Sassafras Point Lighthouse

New England Lighthouse Wallpaper Guide to

Sassafras Point Light Station

First Lit: 1872; Deactivated: July 23, 1912
at Position: N 41° 48.1', W 71° 23.5' Nautical Chart
West side of Providence River near Providence, Rhode Island

Public Access:

Characteristic:

Original optic:

Day-mark:

Tower Height:

Fog signal:

First Keeper:

Current Use:

Demolished (3)

FR [Fixed Red]

Sixth-order Fresnel lens

Wood-frame Hexagonal Tower on Granite Pier

14 feet; Height of focal plane: 25 feet; Range: 7.5 miles

none

Lorenzo Clark (2)

See Note (3)

Notes:
(1) The Lighthouse marked Sassafras Point on the west side of the river. Another Lighthouse was built at Fuller Rock on the east side of the river. Both Lights were about a mile apart and worked together to mark the safe shipping channel between them.

      Due to the increased shipping of manufacturing goods and passenger navigation since 1866, a ongoing program upgraded navigation aids in the Narragansett Bay and the Providence River near Providence Harbor, a busy port between Sassafras Point and Fox Point, in the early 1870s by establishing new Lighthouses at Sassafras Point, Fuller Rock, Pomham Rocks, Sabin Point, and Bullocks Point.

      In 1872, a 14-feet high Hexagonal wood-framed Tower on Granite Pier was built exhibiting a Fixed Red Light illuminated by a Sixth-order Fresnel lens 25-feet above sea level. A Keeper’s House was never constructed on site and Light-keeper Lorenzo Clark tended both Sassafras Point Light and Fuller Rock Light about a mile across the river by boat (see Note 2).

(2) One keeper was responsible for both Sassafras Point and Fuller Rock Lights.

      Tending these Lighthouses was a very difficult duty that involved fighting the strong currents, waves, and wind as well as avoiding ships during heavy fog. In addition, a Keeper’s House was never built because local landowners refused to sell a parcel of land to the government.

      The first Keeper resigned after five months and another 8 Keepers would transfer or resign during the first fourteen years of operation. The last Keeper, Captain John Mullen, appointed April 20, 1886, managed to keep both Light Stations for 25 years.

(3) Sassafras Point Lighthouse was removed and the Shoal was dredged away to widen the shipping channel.