, constructed in 1964, is the third at this site, following a timber frame lighthouse constructed in 1875 and a concrete lighthouse constructed around 1937. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 31 August 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Moreton Light</span> Lighthouse in Queensland, Australia

Cape Moreton Light, also listed as North Point Range Rear Light, is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Cape Moreton, a rocky headland located at the north eastern tip of Moreton Island, a large sand island on the eastern side of Moreton Bay, on the coast of South East Queensland, Australia. It marks the northern entrance to Moreton Bay and Brisbane and also serves as the rear light for the North Point Range. With its two distinctive red bands, it also serves as a daymark. It is the oldest lighthouse in Queensland, and the only one to be built by the New South Wales Government before the separation of Queensland, which took place in 1859. It is also the only lighthouse in Queensland to be built of stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cleveland Light</span> Lighthouse in Queensland, Australia

Cape Cleveland Light is an active heritage-listed lighthouse located on the northern tip of Cape Cleveland, a promontory projecting into the Coral Sea west of Cleveland Bay in the locality of Cape Cleveland about 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The lighthouse marks the northern point of the Cape, and the entrance to Cleveland Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dent Island Light</span> Lighthouse

Dent Island Light is an active lighthouse on Dent Island, a small island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, part of the Whitsunday Group of the Whitsunday Islands. Located on the southwest tip of the island, the light guides ships navigating the Whitsunday Passage, between Whitsunday Island and the islands to the west, and marks the Dent Island Passage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Pass Light</span> Lighthouse in Louisiana, US

The South Pass Light, also known as the Port Eads LighthouseSouth Point Light, or Gordon's Island Light, are a pair of lighthouses located on Gordon's Island at South Pass, in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana (USA), one of the primary entrances to the Mississippi River Delta from the Gulf of Mexico. The light station was established in 1831 and is still active.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Agnes Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse

St. Agnes lighthouse is a 17th century lighthouse situated on St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly. It was the second to be built in the western approaches ; it was also only the second lighthouse station to be established by Trinity House.

References