Lighthouse Float Makes Debut at
Riverside Memorial Day Parade
East Providence, RI: For the
first time, the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse, a local non-profit
organization, participated in the Riverside (East Providence) Memorial
Day Parade on Monday, May 26. The annual parade, a longtime favorite in
the community, began at 10:00 a.m. from the (James R.D.) Oldham
Photo courtesy FPRL
School at 640 Bullocks Point
Avenue, and traveled to Turner Avenue, then onto Willett Avenue and ended at
the American Legion Headquarters at 830 Willett Avenue and Legion Way.
Members of the Friends of Pomham
Rocks Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, have been
busy building the float, featuring a replica of the 137 year-old Pomham
Rocks Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located 800' off the coastline in the
Riverside section of East Providence. At one time, there were three
lighthouses in the area. Pomham Rocks is the only one that remains in the
northern end of Narragansett Bay, after a hurricane and a demolition crew
took out two of them.
The lighthouse, built in 1871, is now unoccupied, but is
still used as an aid to navigation by the U.S. Coast Guard. The exterior of
the lighthouse was
Photo courtesy FPRL
restored a few years ago, and an evening relighting
celebration with Governor Donald Carcieri took place at the end of the
2006 Governor's Bay Day activities.
In 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard
began to maintain the country's aids to maritime navigation, including
operating the nation's lighthouses, when
President Franklin Roosevelt
ordered the transfer of the Lighthouse Service to the Coast Guard. In a
tribute to the members of the Coast Guard, and all branches of United States
military service, the Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse presented their
float for the first time at the Memorial Day Parade. It is an impressive
sight at 11'4" tall, 8' wide and 20' long and features the Lighthouse, its
tower with a steady red light, a flagpole, tree, Pomham Rocks and fence
border.
