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Point Judith, part of the town
of Narragansett, extends more than a mile from the Rhode Island
coast and markes the entrance to Narragansett Bay to the north
and Block Island Sound to the south. Several Indian tribes --
predominately the Narragansetts -- were living in the area when
English settlers arrived.
The passage past Point Judith was a dangerous one, with a
treacherous ledge to the west and frequent fog in the area. A
day beacon at Point Judith dated back to before the American
Revolution.
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The origin of Point Judith's name is disputed. Some say it
was after the wife or mother-in-law of merchant John Hull, others
say it was named for the Tribe of Judah in the Bible. The most
colorful explanation concerns a Nantucket sea captain, lost in
the fog off the point. The captain's daughter shouted that she
spotted land. The captain, unable to discern anything in the
fog, exhorted his daughter to "P'int, Judy, p'int!"
The first lighthouse was built at Point Judith in 1810 for
$5,000. This octagonal wooden tower, the third lighthouse in
Rhode Island, was destroyed in a severe hurricane in September
1815. A 35-foot stone lighthouse was erected the following year.
The new tower had a revolving light. In 1838, it was reported
that the mechanism, powered by a weight of more than 200 pounds,
took 144 seconds to complete a revolution. This was six seconds
slower than intended. The revolving light was necessary to differentiate
Point Judith from Beavertail Light.
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From the collection of Edward Rowe
Snow, courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell |
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The station was cold and damp, and the bedroom was located
in the attic of the keeper's house. The keeper and his family
are said to have slept in the kitchen to keep warm in the winter.
In 1838 an inspector reported that the ten lamps and reflectors
were in poor condition and that ice on the lantern glass was
a common problem.
Despite the lighthouse, frequent wrecks continued in the vicinity.
In 1855 alone, 16 vessels were wrecked or stranded near Point
Judith.
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Edgar
Ravenswood Eaton was keeper from 1849 to 1853. The site was inspected
in the summer of 1850, and it was reported that the tower needed
repointing and whitewashing, and the lantern was in need of repainting.
The dwelling was “somewhat decayed in or about the sills,” and the
windows were leaky. The lighting apparatus was clean and in good order,
but it was reported that Keeper Eaton, “without doubt, burns oil to a
waste.” In the files of the Newport Historical Society is a
stern letter to Eaton dated November 18, 1850, from Edward Lawton, the
local lighthouse superintendent. Lawton wrote: Complaint
has been made at this office that your Light was out from two to half
past 4 o’clock this morning; how much longer the complainant could not
tell. I presume it is not necessary for me to say that such an
occurrence is altogether inadmissible; your light is an important one
& the consequences from missing it are serious indeed—if your oil
is not good or the revolving apparatus is out of order let me know
immediately, and I beg of you let no more complaints be made that the
lights are out.
Eaton offered a poignant defense, illustrating an essential dilemma of lighthouse keepers at times of family illnesses: Sir
I was up all night tending to a sick child and was at the Light house
after 1 oclock at night it was then a bright light . . . . I was out
doors about four o’clock in the morning and the light was bright then I
am serting. [sic]
In 1857, a new 51-foot brownstone tower and brick
dwelling, connected to the tower by an enclosed walkway, were
built. The lighthouse, which still stands, is an octagonal structure.
It was fitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens from Paris; this
lens remains in place today. The upper half of the tower was
later painted brown and the lower half white.
Late 1800s photo of the 1857 lighthouse and keeper's house. (U.S. Coast Guard)
- Keeper Joseph Whaley. Courtesy of
Marise Whaley Sykes.
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A family dynasty of keepers that would span nearly a half-century
began in 1862 when Joseph Whaley oldest of 11 children
and a native of Narragansett arrived as keeper at a yearly
salary of $350. "Captain Joe" and his wife raised three
daughters and a son in their 27 years at the lighthouse. Their
son, Henry, would become the next keeper in 1889 (at $650 per
year), staying until 1910.
The Narragansett Times
reported on the astounding number of vessels seen passing Point Judith
from June 1, 1871, to June 1, 1872. Keeper Whaley counted 4,444
steamers, 2,183 sloops, 29,757 schooners, 728 brigs, 122 barks, and 23
other ships—numbers that attest to the continued value of the light and
fog signal.
An 1889 article in the Providence Journal at the time
of Joe Whaley's retirement at age 70 described his typical duties.
The oil lamp needed to be filled after "lighting up"
at sunset, then again at 10 p.m. and at 2 a.m. The clockwork
mechanism that rotated the lens needed to be rewound during the
predawn hours.
During the day, the weather had to be monitored for the first
sign of fog or storm, because the steam boiler for the siren
had to be ready for business when visibility was low. Of course,
the buildings and grounds had to be kept in top condition, and
the brasswork and Fresnel lens had to be immaculate. |
The keepers
also had to cordially show around any visitors to the lighthouse.
It was not unusual for 200 or more visitors to arrive on a summer
afternoon. All in all, the keeper and his assistant had plenty
to do "besides basking on the little stretch of green smoking
their pipes," as Joe Whaley put it.
Sometimes tricks of the weather meant that the powerful signal
couldn't be heard even a short distance from the point. One ship
captain complained to the authorities that the siren wasn't sounding
properly, but Joe Whaley pointed out that the district lighthouse
superintendent was with him in the signal house at the hour in
question, along with a half dozen other people. The vagaries
of nature were to blame, not the keeper.
