A new look is coming to Plum Beach Lighthouse, the 1899 historic beacon located on Narragansett Bay in North Kingstown. The Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse, Inc., owners of the lighthouse, announced last week the planned installation of the rotating LED “Bob & Peg Fulton Memorial Beacon,” to replace the current light in the tower. The late couple, longtime residents of the Plum Beach neighborhood near the lighthouse, established a charitable trust, to be directed to local nonprofits.

The Plum Beach Lighthouse had a rotating beacon as its light when it began operating from 1899. With the opening of the original Jamestown Bridge in 1939, the lighthouse was deemed obsolete by the Coast Guard. The lighthouse’s duties on the Bay were no longer needed as the bridge would be replacing its navigational importance. The lighthouse was abandoned in 1941, and subsequently left to the elements. It fell into disarray, its colors faded to rust. Decades of pigeon generations moved into the structure. It was deemed a hazardous waste site by the University of Rhode Island during studies of it in the early 1970s. It was an ugly eyesore to anyone driving over the bridge, 300 feet from the lighthouse.

In 1988, it was falsely rumored in a newspaper article to be for sale by the State for $1. The article suggested the new owner would have to remove it from Narragansett Bay. The Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse was formed to prevent such an important piece of our maritime history from being snatched away. In the meantime, the State was involved in litigation by a bridge painter who’d been sent to repaint the lighthouse in 1976. He had developed a bacterial infection resulting in a loss of his left eyesight. It had been caused by his inhaling the bird-dropping bacteria prevalent in the lighthouse interior air. Once the lawsuit was settled, the State turned over the lighthouse deed to the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse. With it, they offered a $500,000 grant to renovate the lighthouse. The 6-month renovation took place in 2003. Since 2010, the lighthouse preservation efforts have been supported by Plum Beach Lighthouse license plates. Now supported by $5 annual contributions from more than 8000 PBL license plate holders, the lighthouse remains a sparkling monument to Rhode Island's maritime history.

Following its renovation, the lighthouse was relighted for the first time in more than 62 years. It was awarded a license as a Private Aid to Navigation (PATON) by the United States Coast Guard. The group installed a solar-powered 6-nautical mile LED beacon and was lighted on December 10, 2003. Its flash was directed by the Coast Guard to emulate its historical rotating signal of once every five-seconds. In 2015, the beacon was upgraded to a newer LED fixture, but with an eleven nautical-mile range.

The LED technology at the time did not include rotating beacons. Recent improvements in LED navigational light technology now allows lighthouses to regain their historical look. Plum Beach Lighthouse’s original lantern in 1899 was an acetylene-gas flame rotating on a bed of mercury. The mechanism was driven by a weighted clockwork device hanging in a center column running from the basement to the lantern room. One of the keeper’s duties was to wind the mechanism, much in the same way one would wind a grandfather clock. The flame became a beacon when it was magnified out to Narragansett Bay ships through the polished glass and prisms of its fourth order Fresnel lens.

Since its renovation, Plum Beach Lighthouse looks historically correct by its daytime coloring originally assigned to it when it was built. While it has been lighted at night by a flashing- beacon timed for every five-seconds, its historical nighttime look was lacking. By adding the new rotating LED to its lantern room, Plum Beach Lighthouse will become historically correct at nighttime as well.

The Friends have contracted with Sabik Marine Aids to Navigation for a VRB-25, single tier LED beacon. It will be powered by solar panels presently in place at the lighthouse. It will remain white in color, and will flash once every five seconds. The United States Coast Guard Aids to Navigation office in Bristol, Rhode Island, has given approval of the replacement light. Nationally, the Coast Guard is installing similar LED rotating beacons into many historic lighthouses.

“The Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse are extremely grateful to the Bob & Pat Fulton Charitable Trust for their wonderful contribution,” said David Zapatka, president of Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse. He said in a release the Friends would be adding a memorial plaque in honor of Bob & Pat Fulton to the main lighthouse door, once the lantern is operational. The work is expected to be completed in early fall 2024