Castle Hill Lighthouse is a lighthouse located in Ocean Drive Historic District in western Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA. Built in 1890. Automated in 1957.
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| Castle Hill Lighthouse Rhode Island |
History
The cities of Providence and Newport, one of the first English settlements in North America, were major centers of industry and trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. To ensure navigation to them through Narragansett Bay, which contains many large and small islands, several lighthouses were built. In 1875, the US Congress appropriated $10,000 to build a fog signal on the eastern end of Rhode Island, but the owners of the land refused to sell it, as they thought noise from the signal would reduce its value. In the late 1880s, it was decided to build a full-fledged lighthouse and a caretaker’s dwelling in this place, and the owner of the land, who turned out to be the famous oceanographer and marine zoologist Alexander Agassiz, agreed to sell it for $1. The Castle Hill Lighthouse was completed in 1890. It was a conical tower of granite blocks, located on a cliff, 10 meters high, on top of which a Fresnel lens was installed. The brick caretaker's house was built 400 meters from the lighthouse. In 1957, the US Coast Guard automated the Castle Hill Lighthouse.
In 1988, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.