Warwick Neck Lighthouse, the 1827 beacon overlooking Narragansett Bay, is now headed to the highest bidder after the city's attempt to claim it for free collapsed. Two bids have come in so far, with the top offer sitting at $1,120,000, and the federal auction remains open through Nov. 18.
The General Services Administration will pick a winner once bidding closes, and bids must be submitted in $20,000 increments, according to warwickonline.com. Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi had hoped to acquire the lighthouse for nothing from the GSA, but that plan fell apart after the city received a letter stating that none of the lighthouse applicants had been accepted, without being told that its application had failed to meet the requirements under the federal process meant to keep historic light stations in public or nonprofit hands.
From Free Transfer to Public Sale
The lighthouse's path to auction started in May 2023, when the GSA issued a notice making Warwick Neck Lighthouse available for free transfer, as reported by pbn.com. That option exists under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, a law that provides a mechanism for transferring federally owned historic lighthouses to public entities and qualifying nonprofits. Warwick entered a review process with the National Park Service hoping to become the lighthouse's steward, but by May 2025 the GSA had instead listed the property as coming soon for public sale, the same outlet noted.
The city's bid ultimately stalled because the Park Service's Review Committee determined there was no qualified applicant for ownership of the lighthouse under the terms and conditions of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, according to warwickonline.com's archived reporting. Warwick received a letter stating that none of the lighthouse applicants had been accepted, but the city was never given a full, formal answer explaining why.
Senators Push Back on the Review
Rhode Island's congressional delegation rallied around local ownership when the property was first listed for auction, and that pressure continued even after bidding opened. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse wrote to the GSA in June 2025 pressing for answers, and the Providence Journal reported at the time that the National Park Service had not finished its review of eligible stewards before the lighthouse was put up for auction.
Senators and Rep. Seth Magaziner reasoned that the public auction should have been suspended until eligible stewardship applicants received a formal answer, and they argued that rejected applicants deserved an explanation along with a chance to amend their applications if needed. Despite that push, the auction has proceeded, and the lighthouse is being sold after no applicants were accepted through the federal transfer process.
What the Winning Bidder Gets
The Warwick Neck Lighthouse property includes a single-family dwelling and detached garage in addition to the tower itself, and the light will remain operated by the Coast Guard regardless of who wins the auction. Use of the property will be governed by restrictions listed in the sale. Warwickonline.com describes the property as approximately 1.32 acres and the lighthouse as 51 feet high, while a federal listing on realestatesales.gov describes a surrounding 1.3-acre estate, and the GSA's own 2023 press release also gives the tower's height as 51 feet.
The lighthouse was declared excess by the U.S. Coast Guard in May 2023 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, an eligible entity could have obtained the property for educational, park, recreational, cultural or historic-preservation purposes, according to a General Services Administration press release, and the law itself, per the National Park Service, was designed to preserve federally owned historic light stations by allowing transfers to government agencies and private entities.
Not the First Lighthouse to Struggle at Auction
Warwick Neck isn't the only federally owned light station to have a bumpy path to new ownership. Penfield Reef Lighthouse in Fairfield, Connecticut, went up for public auction for the fifth time in less than 15 years in August 2025, with bidding that started at $100,000 reaching $110,000 on two bids, as reported by ctinsider.com. That lighthouse's history includes a $45,000 winning bid the federal government rejected outright in 2011, a $282,345 winning bid from American Castles LLC in 2016 that fell apart after the buyer failed to secure legislative approval for a planned columbarium, and matching $360,000 winning bids in both 2021 and 2023 that the top bidders simply walked away from. At Penfield Reef, as would likely be the case at Warwick Neck, the auction winner takes on upkeep of the structure while the Coast Guard continues to maintain the lens, fog signal and other navigational equipment.
