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Geographic coordinates: 41° 09' 10" N 71° 33' 04" W
Nearest town: New Shoreham. Located at the southeast corner of Block Island.
Established: 1875. Present lighthouse built: 1875. Deactivated: 1990. Relighted: 1994.
Height of tower: 52 feet. Height of focal plane: 261 feet.
Earlier optic: First-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: First-order Fresnel lens (installed 1994).
Characteristic: Flashing green every 5 seconds.
Fog signal: One blast every 30 seconds.
In 1872, local merchant Nicholas Ball circulated a petition for a lighthouse at the southeastern corner of Block Island, claiming that vessels passing through the area were “exposed to as much danger as at almost any other place on the entire coast of the United States.” Congress appropriated $75,000 for a lighthouse, and a 10-acre plot of land on Mohegan Bluffs was purchased. The building was designed to be an architectural showcase, and the melding of Italianate and Gothic Revival styles makes it unique.
The keeper’s house, attached to the tower, was a two-and-one-half-story duplex residence with twin kitchen wings in the rear. The building is brick with a granite foundation and trim. The octagonal tower is capped by a 16-sided cast-iron lantern.
The first keeper was Henry W. Clark, who married the daughter of Keeper Joseph Whaley of Point Judith Light. Their son, Willet Clark, served as an assistant and later as principal keeper, spanning a total of forty-four years (1886–1930). His granddaughter, Jean Napier, later summed up the lives of the keepers: “They had a great pride of service.” She recalled that her grandfather claimed he could smell fog before anyone could see it, and he’d always have the boilers going for the fog signal before it was needed.
The hurricane of September 21, 1938, New England’s worst ever, did tremendous damage to the station. The radio beacon was knocked over, the oil house was demolished, windows were blown out, and all power was lost. The keepers had to turn the lens by hand for several days.
The Coast Guard deactivated the light in 1990 and replaced it with a steel tower. By the early 1990s, 115 years of erosion had put the lighthouse on the endangered list. The building, once over 300 feet from the edge of the bluff, was then only 55 feet from the brink. A dedicated group of volunteers, the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse Foundation, raised about $2 million in federal and private funds to pay for moving the lighthouse.
In August 1993, International Chimney Company of Buffalo, New York, and Expert House Movers, Inc. of Virginia moved the historic structure to its present location about 300 feet from the bluff. The first-order lens had to be removed because it rested on a potentially dangerous mercury bed. It was replaced by a first-order lens originally from Cape Lookout Light in North Carolina. The restored light was relit on August 27, 1994. The restoration of the building is proceeding, with the ultimate goal of a museum and overnight accommodations inside.
The Block Island Southeast Lighthouse Foundation operates a small museum and a gift shop in the lighthouse, and tours of the tower are offered in the summer. For more information or to help with the ongoing restoration, contact the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse Foundation, Box 949, Block Island, RI 02807; phone 401-466-5009.
The Southeast Light is a mildly strenuous walk of around twenty to thirty minutes from the ferry dock, reached by following Water Street, then Spring Street, to the south. There are bike rentals near the dock and taxis for hire. (See the ferry information for Block Island under the entry for Block Island North Light.)
Fascinating Fact 
This is the highest lighthouse above water in the New England states.
