Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association

Programs: Lighthouse tower restoration completion: after being awarded a grant of $227,000 from the champlin foundations in december 2007 and in april 2009 a $50,000 matching grant from the ri historical preservation and heritage commission, the blma hired the abcore restoration company, inc. Of narragansett, ri, to carry out restoration work in the summer and fall of 2009. The exterior stonework was repointed, and the lantern and interior were fully restored. At the same time, significant repairs were carried out on the two dwellings. The project was completed in october 2009 and a grand reopening inviting the public to enjoy its beauty. * in 2013 approval was granted from the coast guard to open an original tower entrance that had been boarded up in the hallway of the musuem. This new entrance to the tower was completed and fire proof doors were installed. Changes to the electrical room at the base of the tower were made, and finanally in 2013 the hallway floors, walls, and hand rails were all refurbished. Most of this work was supported through funds from the van beuren grant and tower vistor donations.

* building restoration capital capaign: additional building improvements to the museum buildings including repairs and improvements to the inn keepers quarters. In 2013 the building restorations will continue to out buildings on the beavertail light house property utilizing funds from capaign, grants, & personal donations. * 2013 was a year of great strides in museum expansion: with a new relocated larger gift shop, a point of sale system installed and operational in spring of 2013, renovations to the main musuem building keepers quarters, first floor kitchen removed and a new smaller compact kitchen was built on the second floor, a new theater and interactive rooms were completed. These three rooms in addition to 11 new wall storyboard panels increases the museum's exhibit venue and will provide beavertail vistors new historical experiences. The theater seats 12 people and shows a continueous dvd loop with history of ri lighthouses. The interactive room in the musuem contains a state of the art touch screen display providing visitors interactive electronic exhibit experience. The old lens room panels were completly redesigned with five historical wall panels with dimensional visual information story boards. These panels will provide vistors interesting information about lens technology that the old panels lacked.

1749 foundation project: in 2012 the final repairs were made for the restoration and preservation of the 1749 stone foundation where the light tower originated that was discovered after the 1938 hurricane. This accomplishment continues the mission of educating the public about the history of beavertai light house while preserving an important part of the beavertail light house's historical character. In 2013 the 1749 foundation project continued first in october with a repair to the base of the historic 1749 peter harrison designed lighthouse from damaged caused by hurricane sandy. The job continues on this sound artifact with a design scheme to cap the top and provide safe walkways and saftey railings. Most of the funds for this restoration have been provided from memberhips dues, gift shop sales, & public donations yet more is needed to complete this historical project.

champlin foundation grant awarded in 2009 continued to utilize the last of this grant for general improvements in calendar year 2011. With this improvement grant the beavertail light house musuem association continued with its mission in the education of the general public and preservation of the historic buildings through various general and major improvments. These improvements included replaced windows and saches, metal work, and electrical improvments to the museum, the light house keepers quarters, and to the small garage that is utilized as educational building on the property.

the van beuren charitable foundation grant awarded in 2012 in the amount of $112,000 will be used for beavertail light house site preservation and museum expansion project. Another continued preservation effort of this historic site for the over 25,000 vistors annually to enjoy. The van beurn grant continued in 2013 to be utilized for the museum and gift shop expansion and restoration for the over 35,000 vistors who visted the historical preserved site of beavertail light house museum. The van beurn grant continued in 2014 to be utilized for ther museum and gift shop restorations. The story board and theater room with a 44" wall mount touch screen was installed to provide an interactive experience for the over 39,000 vistors in 2014. Two new video modules have been added to the large touch screen display in the interactive room. They include the newportida lewis story and the fog signal building restoration.

fog signal building restoration: year end 2013 closed with a a generous $12,975 matching grant from the champlin foundations for the external repair and restoration of te fog signal building. The building was built after the 1938 hurricane and used by the us coast guard until 1972 when the fog signal was automated and moved across the road. Recently the building has been used as a naturalist center and aquarium during summer months opened to blhma vistors. The building now requires extensive repair and donations to help pay for the blma $12,975 match from the champlin foundations will be under way in 2014 to help fund this project. Year end 2014 the exterior restoration of the fog signal building and installation of two replica fog horns trumpets was completed.