One
of Joe Whaley’s daughters married Henry W. Clark, keeper at Block
Island Southeast Light, and another married Herbert Knowles, the
longtime keeper of the nearby Point Judith Life Saving Station that had
been established a short distance to the east of the lighthouse in
1876. | 
The Whaleys around the dinner table. Joseph Whaley is second from right, and Henry Whaley is in the center. Courtesy of
Marise Whaley Sykes. |
At his retirement, Whaley expressed some resentment about
complaints:
You see it is a good deal of responsibility between the
light and the fog signal. And I'm getting pretty old to shoulder
it all, although my son Henry has relieved me of a good deal
of it for years past. Why, every sailor man in the world has
his eyes open to catch the lighthouse keepers and complain of
them, and they do it every time they get a chance. That is all
right, of course, for no one can watch the lighthouses and fog
signals in times when they need watching except the sailor who
happens to be going by and needs to have everything running all
right. They make lots of funny complaints, though. Of course
that about the fog signal not running is the most frequent, and
I don't blame them either. But they watch to see whether your
light is lit sharp at sunset, and if it goes out sharp at sunrise,
and Block Island has been complained of several times for having
the light burning after sunrise when it was the sun reflecting
from the glass.
With heavy maritime traffic, wrecks continued to occur with
regularity in the vicinity of Point Judith. On September 9, 1896,
while Henry Whaley was keeper, a storm with winds of 80 miles
per hour ran into the coast. At least five vessels were wrecked
near Point Judith in the storm, and passengers on board the steamer
Rhode Island reported that they received "a terrible
shaking" while passing the point.
 | The old lifesaving station was destroyed in a 1933 fire, and the existing Coast Guard
station building was constructed in 1937.
Today, Coast Guard Station
Point Judith handles about 170 search- and- rescue cases each year. The
station’s boats are kept three miles away in Galilee.
In 1931, a radio beacon was established at Point Judith, the
first at a Rhode Island lighthouse. The radio beacon towers were
removed in 1974. Shipping traffic past Point Judith remained heavy in the 20th
century. In 1907, 22,860 vessels were counted passing the lighthouse
in daylight hours. The traffic was four times greater than the
traffic entering New York Harbor. Left: U.S. Coast Guard photo showing the 1937 Coast Guard building. |
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The Coast Guard built larger quarters and support buildings
in 1937. Point Judith Light escaped the great hurricane of September
1938 relatively unscathed, although 250 feet of the seawall was
destroyed.
The 1857 brick keeper's house was torn down in 1954, the same
year the light was automated. An 1874 assistant keeper's house
has also been destroyed. The 1917 oil house and a 1923 fog signal
building still stand.
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U.S. Coast Guard photo |
In the summer of 2000, Point Judith Light underwent a major
restoration. Coast Guard architect Marsha Levy did the design
work and oversaw the restoration by Campbell Construction of
Beverly, Massachusetts. The lens was removed to the Coast Guard
Aids to Navigation Team in Bristol, Rhode Island, and the lantern
went to Campbell Construction for refurbishing. Some of the lantern's
panels were replaced, and a repainting left it in pristine condition.
The refurbished lantern was returned
to Point Judith Light on July 13, 2000.
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New galvanized steel windows with six panes of safety glass
were installed, similar to the tower's original wrought iron
windows.
Some of the original brownstone, which "weathers horribly"
according to Levy, had to be replaced. Brownstone is hard to
come by these days, but a quarry was found in Cheshire, Connecticut.
The new stones were dyed to match the old ones. The project also
utilized special mortar from Holland, which is custom formulated
to match any stone. Cracks were patched on the interior and exterior
of the tower. Rather than paint the upper half of the tower brown,
Levy decided to leave it the natural brownstone color, with a
dye making it slightly darker.
According to Marsha Levy, the restoration should leave the
tower in excellent condition for at least 100 years.
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- Coast Guard architect Marsha Levy
and Dave Campbell, owner of Campbell Construction
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- U.S. Coast Guard Station Point Judith
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Point Judith remains an active Coast Guard station. The grounds
are easily accessible and are open to the public during the day.
You can read much more about this lighthouse in the book The Lighthouses
of Rhode Island by Jeremy D'Entremont.
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Point Judith Light has finials shaped
like miniature lighthouses on its lantern gallery
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Looking up at the cast iron spiral
stairs in the tower
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Keepers: (This
list is a work in progress. If you have any information on the keepers
of this lighthouse, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at nelights@gmail.com.
Anyone copying this list onto another web site does so at their own
risk, as the list is always subject to updates and corrections.) John P. Whitford (1809-1835), Benjamin
Hadwens (1841-1845), William A. Weeden (1845-1849), Edgar Ravenswood
Eaton (1849-1853), G. H. Clark (1853-1856), Samuel Tucker (1856-1861),
Daniel E. Tefft (1861-1862), Joseph Whaley (1862-1889), Edwin
B. Tucker (1st asst., 1867), Henry W. Clark (1st asst., 1867-1873),
Isaac Negas (1st asst., 1873), Benjamin A. King (1st asst., 1873-1874),
Samuel Beaumont (1st asst., 1874), C. C. Clark (1st asst., 1874-1875),
J. Sennett (1st asst., 1875-1876), Henry A. Whaley (1st asst.,
1876-1889, keeper 1889-1910), William Nelson (1st asst., 1889),
John Stedman (1st asst., 1889-1898), Harry Collins (1st asst.,
1898-1901), Julius Gregove (1st asst., 1901-1904), Arthur E.
Godfrey (1st asst., 1904-1906), Willis A. Green (1st asst., 1906-1910,
keeper 1910-1911), J. N. (Julius ?) Gregove (1st asst., 1910-1911),
Elmer J. Rathbun (1911-1929), A. D. Gilmore (1st asst., 1911-1918),
Jeremiah J. Allen (1st asst., 1918-1929), Rudolph Iten (1929-1941),
Carl S. Chellis (1st asst., 1929-1939), Octavius E. Davis (1st
asst., 1939-1941)
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