The Lighthouse presented images of sight and sound that
conveyed a profound sense of beauty, security, dependability,
and peace.
- Lawrence H. Bradner, The Plum Beach Light:
The Birth, Life and Death of a Lighthouse.
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The West Passage of Narragansett
Bay, the most direct route from the south to Providence, Rhode
Island, was bustling with vessels carrying coal and other freight
in the late 1800s. Plum Beach Light was established to help mariners
through this busy and dangerous area. Construction of the lighthouse
was a great challenge, since the seas in the area were particularly
rough.
During the building period a construction schooner lost anchorage
and was swept down the passage, saved only by a cable near Beavertail.
The contractor complained that Narragansett Bay was "the
stormiest place we have ever worked."
Plum Beach Light was one of a small number of American lighthouses
built by the pneumatic caisson method. A massive wooden caisson
topped with the first few courses of a cast-iron cylinder, 33
feet in diameter, was lowered to the floor of the bay. The water
was pumped out of the caisson and workers entered it to dig into
the bottom, allowing the structure to sink 30 feet into the floor
of Narragansett Bay.
When the 54-foot cast-iron lighthouse was finished in 1899
there were not enough funds available for a lens, so for a time
a temporary lantern was used.
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- U.S. Coast Guard Academy Library
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A fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed and illuminated
on July 1, 1899. The revolving lens floated on a bed of mercury.
The Lighthouse Service had trouble staffing the lighthouse,
as many keepers felt it to be a dangerous and isolated location.
During the severe winter of 1918, people were able to drive
vehicles across the frozen West Passage. The foundation of the
lighthouse was badly cracked by the ice. Repairs were made in
1922 and 9,000 tons of riprap stone were added to prevent further
damage.
Many visitors came by boat to Plum Beach Light and were treated
to tours given by Keeper Charlie Ormsby. These guests were impressed
by the immaculate condition of the lighthouse and by the breathtaking
view of the bay from the lantern room. Other visitors swam to
the lighthouse, and eventually the "Lighthouse Swim"
became an organized annual event.
The keepers augmented their diet with clams and quahogs dug
at nearby Plum Beach Point and blueberries picked on the shore
of Conanicut Island. For those who were strong enough to row
back and forth to the mainland and were willing to endure the
rough winters, Plum Beach Light was not a bad place to be a keeper.
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At about 2:30 on the afternoon of September 21, 1938, Edwin
S. Babcock, a substitute keeper, left in a dory to row ashore
from Plum Beach Light. The seas were growing rough and Babcock
was forced to return to the lighthouse. John O. Ganze, assistant
keeper, was in charge. It was becoming obvious that a major storm
was on the way, so the two men secured all the windows and doors
in the tower.
Waves were soon pounding the lighthouse. Babcock looked out
a window and saw a yacht passing by "at 60 miles per hour."
Babcock later reported the yacht's occupants as dead, thinking
they couldn't have survived. But they did survive, landing 200
feet inland on Fox Island, near Wickford.
The keepers took refuge in the fourth level of the lighthouse,
only to see that wrecked boats and buildings were sweeping past
them. The 30-foot waves broke open a door in the tower, washing
away furniture and the station's boats. The two men went as high
as they could, to the fog bell room. There they lashed themselves,
back to back, to the pipe that contained the weights for the
clockwork mechanism that rotated the lens. They felt a gigantic
wave, possibly a tidal wave, strike the lighthouse. Finally,
by early in the evening, the storm subsided.
It wasn't until the next morning that the men could get a
clear picture of how lucky they were to be alive. Assistant Keeper
Ganze used the light to signal the keeper at Whale Rock Light
five miles away. There was no answer -- Whale Rock Light and
its keeper were lost in the hurricane.
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Seven people at lighthouses in the general area were killed
in the hurricane of 1938, and several lighthouses were destroyed
or irrevocably damaged. 262 people in the state of Rhode Island
died in the storm. The hurricane reopened the old cracks in Plum
Beach Light and did great damage to the entire structure.
In 1941 the completion of the first bridge between North Kingstown
and Jamestown made Plum Beach Light obsolete. Birds took posession
of the abandoned tower.
The lighthouse soon lost all its doors and windows and became
badly rusted. The Coast Guard claimed that the lighthouse became
state property by eminent domain, but the state denied ownership.
