Plum Beach Lighthouse Tour and License Plate Artwork Presentation

The Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse, deed holders for the historic lighthouse located beneath the Jamestown Bridge in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, are pleased to announce the passage of legislation allowing the group to sell Plum Beach Lighthouse license plates to interested Rhode Island registered passenger vehicle owners. To celebrate, the group is offering media and other interested parties the rare opportunity to tour the lighthouse on Thursday, November 12.

On October 29, during the special fall legislative session, the state Senate approved their version of the House bill that had been passed during the regular session. After a short grace period, the bill becomes law and the Friends welcome local media and other guests on a tour of the lighthouse to celebrate the passage of the PBL license plate bill. On the day of the tour, the bill, because it was passed by both legislative branches, automatically becomes law without the Governor’s signature, making the lighthouse trip a special day for the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was opened in 1899 to protect vessels from the Plum Beach shoal. Active for only 42 years, the lighthouse was abandoned in 1941 by the Coast Guard after the opening of the original Jamestown Bridge in 1939. The structure deteriorated for 62 years until the Friends, with the help of a RI Department of Transportation grant, renovated it in 2003. Now, a short six years later, the lighthouse is once again in need of a painting. The Friends have tried to raise funds for the past six years and have now turned to the General Assembly, the Division of Motor Vehicles, and the general driving public for help.

The proposed specialty plate will cost drivers a one-time fee of $41.50. $20 from each plate fee collected will go directly to the painting project to help cover the $50,000 estimated painting cost. The state General Fund will benefit from the other $21.50 of each plate sold after the plate costs are deducted. The Friends will need to sell 900 plates before the DMV will commit to making any, but the group is confident they will quickly reach this number. They have already compiled a list of over 450 “pre-orders” from interested drivers, and this was done before the group had the right to sell the plate. Now that the General Assembly has approved the group’s request to create the plate, the Friends can now truly offer this unique RI plate design.

The Plum Beach Lighthouse plate is one of several new specialty plates approved by the General Assembly in the last year, but the group would like to point out that the lighthouse plate is one that has only local roots, and all of the funds collected would stay in the state to repair this local historic icon. Any funds earmarked for the lighthouse will go directly to the repainting project.

The group assembling at the town dock at 8 a.m. on November 12 will board the 50-foot certified passenger vessel Sea Princess of Wickford. Piloted by Coast Guard licensed Captain Doug Somers, the vessel will motor out of Wickford Harbor, turn south outside the harbor breakwater, and travel approximately three miles to the lighthouse beneath the Jamestown-Verrazzanno Bridge. The Sea Princess will circle the lighthouse several times for a photo-op before rafting to the “Lightship,” a 26-foot aluminum-hulled landing craft with a retractable bow piloted by Coast Guard licensed Capt. Keith Lescarbeau, the contractor of the 2003 lighthouse renovation. The group will transfer from the Sea Princess to the Lightship to make their way across the rocks to the lighthouse.

The Friends want to stress the danger and difficulty of this adventure. Very few have ever visited the property as it sits in some of the most treacherous waters of Narragansett Bay. Of the 90 official members of the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse, few have ever visited; at the most, only six current members have ever set foot there. It is surrounded by seaweed and moss covered rocks that become slick as ice when wet, which is most of the time. Once you have cleared these rocks, one must be capable of climbing fifteen feet up a ladder and through an opening no larger than two feet wide. Heavyset overweight people will have a difficult time making their way through this opening.

Proper outdoor waterproof clothing and proper shoes are required for the visit to the lighthouse. If one should slip on the rocks you must expect to get wet or dirty from the growth. Once in the lighthouse the interior walls are rust covered and the floors are dusty. Although the guano was abated during the 2003 renovation, the pungent smell from the years of being inhabited by generations of pigeons and cormorants is ever present. However, the views from the lower deck and the upper lantern room are spectacular and well worth the trip.

