Pomham Rocks Lighthouse stands on a rocky island about 800 feet from the eastern shoreline of the Providence River along the East Bay Bike Path. As shipping traffic on the Providence River increased in the early 19th century, the small islands of Pomham Rocks became an ideal location for an aid to navigation, first receiving a pyramidal daymark in 1828. After Congress granted $20,000 on July 15, 1870, construction was completed at the end of 1871 on a 40-foot beveled square tower atop a two-story residence with a mansard roof on a granite foundation, with a watch room and a separate stone oil house nearby. First lit on December 1, 1871, with a fixed white light from a sixth-order Fresnel lens later upgraded to a fourth-order lens, it was changed to a fixed red light on October 1, 1872, and kept that characteristic throughout active service. The station had no electricity or running water when built, later received a telephone in 1940 and electricity in the 1950s, and relied on kerosene appliances, a windmill for radio power, and a cistern that collected rain water. Often difficult to reach except by boat, especially in winter ice, it nevertheless served as home to keepers, their families, and pets until the 1950s, and in its final active years was tended by two members of the U.S. Coast Guard. An incessant foghorn installed in 1900 was replaced by a bell in 1903, and after decommissioning in 1974 the lighthouse was cared for by local families until its sale to Mobil Oil Company in 1980. In 2005, Exxon Mobil leased it to the American Lighthouse Foundation and the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, launching full restoration; after exterior work was completed, it was re-lit in 2006, and in the spring of 2010 it was officially donated to those organizations, which now own and care for it.
