Luxury Real Estate

Ocean mansions in Victorian glory

The Providence Sunday Journal, Neighborhood of the Week, June 14, 2009 by Christine Dunn, Journal Staff Writer

Hazard Castle, at 333 Ocean Rd., a Gothic Revival landmark, has been on the market since 2007. Asking price:$7 million.

The Ocean Road Historic District in Narragansett is the kind of place where the houses have names: Indian Rock. Stone Lea. Flat Rock Cottage. Whispering Pines. Whitehall. Spindrift.

The district, which runs along the rocky Atlantic coastline just south of the popular Pier neighborhood and Town Beach, is known for its sprawling Victorian-era shingle-style mansions, many designed by the famed architectural firm McKim Mead & White.

But the neighborhood's most notable property is the Hazard Castle at 333 Ocean Rd., a Gothic Revival landmark on 34 acres with 1400 square feet of frontage on Ocean Road.

Owned by the Diocese of Providence, the property is for sale, on the market for $7 million. The 15 bedroom medieval-style stone mansion was built between 1846 and 1889 for Joseph Peace Hazard, a member of the public-spirited family that founded the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, a textile mill in South Kingstown.

Hazard, who was Quaker-educated, was also a spiritualist who believed the living could could communicate with departed souls. After the diocese acquired the estate in 1951, it held an exorcism there because Hazard had hosted seances on the site, according to neighbor and conservationist Robert O'Neill.

"There's lots of stories about the property," said John Hodnett, of Lila Delman Real Estate, the company that currently has the Hazard Castle listing. Hodnett said he's also heard about the seances and subsequent exorcism. "It's always had this spiritual aura about it," he said.

O'Neill is also a member of Friends of Hazard Castle, a group formed to advocate for the preservation of the castle and its 105-foot tower. The tower was built as a monument to the Peace, Gibson, Hazard and Robinson families.

In the 1870s, the Hazard family brought railroad service to both Peace Dale, to assist their business, and to the family's seaside property in Narragansett, which led to the development of both the private mansions and the string of resort hotels that once lined Ocean Road, O'Neill said.

Members of the Hazard family owned their Ocean Road estate until about 1950, when it was sold to a man named Halloran from Pawtucket, who then sold it to the diocese for the same price he paid for it, with the understanding that the diocese would own the property perpetually, O'Neill said.

The church operated a retreat center, the Our Lady of Peace Spiritual Life Center, on the estate for many years, but the diocese closed the center and put the property up for sale in 2007. It was first listed with a Boston firm, Meredith & Grew, but the listing went to Lila Delman Real Estate several months ago. Hodnett said there has been a lot of interest in the property, but a sale is not imminent. Although there are a number of properties for sale on Ocean Road, an estate hasn't been sold there since 2005, he said.

According to O'Neill and Hodnett, the diocese has not acceded to a request to require potential buyers to guarantee to preserve the historic structures on the property. Michael Guilfoyle, a spokesman for the Diocese of Providence, said there is no deed restriction on the property, though the diocese hopes that the future owner of the property will use it "in a way that will preserve its present beauty." Guilfoyle said he could not confirm or deny the report about exorcism.

Concern about what may happen to a property so connected with the town's history is one of the reasons the town is now mulling the establishment of local historic districts in Narragansett. The Town Council is expected to consider the issue Monday.

The Ocean Road Historic District in place now is a National Register district, not a local one overseen by a local historic district commission. Local historic districts can have the power to review requests to tear down historic properties and require that certain architectural features be maintained in existing historic buildings.

Hodnett said he supports establishing local historic districts in Narragansett, but he also thinks it is unlikely that any buyer would want to tear down the Castle. "I don't think there's any risk at all of that building ever being torn down," he said. Hodnett said he also expects any new owner to preserve the many specimen trees on the land, many laid out in exquisite patterns that form "natural cathedrals." O'Neill said that the grounds of the property were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture...

...For the brave and nimble of foot, the neighborhood has several public access points with paths that lead to the rocky oceanfront.

There are about 10 angled parking spaces at the end of Bass Rock Road, with a sign marked "Danger Hazardous Rocks." Public access and limited parking is also available on Newton and Hazard Avenues.

The Providence Sunday Journal, Neighborhood of the Week, June 14, 2009

by Christine Dunn, Journal Staff Writer