Watch Hill Light

Watch Hill Light has long guided mariners at the eastern entrance to Fishers Island Sound and warned them from a dangerous reef off Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Its history began in 1745 with a colonial watchtower and beacon, replaced by a federal lighthouse authorized in 1806 and completed in 1807. After erosion forced that light inland, the present 45-foot lighthouse opened in 1856. The station became closely linked to wrecks along this exposed coast, including the 1872 Metis disaster, after which keeper Captain Jared Starr Crandall earned the Congressional Gold Medal for rescue work. Sally Ann Gavitt Crandall later became its first woman keeper, and the light was automated in 1986.

Pawcatuck, Connecticut · United States