The decision to access the lighthouse property will be made jointly by Captains Somers and Lescarbeau. Sea conditions vary greatly from inside Wickford Harbor to the Plum Beach shoal, and the lighthouse is situated in water that has some of the strongest current on the bay. There is no guarantee that the group will make a landing at the lighthouse, but the best effort will be made to get everyone onto the property. Failing to make the landing won’t deem the trip a failure because there will be opportunity to get plenty of great, close visuals from the Sea Princess of the lighthouse.

Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to visit this RI historic icon. Space is limited to 40 on the Sea Princess, so please reserve your reporter and photographer’s spot now. The Friends expect it to be a full ship. This is an extremely rare event and will not be repeated any time soon.

RSVP REQUIRED by November 11 to Dee Hoebbel, 295-7665 deeh4@msn.com

Arts & Crafts Fair on Dec. 6

The list of vendors for the Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse's Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair on December 6 is shaping up nicely. Here's who we have so far:

Virginia Souza, artist - Lighthouse Christmas prints, cards, and original miniature paintings. Virginia's paintings and illustrations have been published in books, magazines and products. Her Christmas lighthouse prints have been featured and sold internationally in Lighthouse Digest magazine and the Lighthouse Depot catalog.

Tammy Dobrosielski, Dragon's Eye Photography and Papercrafts - Framed prints, matted prints, notecards, coaster sets, magnets, and more.

Harold Whitehouse - Harold will be signing copies of his book Home By Nine: The Real South End, about growing up in Portsmouth, NH, in the 1930-50 era.

Pam Sawin, SawinArts - Artist/Designer Pamela Sawin captures the appeal of the playing card theme with unique sophistication and style. Pamela is pleased to offer unique custom products, including reproductions of original works and recreations, for decorative home accents, collectibles, gifts, and stationery. See www.sawinarts.com.

Amy Wallace, Just Not Right Greetings - Jewelry, greeting cards, photography.

Donna Mangeri - Crocheted items; bags and baskets.

Tammy Shackford - Jewelry, crocheted scarves, Patriots and Celtics aprons.

Heidi Barnes, gold specialist - Bring your unwanted gold for a free appraisal. If you decide to sell, Heidi will write you a check on the spot.

Marci Barnes, Yours and Mane - Handcrafted hair accessories.

Ross Tracy, photographer - Original framed and matted prints of lighthouses and other subjects. See www.lightdreamer.com.

William Marshall, photographer and artist - Works inspired by the craggy coast of New England. See www.craggycoast.com.

The Holiday Arts & Crafts Fair will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 6 at the Casey Function Center at 1950 Lafayette Road (Route 1) in Portsmouth, NH. See you there!

Click here for more info and a vendor form.

Lighthouse Art Raffle continues

Just a reminder that there's just over a month remaining to buy tickets for the art raffle benefiting Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse. Click here for all the details.

Lighthouse of the Week - Wickford Harbor, Rhode Island

Wickford is a charming village of the town of North Kingstown. Established in 1663, the community is a tangle of small old streets and lanes with an impressive collection of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century homes. Wickford’s cozy, protected harbor developed as a shipping point for goods from the area’s large plantations. Foreign trade from Wickford also blossomed. Congress appropriated $3,000 for a light at the entrance to Wickford Harbor, and a light at Poplar Point went into service on November 1, 1831.

With increased ferry traffic between Wickford and Newport, the Lighthouse Board’s annual reports in 1878 and 1879 recommended, “Additional aids to navigation to mark the entrance to Wickford Harbor are required. A granite pier surmounted by a small light should be established on Old Gay Rock. . . . The light at Poplar Point could be discontinued if one on Old Gay is established.” On June 15, 1880, Congress appropriated $45,000 for a lighthouse on Old Gay Rock, about 200 yards offshore from the 1831 lighthouse at Poplar Point.

The lighthouse superstructure was an eight-room wood-frame Gothic Revival house. A square lighthouse tower was attached to a corner of the dwelling. A fifth-order Fresnel lens, showing a fixed white light 52 feet above the water, was first illuminated on November 1, 1882. The old light at Poplar Point was simultaneously discontinued. A fog bell and striking machinery were also installed.