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James Osborn was hired to paint the lighthouse in 1973. He
became severely ill and suffered permanently blurred vision from
exposure to the guano in the tower and filed a lawsuit against
the state in 1984. The case was in and out of the courts for
14 years.
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In 1988, a Massachusetts group planned to buy the lighthouse
and moving it to Quincy, Massachusetts, where it was to be converted
into a lighthouse museum. A local woman, Shirley Silvia, felt
the structure should stay put. Silvia and others founded the
Friends of Plum
Beach Lighthouse but made little progress due to the
question of ownership.
Plum Beach Light continued to deteriorate, a battered hulk
that seemed more an eyesore than a guardian.
In June 1998 a Superior Court ruled that the state "owned
and controlled Plum Beach Lighthouse" at the times relevant
to Osborn's suit. Three months later the suit was finally settled
as the state awarded Osborn $42,000.
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The settlement of the ownership issue cleared the way for
the Friends
of Plum Beach Lighthouse to acquire the lighthouse. In
October 1999, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
transferred the deed for the 100-year-old structure to the nonprofit
organization.
At the deed transfer ceremony, DEM Director Jan H. Reitsma
said:
The determined efforts of the Friends
of Plum Beach Lighthouse, Inc., have now paid off and
will ensure that the lighthouse will continue to have an important
place in Rhode Island's history.
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Senator John Chafee was quoted in the press release for the
transfer:
There are no better symbols of reliability, constancy and
guidance than lighthouses... I'm proud to have played a role
in this worthy endeavor, and I tip my hat to Shirley Silvia and
the Friends
of Plum Beach Lighthouse, Inc. Through their dogged persistence,
they have made this day possible. Three cheers!
In 1999 the Friends
of Plum Beach Lighthouse received $500,000 under the
Transportation Act for the 21st Century, known as TEA-21. In
August 2000 a team from Newport Collaborative Architects visited
the lighthouse. A preliminary estimate of $955,000 for a complete
restoration of the lighthouse, inside and out, was made in October
2000.
It was eventually decided to move forward with a restoration
of the exterior first. In early 2003 a contract was awarded to
the Abcore Restoration Company of Narragansett, RI, and work
began in late June 2003.
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- October 21, 1999 - The day of the
deed transfer
- L to R: Jan Reitsma, DEM; Shirley
Silvia, Dot Silva, George Silva, and Alda Kaye of the Friends
of Plum Beach Lighthouse
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- Keith Lescarbeau of Abcore at work
at Plum Beach Lighthouse.
- Photo by David
Zapatka, courtesy of Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse.
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An astonishing 52 tons of pigeon guano was removed from inside
the tower with the help of Clean Harbors Environmental Services,
and it's hoped that the interior can be fully restored in the
future. The Abcore crew under Keith Lescarbeau removed a half-inch
layer of rust from the outside of the caisson and added reinforcing
steel bands to the caisson to prevent further damage. The stone
riprap around the caisson was also reinforced.
The upper gallery and its railing were repaired, new doors
and windows installed, and eight new glass panels were installed
in the lantern. The lighthouse has been repainted in its original
color scheme with the lantern and caisson black while the tower
is painted brown on its upper portion and white on the lower
half.
The Coast Guard approved the return of a light to the lighthouse,
once again making it an active aid to navigation.
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Plum Beach Light can be seen distantly from shore and as you're
driving over the Jamestown-Verrazzano Bridge, but it is best
viewed by boat.
To help with the restoration of Plum Beach Light, contact:
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- You can read much more about this lighthouse in the book
The Lighthouses
of Rhode Island by Jeremy D'Entremont.
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- The lighthouse toward the end of
the 2003 renovation.
- Photo by David
Zapatka, courtesy of Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse.
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- Keepers: Joseph L. Eaton (1897-1899); Judson
G. Allen (1899-1904); George Erhardt (1904-1911); George A. Troy
(1911-1913); Charles Ormsby (c. 1915 - mid-1920s); ? Robarge
(c. 1920s); "Moon" Mullins (c. 1920s); Edwin S. Babcock,
substitute keeper (early 1920s - 1938); Reuben Phillips (late
1920s - c. 1938); John Otto Ganze, (assistant c. 1933-c. 1938,
keeper c. 1938-1940).
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- If you have further information on keepers of this lighthouse,
please email keeper@lighthouse.cc
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