Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 41° 29' 36" N 71° 19' 37" W
Nearest city: Newport. Located at the northern tip of Goat Island, on the grounds of the Hyatt Regency Newport Hotel, on the north side of Newport Harbor. (The street address of the hotel is 1 Goat Island.)
Established: 1824. Present lighthouse built: 1842. Automated: 1963.
Height of tower: 35 feet. Height of focal plane: 33 feet.
Previous optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: 250 mm
Characteristic: Fixed green.
Goat Island, about six-tenths of a mile long in a north–south direction, has been home to a fort, a torpedo station, and condominiums. The first lighthouse here, a 20-foot stone tower built by contractor David Melville, went into service on New Year’s Day in 1824. In the late 1830s, a breakwater was constructed over a reef at the north end of the island, and it was decided that a new lighthouse would be erected at the end of the breakwater. The extant 35-foot stone tower went into service in 1842.
A new keeper’s house was constructed next to the tower in 1865. This was a family light station, and several families came and went before Charles Schoeneman’s arrival in 1883. Schoeneman was in charge until 1922, becoming such a fixture that the lighthouse was popularly known as Schoeneman’s Light.
In November 1921, a 155-foot-long submarine accidentally rammed the breakwater and caused damage to the foundation of the keeper’s house. The house was soon demolished, and personnel from the island’s torpedo station looked after the light for some years. It was automated in 1963. The area between the shore and the lighthouse was filled in when a hotel was constructed.
The Coast Guard licensed the lighthouse to the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF) in 2000. In late 2006, a new picket fence was built around the perimeter of the foundation for safety reasons. To learn more about the ongoing preservation of this lighthouse, contact the American Lighthouse Foundation, P.O. Box 565, Rockland, ME 04841; www.lighthousefoundation.org; 207-594-4174.
The grounds around the lighthouse, adjacent to the Hyatt Regency Newport Hotel, are open. From Route 114 South in Newport, take the first right after a police station onto Marlborough Street. Continue straight to a traffic light and make a right turn onto America’s Cup Avenue. At the next light, turn left at the Goat Island Connector Road. This road becomes the causeway. At the stop sign, proceed over the causeway to the Hyatt Regency Newport. From the west, drive over the Jamestown Bridge, then over the Newport Bridge. Take the first exit after the bridge for Route 238. Turn right at the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp and proceed to the second traffic light. Turn right onto Route 238/America’s Cup Avenue. Turn right onto the Goat Island Connector Road. This road becomes the causeway. Proceed over the causeway to the Hyatt Regency Newport.
Park at the Hyatt Regency Newport Hotel or the nearby marina. The grounds of the lighthouse are accessible by passing through the lobby of the hotel or by walking all the way around the hotel. You can also get a good view from the lighthouse cruises offered by Rhode Island Bay Cruises, leaving from Quonset Point in North Kingstown; see www.rhodeislandbaycruises.com or call 401-295-4040 for the schedule. Some of the harbor cruises in Newport may also provide views. Contact the Newport County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (www.gonewport.com, 1-800-976-5122) for current information.
Schoeneman was responsible for saving the lives of several sailors from the destroyer Myrant in 1912. The men were fishing from a sailboat that was overturned by a squall. The keeper was in his seventieth year at the time.
Fascinating Fact 
At the age of 70, keeper Charles Schoeneman rescued several sailors from the destroyer Myrant. The men were fishing from a sailboat that capsized in a squall.
