[2][3][4] It is preserved, maintained and operated by The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation.

One of a group of New England lighthouses built to an award-winning design by Vermont architect Albert Dow,[4] Rose Island Light has sisters at Sabin Point, Pomham Rocks, Esopus Meadows Light and Colchester Reef.

The building was abandoned as a functioning lighthouse in 1970, when the Newport Bridge was constructed nearby.

In 1984, the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation was founded to restore the dilapidated light on behalf of the City of Newport, which had received it for free from the United States government.

[5] In 1987, the federal government listed the lighthouse on the National Register of Historic Places.