My replica of the Hog Island Shoal Lighthouse
comes with your choice of:

• Cedar Wood Construction for either indoor or outdoor display
• Pine Wood Construction for indoor use only

The base price includes:

• Aluminum exterior light housing
• Brass and Copperand Reinforced Plastic Resin railings
• Windows that reflect light
• Standard 40 Watt Bulb, 120 Volt AC incandescent light fixture
• Hand crafted and hand painted detail
• Choice of interior or exterior wiring on Cedar replicas
• Interior wiring with In Line On/Off switch on Pine replicas

Options available for the Hog Island Shoal Lighthouse are:

• Nightlight 7 Watt Bulb, small base light fixture and lantern lens
• Flashing Beacon Kit and lantern lens
• In Line On/Off switch for interior wiring on Cedar replicas
• Outdoor Photo-electric cell for dusk to dawn operation
• Inside Photo-electric cell for automatic night light operation
• 3 to 21 foot Vinyl Coated Galvanized Steel security cable
• Historical Appearance

Special Notes for this lighthouse

HEIGHT: 32 Inches
WIDTH: 16 Inches
SHAPE: Conical
WEIGHT: 24 Pounds
SCALE: 1 to 24

The original navigational aid to mark the Hog Island Shoal was a private lightship placed in 1866 by the Old Colony Steamboat Company to serve their vessels running between Newport and Fall River. 20 years later the private aid was replaced by the LV12, a 40 year old US Lighthouse Service light ship that had just been replaced on Long Island Sound by the Latimer Reef Lighthouse. Within 10 years the old lightship was described as "old and weak and barely seaworthy" prompting the need for a replacement. When the Lighthouse Service determined they could build a new lighthouse for half the cost of a new lightship, construction began on the Hog Island Shoal Lighthouse about 250 yards north of the aging lightship. The contractor who had just completed the Plum Beach Lighthouse on the west passage of the Narragansett Bay was hired to build the very similar lighthouse that still exists. The lightship continued to serve until 1902 when the new 60 foot tall, combination dwelling and tower, cast iron Hog Island Shoal Lighthouse was fully in service. One year later the optic was replaced with a 4th order Fresnel lens and the characteristic went from flashing white to fixed white. The kerosene lamp was replaced by electricity in 1959 using a shore supplied submarine cable. The station was fully automated in 1964 and its keepers reassigned. The Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team overhauled the station in 1986 and the equipment is routinely checked and maintained every 3 months. The lighthouse was offered for stewardship in 2004 under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 but no qualified agencies applied allowing the station to be offered to the general public at auction. In November 2006 the lighthouse sold at auction for $165,000.00 to Jon & Juli Chytka of South Dakota.

The Hog Island Shoal Lighthouse continues to be an active aid to navigation maintained by the US Coast Guard with a light characteristic of 6 seconds on, 6 seconds off, displaying a white light visible for 12 nautical miles.

April 2006 Issue, Captain Adolf H. Aronson, From Lightship to Lighthouse, By Tim Harrison. "In March 1869, he joined the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment as a sailor and was assigned to the Hog Island Shoals’ Lightship No. 12 in Narragansett Bay in Bristol Harbor near Portsmouth, Rhode Island. However, the government decided to build a lighthouse at the location. As Aronson watched the construction of the lighthouse from his duty station on board the lightship, he decided he would apply for a transfer and try his hand at lighthouse keeping. When the Hog Island Shoals Lighthouse was completed, he was appointed as the assistant keeper and two years later was promoted to head keeper of the lighthouse. He remained in that position until April 1, 1908..." Please go to the Lighthouse Digest Magazine Archives to read this article. Lighthouse Digest magazine not only keeps the history of our lighthouses alive both in print and on line, but it is the best single source to keep current on all aspects of lighthouse preservation, news and events.