Watch Hill Lighthouse is now owned by a local nonprofit group. What happens to public access?

WESTERLY – The federal government has officially handed ownership of the Watch Hill Lighthouse to a private nonprofit group, despite the Town of Westerly's last-minute attempt to intervene.

And there's no firm guarantee of future public access to the property via Lighthouse Road, the only road that leads to the prized fishing destination.

The Public's Radio was the first to report that the transfer had been completed.

The historical lighthouse, which sits on roughly 4 acres with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean and Taylor Swift's house, was deemed "excess property" by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2021.

Last July, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed's office announced that the Watch Hill Lighthouse Keepers Association, which has maintained it since the 1980s, had been selected to take it over.

That alarmed fishermen and advocates for shoreline access, who worried that private ownership would lead to diminished access: Already, only people over the age of 65 and those with disabilities are permitted to drive on Lighthouse Road, and the gates are locked at sunset, preventing access during prime fishing hours.

In 2020, the lighthouse keepers association also temporarily banned cars on weekdays, citing an uptick in unruly visitors.

The lighthouse sits at the tip of a narrow peninsula lined with multimilion-dollar properties. While the association has maintained that it will continue to provide public access, a letter submitted to the National Park Service as part of the application process contradicts that claim, The Public's Radio found through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In that letter, attorney Jacqueline O. Kaufman said that the group did not believe there was a public easement along Lighthouse Road, and "should a question in the application require commitment from the WHLKA to provide public access, as of today, it cannot legally do so ..."

Whether Lighthouse Road is a private road or a public right-of-way has been an ongoing source of dispute.

"After extensive research the government determined that there was no instrument on record regarding public access in Lighthouse Road that can be incorporated into the deed," Paul Hughes, a spokesman for the U.S. General Services Administration, said in an email.

Concerns about the possible loss of access prompted the Westerly Town Council to pass a resolution in August asking the GSA to transfer the land to the town rather than to the WHLKA.

But that last-ditch effort proved unsuccessful: The executed deed was delivered to the lighthouse keepers association on Thursday, Hughes said.

The deed does require public access to the lighthouse for recreational activities and other uses under "reasonable conditions," but does not go into specifics.

The WHLKA "shall make the historic Light Station available for education, park, recreational, cultural or historic preservation purposes for the general public at reasonable times and under reasonable conditions," it states.

This story has been updated to include language from the executed deed.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Watch Hill Lighthouse handoff is done, with no guaranteed public access