In Episode 452, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Rose Island off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, to examine the dark history of an island that served as a military fort, quarantine hospital for the sick and dying, a haunted lighthouse, and the site of maritime disasters. Every bit of this 18-acre island is haunted.
Check out the New England Legends video Extra on the Graham Disaster at Rose Island: https://ournewenglandlegends.com/new-england-legends-extra-the-graham-disaster-at-the-rose-island-lighthouse/
Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[OCEAN/BEACH SOUNDS]
RAY: This is a little slice of island paradise right here off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island.
JEFF: It is. This island is called Rose Island because they say at low tide the island looks like a rose. I don’t see it, but that doesn’t matter.
RAY: The Rose Island Lighthouse is a gorgeous beacon overlooking the harbor. I also see a long row of a building nearby the lighthouse. This whole place is right out of a postcard.
JEFF: It is. And the history here goes back a lot further than just the lighthouse.
RAY: I can imagine. This island is in quite a spot. The Newport Bridge on Rt. 138 is right behind us—you can see Rose Island off the right side as you’re driving into town. The city of Newport is about a mile to our east, ahead of us to the south is Newport Harbor, Fort Adams, and then the open Atlantic ocean. This place would make a great lookout. Which also explains why it has a lighthouse, I suppose.
JEFF: All true. The history here is storied and dark. There’s connections to maritime accidents and mishaps, war, and a plague. It’s no wonder not just the lighthouse, but the entire island… is haunted.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Welcome to Episode 453 of the New England Legends podcast. Thanks for joining us on our quest to chronicle every wicked strange legend in New England one story at a time. From ghosts and monsters to aliens and roadside oddities, every bit of odd history is the stuff we love. We can’t do it without you! So please subscribe to our podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you’d share our episodes or post a review, that helps us grow and then more people write to us with more story leads.
JEFF: We’ll explore the haunted Rose Island near Newport, right after this word from our sponsor.
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[OCEAN SOUNDS]
RAY: Everything here on Rose Island looks old. I guess I can’t be surprised it’s also haunted.
JEFF: The lighthouse has its own history, as does that building over there. There’s a lot to unpack here.
RAY: Native Americans have used this island for thousands of years. Colonists found a use beginning in the late 1700s. That long rectangular building just down the hill from the lighthouse used to be a barracks back when this island was Fort Hamilton. The U.S. Government began construction of that in 1798, but they soon gave up on it.
JEFF: Right, because this is an island, all of the building materials had to come over on boats. It soon became obvious that building on the mainland would be easier and cheaper, so in 1799, construction began on the much larger and imposing Fort Adams which sits about a mile to our south. Fort Adams could cover the entire harbor with its massive cannons.
RAY: Right, so Fort Hamilton became instantly obsolete. As time passed, Newport Harbor got busier and busier with shipping. It was clear a lighthouse was needed, so the Rose Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1870.
JEFF: And the lighthouse… they say… is haunted.
RAY: This is not the first haunted lighthouse we’ve explored.
JEFF: Not by a long shot.
RAY: Why do you think so many of them have haunted reputations?
JEFF: I think we look at these picturesque structures from a distance and romanticize them a little bit. But if you give it a little thought, these are lonely, isolated places. While that may seem peaceful to some people, after a while, it could chip away at your sanity. Plus, these beacons are here for a reason. It’s because the waters are potentially dangerous. Ships can wreck, lives and cargo can be lost. And all of that responsibility lies in the hands of the lighthouse keeper. A boring job most of the time, but also a critical one. People are counting on you.
RAY: We’ve explored some lighthouses where it’s just a building on a rock, with literally no land at all. But at least Rose Island is 18 and a half acres in size. There’s a little bit of room out here.
JEFF: There’s that. But still, this IS an island. And when it gets dark, or stormy, or foggy, you can feel how spooky this place can be. Let’s head over to the barracks building.
