(waves rushing) (boat horn honking) (waves rushing) (calming piano) - Hi, I'm Mike Healy.

Welcome to Rose Island on a beautiful day.

We are located on the East passage of Narraganset Bay.

We don't actually know how Rose Island got its name, but what we do know is that the Indians called it Conockonoquit.

And in Indian, Conockonoquit means the island with the long stem.

And if you were to come over the Newport Bridge at low tide, you would see a strip of about 200 yards of beach that appears only at low tide, and the island.

So, from that perspective, it does look like a rose with a stem.

(calming piano continues) We're gonna start at one of the oldest structures on the island, which is the Barracks.

The Barracks was built around 1798 and was designed to hold up to 200 troops in nine rooms; that's 33 troops to a room.

Let's go inside and take a look.

Okay, so here we are in the Barracks, room number one.

And this is a very interesting structure.

This was the first structure in America to be cannonball-proof.

So, as you can see behind me here, the walls are three to four feet thick.

Today, though, you can stay in this room just for fun.

(calming music continues) At the other end of the Barracks, I'd like to share with you another piece of the history here, which is that the barracks was part of Naval Torpedo Station Newport in the first and second world wars.

They actually designated that the explosive for the torpedoes would be stored in the barracks, because remember, it's such a solid structure.

The torpedoes were manufactured on Goat Island.

They were brought out to Rose Island by barge.

And then, the train tracks that you see here were used to bring the torpedoes up here, marry the explosives to the torpedoes, and then they were test-fired out of Gould Island.

But right now, let's head up to the jewel in the crown, the lighthouse on Rose Island.

(waves rushing) (birds calling) In 1869, the government spent $7,000 to put a lighthouse here, and it ran for 100 years until they built the Claiborne Pell Bridge.

It made the lighthouse obsolete because the lights from the bridge were able to light up the island adequately, so it was no longer a hazard to navigation.

But here we are on the ground floor of the lighthouse was determined to try and replicate what it looked like at the turn of the 20th century.

So, one of the things we found, ironically, was the actual coal stove that was used here was in Newport, and we found it and brought it out here.

The old washboard that they used; of course, that was your washing machine.

We also had... this was your dryer back then.

Have you ever heard the expression being put through the ringer?

That's what this was.

Okay, so now we're coming into the museum room, having left the kitchen and dining area.

The hurricane of 1938, which, of course, was the worst hurricane to ever hit the northeast.

But the remarkable story here at this lighthouse, Rose Island, was that the Lighthouse keeper's daughter strapped herself to the flagpole in 1938 and took these photographs, these actual photographs behind us.

One of the things you can see in the photographs is that there was a boathouse there before the hurricane.

And after the hurricane, the boathouse was gone, along with tons and tons of coal.

The life of a lighthouse keeper back in around 1900.

So, they had what's called a fresnel lens, and that was run by kerosene and a wick.

So, what that meant is that the lighthouse keeper had to tend to that light all night long to make sure that it was working properly.

So, it entailed running all the way up to the light, checking that it had enough oil, tending to the wick.

But one clever lighthouse keeper decided that he could make his life a little bit easier by putting his bed here, putting a mirror on the railing outside, and angling it up towards the light, so that all he had to do was sit up, look out, and see if the light was working.

So, that saved him a lot of trips back and forth.

(calming music continues) (steps tapping) When you're standing at the top of the lighthouse, the views really are quite stunning.

You can see all the way over to Jamestown.

You can see Castle Hill.

You can see Aquidneck Island, Fort Adams, Goat Island.

It brings images and memories of so many happy times out here, you know?

I always look over the bridge at it, you know, to see if it's at low tide with the little stem coming out.

And, you know, you just fall in love with the place.

It charms you.

(laughs) (calming music continues) - That's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and X, and visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly, or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

(lighthearted relaxing music) (lighthearted relaxing music continues) (lighthearted relaxing music continues) (lighthearted relaxing music continues) (lighthearted relaxing music continues)