From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

www.preservationonline.org

Rhode Island's Last Victorian Hotel Falls


Story by Stephanie Smith / Jan. 23, 2006

An era ended in Watch Hill, R.I., last month with the demolition of the Ocean House Hotel, built in 1868, the state's last waterfront mainland Victorian hotel. The property's new owner, Charles Royce, plans to replace the yellow clapboard hotel with a replica housing both traditional hotel suites and luxury condominiums.

Residents and preservationists were encouraged last year when Royce, a summer resident of Watch Hill, bought the 13-acre site from a developer who intended to tear down the hotel to build five luxury homes.

"Chuck always said that he would restore, rehabilitate, or replicate the hotel," says Paula Ruisi, a resident who led efforts to save the building. "We were all sort of surprised that the building came down."

Last year, Royce worked with preservationists and the city of Westerly to pass a zoning ordinance that would allow him to keep a hotel on the residentially zoned site. However, a feasibility study conducted by Centerbrook Architects, based in Essex, Conn., found that the building was seriously structurally compromised didn't meet the state's tough fire safety and hurricane codes. According to Centerbrook's report, completed last fall, some problems could only be fixed by stripping the building to its skeleton and hoisting it off of its foundation.

"It would be a huge feat to try to do that and economically not viable at all," says Meg Lyon, project architect. "At a certain point, it seemed that you'd have a new building anyway."

"I don't think any of the problems were anything that couldn't be solved," says Wendy Nicholas, director of the National Trust's Northeast Office, which worked with local preservationists to save the Ocean House. Though disappointed, she adds, "We take some comfort in knowing that the hotel will still have some public use and retain public access of that incredible site."

Ruisi says she has received e-mails from people sharing stories about summers at the hotel and concerns about what will replace it. Many fear that the new hotel will be too large and commercial. "It was a place where people would come and sit on porches. It was a lifestyle they found there, where they turned the clock back," Ruisi says. "I don't know if that is going to be replicated there, but it would be a huge thing to lose."

According to Nicholas Moore, spokesman for Royce's company, Bluff Avenue, the new building will not be larger than the original, but it will include underground parking. He says that Royce is planning on returning the hotel to an earlier look by downsizing a wing and adding a Second Empire roof. Construction is expected to start this fall and be completed in 2008.

All Rights Reserved © Preservation Magazine | Contact us at: preservation@nthp.org