Originally it was called "Quetenis" by the Narragansett people, who sold it to the Dutch West India Company about 1636.

The Dutch from New Amsterdam (later New York) used the island as a safe place to trade their goods to the Narragansett for meat, fish and furs.

These were started with large granite store structures near the southern end of the island during the Civil War.

In the late 19th century there was a battery of 15-inch (380 mm) Rodman guns (25-ton cannon which used a 50-pound charge of black powder to fire a 300-pound cannonball as far as 3 miles (4.8 km)) on the point at the southern end of the island.

Fort Greble was an Endicott-era coastal fortification which featured long-range rifled artillery pieces and could house as many as 495 officers and men.

In 1825, the U.S. government bought 6 acres (24,000 m2) on the southern tip of the island with the purpose of establishing a "light station".

In 1924, a flashing red kerosene light was installed, the lens for which was rotated by "…a very big weight on pulleys", recalls a local resident.

This was followed by at least 40-50 letters of protest written to the Rhode Island Department of Natural Resources and to the Coast Guard.

In June 2000, Ginger Hesse and Roberta Randall of the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation Office also visited the lighthouse.

It took another 7 years to complete all the many details of design, planning, restoration and activation along with endless encounters with "red tape".

By the spring of 2005, DILS negotiated a long-term lease from the DEM, which was in charge of the island for the state, including the lighthouse.

The details of their specifications had to be cleared by the DILS Building Committee, RIDOT, the town of Jamestown, the US Coast Guard and RIDEM (Parks Department) before the Society could advertise for bids.

The Building Committee's choice of Abcore was approved by the Board of Directors, and on July 3, 2007, Craig Amerigian agreed to serve as the DILS Project Manager and Owner Representative.

It was heartening to see the scaffolding in place and to watch the exterior gradually change from mottled brown to gleaming white with the final parging.