Block Island Southeast Light

Jean Napier remembers Block Island's Southeast light as the place where her great-grandfather. Henry Clark. and grandfather, Willett Clark, were the first and second keepers. They tended the light from 1875 until 1932

"Grandfather would go out several times a day and he would just listen to the sounds of the water and sort of look at the wind. And then he'd come in and get the fellows that were stationed there and say. 'Come on, we've got to go power up the foghorn, the fog is coming.' And It would be perfectly clear and no one would believe him. And within a couple of hours, the fog would come drifting in."

(above) The keeper's families at Southeast Light, ca. 1910. Willet Clark stands at the far left.

(below) The Clark family at work, ca. 1910