Welcome to the Plum Beach Lighthouse License Plate website. You’ve landed here, most likely because you’ve seen our attractive plates all over the state, and you want one, too!
Join us as we celebrate 10 years of the Rhode Island Lighthouse plate. TEN YEARS!! It seems like only yesterday when we approached the General Assembly in 2010 seeking permission to offer it to Rhode Island registered drivers as a beautiful addition to their cars. Over 10,000 fellow Rhode Islanders saw similar benefit of helping the landmark. We’ve been able to raise more than $250,000 for the continual upkeep of the iconic 1899 lighthouse beneath the Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge in North Kingstown. Since its initial and extensive renovation in 2003, we’ve twice been able to repaint the tower. It sits in the open water of Narragansett Bay and is under constant assault from the harsh marine environment. It looks as though we’ll have to repaint it again by 2024, and your wonderful ongoing support of the lighthouse will help make this a reality.
The plates are $42.50 per set. $20 goes to the Friends of Plum Beach Lighthouse as your charitable donation; $22.50 goes to the DMV for plate production. As an ongoing donation to the lighthouse, each time you renew your lighthouse plate, a $10 donation goes to its maintenance fund. Last year, the generosity of plate holders resulted in almost $34,000 of additional capital for the fund. The last repainting in 2017 cost $85,000—while this sounds expensive, remember the lighthouse is in a difficult location on the Bay, and with that comes higher costs. We expect the next repainting to be even more and are planning accordingly.
Thank you for considering the purchase of our lighthouse plates. It’ll take up to 8 weeks for them to be ready for pickup at the DMV headquarters in Cranston. Our small, all-volunteer group has worked tirelessly for the good of the lighthouse. Hopefully, the next time you see the lighthouse from the bridge or from a boat, you can join thousands of others in saying “I helped save that lighthouse!”