[WALKING THROUGH GRASS]
JEFF: This long building was originally supposed to be a barracks for Fort Hamilton. It was built in 1798. As we mentioned before, the construction project was abandoned after two years because nearby Fort Adams made more sense.
[DOOR OPENS]
[OCEAN SOUNDS STOP]
RAY: Oh nice. These rooms have been fixed up to be guest rooms for the lighthouse—which is now a bed and breakfast. It’s pretty wild to see the old brick walls, but also this furniture. It looks cozy in a somewhat creepy way.
[MURMURING VOICES IN THE BACKGROUND]
RAY: Did you hear that?
JEFF: I did. Maybe it was the wind?
RAY: Mayyybe….
JEFF: Though these barracks were never used by soldiers, they did find some use. In 1823, a cholera outbreak in Newport ravaged the city.
RAY: That’s awful. For those who may not know a lot about cholera, it’s a deadly bacteria. When drinking water gets contaminated with sewage, things go badly. This has been a huge problem all over the world, and still is in some countries.
JEFF: Here in Newport, when the cholera outbreak hit in 1823, this island and these barracks were used as a quarantine hospital. Many people died inside this building, and they’re buried outside on the island in unmarked graves.
RAY: Yikes, I just got the chills.
JEFF: The worst part is some people were brought over here because they had flu-like symptoms, or other illnesses, but they took no chances in Newport. If you were sick during the outbreak, you came here.
RAY: And if you didn’t have cholera before you arrived here…
JEFF: Right. You might get it while you’re here and die anyway.
RAY: That’s awful.
JEFF: The number of bodies out there on this island is unknown. Detailed records weren’t kept at the time. But in 1938 during the construction of a water tower on the island, some human remains were discovered and then reburied on the island in a secret location.
RAY: Okay, so we’ve got mass graves, plague victims, a military barracks, and we haven’t even got to the lighthouse yet.
JEFF: Let’s head over there.
[DOOR CLOSES]
[OCEAN SOUNDS]
[WALKING IN GRASS]
JEFF: Today the Rose Island Lighthouse looks like it did back in the late 1800s.
RAY: The lighthouse looks like a proper two-story house with a cupola on top that sits about four stories tall. The house is on a stone foundation that drops down to the water.
JEFF: That foundation would be one of the original bastions of Fort Hamilton.
RAY: The whole building is really pretty. It looks like a fine place to live and there’s a lot more space than many of the other lighthouses we’ve explored.
JEFF: Definitely. But like a lot of other lighthouses, this one is haunted. To find out why, let’s head back to the year 1918.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s the summer of 1918 here on Rose Island, just off the coast of Newport. The big news is that the Great War ended back in November. Here on Rose Island, some of the old barracks buildings were used to hold some weapons for the army. But now they sit empty again. It’s a time of hope that there could be some lasting peace in the world. At least for a while.
JEFF: At the Rose Island Lighthouse, Keeper Charles Curtis is tending to his duties, just as he has for the last 30 years. Charles has been here since 1887. He and his wife, Christina raised a family here, and now, his grandson, Wanton Chase also lives here to help around the island.
RAY: In his early years on Rose Island, Charles would stare across the water at the city of Newport, as the Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Morgans, and other wealthy families threw lavish parties in their mansions. Though the island is only a mile away from Newport on the mainland, he might as well have been on the moon.
JEFF: But that’s how this job goes. And no one takes it more seriously than Charles Curtis. Each day as the sun just starts to dip below the horizon…
[CANON IN THE DISTANCE]
JEFF: The sundown cannon is fired from Fort Adams. Charles lowers his American flag, then heads inside to tend to the light.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
[FOOTSTEPS UP THE STAIRS]
JEFF: Each evening Charles ascends the staircase to the very top of the lighthouse, and lights the light for the evening. He makes sure the light is burning at night and in storms.
[FOOTSTEPS DOWN THE STAIRS]
JEFF: He even rigged a mirror at the end of a long pole wo he can check the light from his living room window. And each night at midnight without fail…
[FOOTSTEPS UP THE STAIRS]
JEFF: He heads to the top to check on the light.
