Sakonnet Light, built in 1884, is a sparkplug lighthouse

Sparkplug lighthouse

A sparkplug lighthouse, sometimes known as a bug light, is a type of caisson lighthouse so named because of its shape. Generally speaking, a sparkplug lighthouse consists of a three-story living area, with the lantern on top; the whole is then placed upon a concrete or metal caisson. The...

 near Sakonnet Point, Little Compton, Rhode Island

Little Compton, Rhode Island

Little Compton is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. Its population was 3,492 at the time of the 2010 census. Little Compton is located in southeastern Rhode Island, between the Sakonnet River and the Massachusetts state border...

, on the eastern side of the state.

The light was deactivated in 1954 after Hurricane Carol

Hurricane Carol

Hurricane Carol was among the worst tropical cyclones to affect the New England region of the United States. It developed from a tropical wave near the Bahamas on August 25, 1954, and gradually strengthened as it moved northwestward. On August 27, Carol intensified to reach winds of , but weakened...

and was going to be destroyed, but local citizens protested, and eventually Carl and Carolyn Haffenreffer bought the lighthouse in 1961. The lighthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The Friends of Sakonnet Point acquired the lighthouse in 1985 and it was reactivated by the Coast Guard in 1997.

Gallery

External links

• Lighthouse pics and info
• America's Atlantic Coast Lighthouse, Kenneth Kochel, 1996.
• Northeast Lights: Lighthouses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, New Jersey, Robert Bachand, 1989.