Ocean House
Watch Hill, Rhode Island

The Ocean House was one of the grand hotels of the nineteenth-century resort era in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Dating from 1868, the building was a Watch Hill icon.

However, by the late twentieth-century the rambling, wood-framed building was structurally unsound, violated local building and fire codes, and was riddled with asbestos and lead paint. It closed in 2003.

In 2006 Centerbrook was hired by a local development group to determine whether it was feasible to restore and expand the original “historic kernel” with its gabled tower, mansard roof, and sweeping porches. Despite the hope that the core of the historic hotel could be rehabilitated, the study found overwhelming deficiencies that made this goal unrealistic.

Instead, the decision was made to replicate the original building using salvaged historic elements and to reconstruct capitals, balustrades, and other features and integrate them into the new building. A new North Wing will be added that will take advantage of the sloping site to step down the hill toward the ocean.

The new Ocean House will be a year-round resort that will recreate Watch Hill’s original splendor. It is due to break ground in Spring 2007 and be completed in 2009. It will offer a restaurant, terraces with ocean views, a bar with casual dining, indoor/outdoor pool, banquet and meeting spaces, spa and fitness center, 51 hotel rooms, 17 residential suites and beachfront cottages, and underground parking.