[FOOTSTEPS DOWN THE STAIRS]
JEFF: And then it’s back to bed until morning.
RAY: And so it’s been for the last 31 years. Charles has seen some bad storms, he’s seen ships adrift, he’s seen calm waters, and everything in between. And through it all he performed his duties. Now he’s 79 years old, and knows it’s time to retire.
[OCEAN SOUNDS]
[ROWING A BOAT]
RAY: Charles is rowed back to the mainland as he gazes back at the island that was his job and his home for more than three decades. He sees his vegetable garden, the old barracks, and of course the lighthouse.
JEFF: Charles Curtis passed away in 1922. He was 83 years old. But that’s NOT the end of his story.
RAY: No, not at all. Other keepers moved into the lighthouse keeper’s quarters but soon figured out they weren’t alone.
[FOOTSTEPS UP THE STAIRS WITH GHOSTLY REVERB]
RAY: Other keepers reported hearing footsteps heading up the stairs at all hours of the day and night. The keepers would check but not see anyone on the stairs. But the sound is distinct. It didn’t take long for the other keepers to figure out that old Charles Curtis is still tending to his duties. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: As if a plague and dedicated lighthouse keeper isn’t enough to make this island haunted, there’s also a horrible maritime disaster that occurred in August of 1958. Go ahead Ray, and read this newspaper clip from that year.
RAY: It says: At 6:57AM on the morning of August 7, 1958, the 260-foot long, 1,500-ton tanker S.E. GRAHAM was headed inbound for Providence from Newark with a cargo of 900,000 gallons of gasoline. The much larger 400-foot tanker GULF OIL was outbound on a voyage to Port Arthur, Texas. In the dense fog the GULF OIL struck the S.E. GRAHAM on the port bow, opening the No. 1 wing tank. Immediately the smaller tanker burst into flames between Bull Point, Jamestown, and Fort Adams, Newport. Although empty, the GULF OIL was covered with burning gasoline from the S. E. GRAHAM and was forced to run ashore on the west side of Fort Adams. The S.E. GRAHAM, a mass of flames, drifted ashore on the southeastern part of Rose Island. A fleet of vessels from the Navy, Coast Guard and civilian entities immediately responded to the scene, and daring rescues were performed as burned crewmen leaped or slid into the water from the two stricken tankers. A total of twenty-three crewmen from the two vessels tragically lost their lives in the disaster.
JEFF: It’s fair to say Rose Island has seen it all when it comes to life and death.
RAY: I’d say so.
JEFF: In 1970, Rose Island lighthouse was taken out of service and left abandoned. The reason it wasn’t needed anymore is because the Newport Pell Bridge that spans the water just behind it, could hold navigation lights making Rose Island obsolete. For years the building rotted away until it was an eyesore and empty shell of a house ravaged by vandals.
RAY: Then in 1984, a group formed to refurbish and save the lighthouse. They spent years fixing it up, restoring the light that’s now more decorative than necessary, but still very much functional again, and turning the place into a museum and bed and breakfast.
JEFF: Let’s head inside.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
RAY: It’s beautiful in here! It’s like stepping back in time to the time Charles Curtis lived and worked here.
JEFF: Funny you mention him. His spirit never seemed to have left…
[FOOTSTEPS UP THE STAIRS WITH GHOSTLY REVERB]
RAY: Do you hear that?
JEFF: Yup.
RAY: But we’re the only people here.
JEFF: Maybe not.
RAY: Okay, that’s freaky.
JEFF: No one feels threatened by the spirit of Charles Curtis, he seems bound to keep doing his duties no matter what. But I’m sure he appreciates that the lighthouse has been restored to its former glory. And that the light at the top shines once again.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story sometimes veer off course.
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To see some pictures of Rose Island Lighthouse and Charles Curtis, please on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 453. You can also watch Episode 3 of the New England Legends television series right now on Amazon Prime.
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Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.