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Watch Hill Historic District
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Main Street in Watch Hill during the off-season, 2008
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| Location: | Westerly, RI |
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| Area: | 629 acres (255 ha) |
| Architect: | Multiple |
| Architectural style: | Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Bungalow/Craftsman, Late Victorian |
| Governing body: | Local businesses and residences |
| MPS: | Lighthouses of Rhode Island TR (AD) |
| NRHP Reference#: |
85001948 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | September 5, 1985 |
Watch Hill is an affluent coastal village in the southwestern section of the town of Westerly, the southwestern-most town in Washington County and the entire U.S. state of Rhode Island. The village is listed as a census-designated place.[2] Watch Hill Historic District is a 629-acre (255 ha) historic district in the village that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
As a state-charted Fire District (1901), the Watch Hill area is authorized to tax residents to fund their volunteer fire department, but the bulk of property taxes go to the town to fund municipal services and schools. The town was listed in Lisa Birnbach's 2010 book True Prep as an acceptable summer destination for the preppy set. [3]
The town is considered a more staid and family-oriented community when compared to glittering Newport, the better-known summer getaway in Rhode Island. [4]
Watch Hill is situated on a stubby peninsula jutting into Block Island Sound. It includes the westernmost point in the state known as Napatree Point. Together they have formed Little Narragansett Bay which has made Watch Hill a popular harbor around which a business district has grown. The community is a secluded and seasonal resort community with shopping, a golf and beach club, yacht club and public and private beaches. Once occupied by Niantic Indians in the 17th century, European colonists used the area as an important lookout point during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War, hence the community’s name. Watch Hill is probably most noted for its expensive mansions, but other landmarks in town include the Watch Hill Lighthouse the first of which was built in 1745, and The Flying Horse Carousel, the oldest continuously-operated carousel in the United States and a National Historic Landmark.
Another point of interest in Watch Hill is Napatree Point, a 1.5-mile (2.4 km)-long sandy spit that extends west from the Watch Hill business district. At the end of Napatree Point are the ruins of Fort Mansfield, an old coastal artillery post which was one of a series of such forts constructed to guard the eastern entrance to Long Island Sound as part of the coastal defense network for New York City. It was in operation between 1901 and 1909. The land was sold in 1926 and all the government buildings were demolished during the winter of 1928-29 leaving the three concrete gun emplacements behind.
The Hurricane of 1938 caught Watch Hill by surprise and took a terrible toll. On Fort Road, which connected Watch Hill to the old Fort Mansfield, all the 39 houses, the Yacht and Beach Clubs, as well as the bathing pavilion were destroyed. Fifteen people were killed there alone and others survived by clinging to wreckage as they were swept across the bay to Connecticut.[5] Several breachways were created in Napatree Point and to this day the former northern extension of Napatree remains an island, known as Sandy Point. Google Earth now shows parts of Sandy Point as being in Connecticut. The shortened Napatree Point is now barrier beach about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long without any roads or houses. It is a public beach and offers great bird watching and surf casting. Some of the fortified gun emplacements of old Fort Mansfield have survived and while overgrown, offers adventurers tunnels and underground rooms to explore. Occasionally at low tide some of remains of the Battery Connell can be seen. As the sea and sand shift, old weapons and sometimes artifacts from the hurricane are revealed.
The Watch Hill waterfront was once lined with huge Victorian hotels. Fire and hurricanes destroyed almost all during the 20th century. The two remaining hotels The Ocean House and the Watch Hill Inn went through huge changes during the 2000s. The Ocean House was originally opened in 1868, torn down in 2005, and reopened in 2010. The Watch Hill Inn & Annex now contains modern residential condos as well.
Bay Street in Watch Hill is lined with shops, restaurants, and businesses. East Beach and Nappatree point are the main beaches in Watch Hill.
Einstein - the Life and Times by Ronald W. Clark
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