In 1862 a white octagonal tower for a lighthouse was built on Sandy Point on the east side of Prudence Island, R. I. With the tower was built a keeper’s dwelling.

During the terrible September hurricane of 1938, five persons, including the wife of the lighthouse keeper, were carried out to sea and drowned, when the dwelling house on the lighthouse reservation was swept away by the savage fury of the tropical gale. The keeper was also thrown into the sea, but another wave swept him back ashore.