The first keeper of the new lighthouse was Henry Sherman, who had been the keeper of Poplar Point Light since 1874. The light would have only three keepers in the course of its 48 years of service.

Keeper Edmund (his name was often reported as Edward) Andrews, who came to Wickford in 1893, was born in 1868 in Providence. He was the son of an English carpenter and an Irishwoman. Andrews went to sea aboard the George W. Darrison out of Block Island, and by 1891 he was working as an assistant lighthouse keeper at Whale Rock Light. While in that position Andrews married Lillian A. Sprague, 17, of Block Island.

Edmund and Lillian had one child when they moved to Wickford, and three more children were born at the lighthouse during their years there. The children made the most of their waterbound home. Their son, Edward, later said that his knuckles were frequently banged up from riding his bicycle in circles around the lighthouse, bumping into the iron railings that surrounded it.

(Right: Keeper Edmund Andrews, 1868-1939. Photo courtesy of Jo Ann Tarbox.)

Andrews was recognized for the rescue of a drowning man in 1898, and a 1905 inspection showed the station in “excellent order.” There were to be some rough times, however. In 1907, Andrews was accused of stealing a neighbor’s chickens (he was later cleared), and was reprimanded for housing his brother-in-law and a friend at the station. The keeper pointed out in his defense that he had been ill and that his wife’s brother was there to row the family’s children ashore to school each day. The friend who had been staying at the lighthouse was a keeper of Block Island North Light. Andrews was told that he would have been allowed to have another person at the station if he was ill, but that he should have notified the authorities of the situation.

In 1909, Andrews was offered a transfer to Eatons Neck Light on Long Island, New York. He turned down this transfer, saying, “I would like to have a land station where there is no vapor lamp or an assistant keeper, not too far out of Rhode Island.” His request was never granted. Andrews spent the rest of his long lightkeeping career at Wickford Harbor.

In June 1930, Andrews requested a retirement with a pension, saying he suffered from “heart trouble and stomach trouble.” He retired after 40 years of service in 1930 and was granted a pension of $969.66 yearly. A medical exam recorded that Andrews had been suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, and a nervous tremor, among other ailments. Andrews died in Massachusetts at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in 1939, the year the Lighthouse Service was taken over by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The lighthouse was destroyed in 1930. As a cost-saving measure, it was replaced by a small, unmanned, automatic light. Today, a square skeleton tower showing a flashing green light tops a pile of rocks on the old lighthouse site.

Visit www.lighthouse.cc/wickford/ for more information.

Wickford Lighthouse presentation on Nov. 19

The North Kingstown Free Library is pleased to be the current residence of a magnificent model of Wickford Lighthouse built by Dominic Zachorne. The original lighthouse was located outside of Wickford Harbor, Rhode Island, from 1882 until 1930.

Join local historian Tim Cranston and Captain Dominic D. Zachorne in a talk about the history of the lighthouse and the process by which the model was created. Doug Somers of the North Kingstown Arts Council, which commissioned the project, will introduce the speakers. Please register for this program.

This event is on Thursday, November 19, at 7 p.m. For more information, call 401-294-3306.

For more on the Wickford Lighthouse, click here and here.

Ghost cat haunts Fairport Harbor Lighthouse

Happy day after Halloween! Click here for the ghost cat story.

Lighthouse of the Week: Pemaquid Point Light, Maine

Pemaquid Point is one of the most frequently visited attractions of the Maine coast, receiving about 100,000 visitors each year. The name “Pemaquid” is said to have had its origins in an Abenaki Indian word for “situated far out.” Settlers Immigrants from Bristol, England, established a settlement at Pemaquid in 1631. Today, the area is part of the town of Bristol, incorporated in 1765.

The point, at the entrance to Muscongus Bay to the east and Johns Bay to the west, was the scene of many shipwrecks through the centuries. In May 1826, with as maritime trade, fishing, and the shipping of lumber were increasing in midcoast Maine, Congress appropriated $4,000 for the building of a lighthouse at Pemaquid Point. Jeremiah Berry of Thomaston was contracted to build the conical rubblestone tower, along with a keeper’s dwelling, also built of stone, 20 by 34 feet with an attached kitchen, 10 by 12 feet. Berry completed construction for the sum of $2,800. The fixed white light went into service on November 29, 1827.

