Narragansett Bay, RI
Established 1852. (also "Sandy Point")
25 feet tall; light is 28 feet above water

Prudence Island can be visited by taking a ferry from Bristol, but the island is hardly a tourist destination; there are no hotels or restaurants. The lighthouse is a pleasant walk of a bit over a mile from the ferry.

The tricky passage in the Narragansett Bay past hidden ledges between six-mile-long Prudence Island and the mainland led to the establishment of a granite lighthouse tower on the island’s east coast in 1852. Instead of building a new tower, the government moved a 25-foot octagonal granite tower from Goat Island in Newport. The lighthouse had been built in 1823, making this the state’s oldest operating lighthouse.

The worst hurricane in the recorded history of New England hit the coast on September 21, 1938. Keeper George T. Gustavus was at the station with his wife, their youngest son Edward, a former keeper named Martin Thompson, and a visiting couple. "We all rushed upstairs," he later reported, "[and] when the house broke up we were all thrown into the rushing waters - I found myself inside a cottage on the Island about 1/2 mile from where the station dwelling had been. A lad living on the Island followed me down the shore. When he saw me near the cliffs, he stuck a timber down into the water and I clamped the death grip on it. Then he and others hauled me out."