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NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI – Like many homes, this one needs a little exterior shine. However, it is a lighthouse costing close to $ 80,000, which prompted the Conservatives to ask for help with their expenses.
The Dutch Island Lighthouse Society is undertaking, after 14 years, the coating of this 1827 sailor beacon once almost lost in the waves of change, except for the commitment years ago of lighthouse enthusiasts and local history.
“It’s been a part of my whole life,” said Scott Chapin, 67, whose family summer cottage was coping with the building’s deterioration and decades ago used his windsurfing skills to paint one side of the building.
Now he is president of the Dutch Island Lighthouse Society and needs an additional $ 60,000 in donations to match the $ 20,000 on hand to essentially re-cement the exterior with a special lime concrete mix.
The lighthouse is located on an 81-acre Dutch island located in the West Passage of Narragansett Bay and between Jamestown and the village of Saunderstown in North Kingstown.
Although the company has a foundation with $ 200,000 in savings, interest rates are low and payments from these are not sufficient to cover costs. Eating into the savings will reduce the nest egg used to cover maintenance costs, which Chapin couldn’t estimate on an annual basis.
Lighthouses have been a part of our nation since its inception, according to the US National Park Service.
In 1789, after passing the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the First Congress of the United States established the Lighthouse Establishment (in the Ninth Passed Act) to resume the operation of the 12 Colonial Lighthouses.
Among them is the Boston Harbor Lighthouse, built in 1716, the first lighthouse established in what is now the United States. The lighthouse establishment, according to the NPS, also oversaw the construction and operation of new lighthouses.
“By preserving the lighthouses, we are preserving for everyone a symbol of this chapter in American history where maritime traffic was the lifeblood of the nation, linking isolated coastal towns and headlands through trade to distant ports. of the world, ”the NPS said in its book. , “Why preserve the lighthouses? “
The lighthouse of the Dutch island
In 2010, Arlene Flemming of The Independent chronicled the history of the Dutch Island Lighthouse.
The first lighthouse was erected on the Dutch island in 1827, but it was eventually demolished. The current structure, which stands 42 feet tall, was built in 1857 and served during the Civil War, she wrote.
In 1977, vandals smashed windows, kicked the door, stole equipment, and poured liquid steel into a lock. Citing their inability to keep up with repairs, the Coast Guard closed the lighthouse in 1979 and replaced it with offshore buoys.
The abandoned lighthouse was a sentry at the entrance to Dutch Island Harbor, but continued to deteriorate.
In 2007, the Coast Guard approved the Dutch island lighthouse
Request from the company to install a battery-powered and solar-powered lamp that stays on. The original Fresnel lens was moved to Maine.
The lighthouse has undergone more than $ 250,000 in restoration over the past 20 years, with the help of federal and state grants as well as funds raised by the Dutch Island Lighthouse Society.
Narragansett’s Abcore restoration painted the structure, stripped years of guano, replaced floors and stairwells, and removed graffiti just before the 2007 lighting.
But the history of the island predates this first lighthouse in 1827. According to the book Images of America, “Dutch Island and Fort Greble” by Walter K. Schroder of Jamestown, the island was originally known as name of Quetenis Island.
Schroder writes that the site was sold to the Dutch West India Co. by the Narragansett Indians around 1636 and from this transaction came the name.
“They used the area as a trading post for about twenty years,” he wrote.
But beginning with the Civil War, the island served as federal and state coastal defense in the Western Passage of Narragansett Bay.
Photos in his book show handsome houses and buildings with slate roofs, barracks the size of large hotels, and soldiers lined up in crisp uniforms and white gloves. The terrain in these old photographs shows cut grass and thinned trees.
The park and the lighthouse today
The remains of the Dutch island’s past uses remain and remain under the supervision of the State Department of Environmental Management. It’s not officially open to the public, Chapin said.
He noted, however, that the Dutch Island Lighthouse Society has legal control of the land around the lighthouse at the tip of the island. There are no tours of the lighthouse, although he or others will occasionally bring interested people to the lighthouse.
It remains locked and secure to deter vandalism, he said.
The exterior limestone concrete to use is a slightly improved mix, said Chapin, which he hopes will give the coating increased durability. The last one made 14 years ago was the same blend used in 1827, he noted while trying to keep the original design.
But changing times mean slight changes if it helps with preservation, he said, as well as pressure for additional donations to help cover costs.
“It’s a lighthouse. It’s history. Do you want all historic places to deteriorate and fall? I don’t think so, ”he said.
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