Isaac Dunham of Bath, Maine, became the first keeper, at $350 per year. Dunham, who was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, went to sea at an early age and visited many foreign ports. During the War of 1812, he served on a privateer.

The original stone tower didn’t last long, possibly because Berry may have used salt water to mix his lime mortar. A new conical stone tower was built in 1835 by Joseph Berry of Georgetown, who was the nephew of the builder of the first tower.

Dunham and many of his successors kept animals, including chickens, at the light station. It appears that Dunham was also an inventor of sorts. He received a patent for a system he developed to keep lamp oil from congealing in winter, and in 1837 Congress decreed that the Treasury was authorized to adopt Dunham’s improvements. It isn’t clear how widely his invention was adopted.

Keeper Joseph Lawler and his wife, Sophronia, welcomed a baby girl in 1868; Susie Lawler was the only child ever born at the lighthouse. Marcus A. Hanna, who was later acclaimed for a heroic rescue at Cape Elizabeth, succeeded Lawler in 1869 and stayed until 1873.

On September 16, 1903, while Clarence Marr was keeper, the captain of the fishing schooner George F. Edmunds tried to run for South Bristol Harbor in a gale. The vessel was driven by a strong gust into the rocks near Pemaquid Point and was dashed to pieces. The captain and 13 crew members died in the wreck; only two were saved. The captain of another schooner, the Sadie and Lillie, also died near Pemaquid Point in the same storm.

Leroy S. Elwel was keeper in 1934 when the light became one of the earliest in Maine to be converted to automatic acetylene gas operation. In March 1940, residents of Bristol voted at a town meeting to authorize the town's selectmen to purchase the property, except for the lighthouse tower.

The surrounding property became Lighthouse Park, and the keeper’s house eventually was converted into the Fishermen’s Museum. The museum opened in 1972 and has been operated since then by volunteers from the local area. The Pemaquid Group of Artists added an art gallery to Lighthouse Park in 1960.

In May 2000, the lighthouse tower was licensed by the Coast Guard to the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF). Under the leadership of Dick Melville, a local resident, a chapter of ALF, the Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, was formed. The group soon restored the entryway to the tower and began holding open houses.

Pemaquid Point Light became the first lighthouse ever to ever appear on American currency in 2003, when its image appeared on the official Maine quarter.

By the twenty-first century, the tower’s healthy outward appearance belied the problems within; considerable water intrusion had caused deterioration of the tower’s mortar. It became apparent that significant restoration was needed in a hurry.

In February 2007, Lowe’s Companies and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced that the lighthouse would receive $50,000 toward a $106,000 restoration. In June 2007, personnel from Building Conservation Associates (BCA), analyzed the tower’s coatings, work that was made possible by a $10,000 “New Century Community Program” historic preservation grant from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. The remaining $46,000 needed for restoration was raised by the volunteers of Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, much of it a dollar at a time at open houses.

The tower’s repointing, which utilized the same type of natural cement-based material used during the original construction, was completed by the end of July 2007. A new coat of paint was applied in August. ALF’s executive director, Bob Trapani, commented, “The minute you drive or walk into Pemaquid Point Park, the lighthouse commands your attention in the wake of its restoration. It’s like a shining exclamation point on a seascape of blue.”

Volunteers of the Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse (a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation) manages the tower only. Volunteers open the tower in season (Memorial Day to Columbus Day) to the public every day from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no charge to climb the tower, but donations are welcomed. For more information, contact Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, P.O. Box 353, Bristol, ME 04539-0353. Phone: (207) 563-2739.

A one-bedroom apartment in the keeper’s house is available for weekly vacation rentals. For information, call Newcastle Square Vacation Rentals at (207) 563-6500.

For more information, see www.lighthouse.cc/pemaquid.