The Towers

Between 1883 and 1886 the Narragansett Pier Company built a sprawling seaside casino to anchor its fashionable new resort, and hired McKim, Mead & White, then the most famous architects in America, to design it. The firm, whose partners included the flamboyant Stanford White, gave it long shingled wings and stone towers in the rambling, romantic style of the age, and the grounds were shaped with help from the landscape tradition of Frederick Law Olmsted, the man behind Central Park.

This was not a casino for gambling but a private club for the summer elite, the social heart of the resort. Inside and around it people played tennis and billiards, bowled, boated, danced in the ballroom, took in a play at the theater, listened to bands, and paraded along the beach. Through the 1890s Narragansett Pier's casino rivaled the famous Newport Casino across the bay as a stage for the season's rich and stylish visitors.

On September 12, 1900, fire broke out in the neighboring Rockingham Hotel and spread fast to the casino. In a matter of hours the great shingled building was gone. When the smoke cleared, only the massive granite towers and the stone arch that linked them were left standing at the edge of the sea, too solid to burn.

Rather than clear the ruins, the town held onto them. The surviving stonework was repaired and stabilized in the years that followed, and the arch was kept as a proud remnant of the resort's golden years. Later storms tested it again, including the great hurricanes of the twentieth century, and each time the granite endured, so that the towers have now outlasted the building they were part of by well over a century.

What you see today is a genuine piece of 1880s architecture doing something few old buildings do: bridging a live public road. The two cylindrical granite towers rise on either side of Ocean Road, and the second-floor arch between them carries interior rooms right over the traffic, with the Atlantic framed beyond. It is a rare and photogenic thing, a working gateway that is also a museum piece.

The Towers is cared for as a community landmark and a venue, and its rooms host weddings, dinners, dances, plays, and seasonal programs through the year. It sits within the Narragansett Pier historic area and is recognized for its architectural and historic importance. Even when the interior is closed, the arch itself is always there on the street, a free and unforgettable sight.

There is even a footnote of culinary fame here: the casino at the Towers is often credited as the birthplace of clams casino, the baked stuffed-clam dish that spread from these shores to menus across the country.

The Towers stand at 35 Ocean Road, right at the north end of Narragansett Town Beach, so they are easy to fold into any trip to the shore. Approach on Ocean Road and you will drive straight under the arch; park nearby and you can walk up to the towers, photograph the stonework, and look out through the opening to the sea. Warm summer weekends bring crowds and tight parking, so an early morning or an off-season visit rewards you with the arch nearly to yourself.

Make it part of a short beach-town walk. From the Towers the Narragansett sea wall runs along the ocean, one of the great strolling promenades on the Rhode Island coast, and the town beach, small shops, and seafood spots are all close by. Give it a few minutes for the sight itself, then let the sea wall and the sand carry the rest of the afternoon.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.