Prudence Island Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont

Prudence Island, about seven miles long, is the third largest island in Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. It was determined around 1850 that a lighthouse was needed to guide vessels passing between Sandy Point, at the island’s easternmost extremity, and Aquidneck Island, about a mile to the east. Instead of building a new lighthouse, a disused one at Goat Island in Newport was moved to Prudence Island. Originally built at Goat Island in 1842, the lighthouse still stands at Sandy Point and is the oldest free-standing lighthouse in the state.

The granite stairs inside Prudence Island Lighthouse

The Prudence Conservancy, a nonprofit organization, was involved with the upkeep of the lighthouse and its grounds since the late 1980s. The Coast Guard granted a license to the group in 2001, and in 2024, the property was conveyed to the Prudence Conservancy under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.

Interviewed in this episode are Prudence Island Historian Joe Bains, and Ray Jenness, who is the chairman of the Prudence Conservancy. The interview was recorded at the Prudence Island Historical Museum.

The wife and son of Keeper George Gustavus, along with three other people, lost their lives when the keeper’s house at Prudence Island was destroyed in the Hurricane of 1938. Courtesy of Joan Kenworthy.