Farther down the coast, another seaside inn has been reborn. Ocean House, which welcomed guests to tony Watch Hill, R.I., for 136 years, from 1868 until it closed in 2003, reopened this month. The new building overlooking the Atlantic not only looks exactly like the old Ocean House, it incorporates some 5,000 artifacts from the original building in its construction.
While the two lodgings share the same era, residence options, state-of-the-art amenities, and luxury room rates, they differ significantly in scope and style. Stone House has 13 guest rooms, including three luxury residences, in the main house and converted wood barn, while Ocean House has 49 guest rooms, and 23 residences in a rambling yellow building with multiple balconies, porches, and staircases.
The most dramatic difference is in the decor. At Stone House, the look is sleek and spare, contrasting with the traditional architecture of the four-story Victorian building. The dining room features original wood paneling, parquet floors, and carved fruit details on the ceiling, but the guest rooms are all clean lines and neutral colors. Local fieldstone, granite, and beach sand combine with glass tile, reclaimed wood, and Venetian plaster. Many suites feature cork floors and deep, square Japanese-style soaking tubs. There’s a studied juxtaposition of period and ultramodern pieces, such as a rough-hewn wooden trough holding fluffy towels below a wall-mounted flat-screen TV.
Ocean House is more traditional, with furnishings that combine British Colonial, early American, and New England coastal themes in sunny yellows and blues. Copious windows and expansive verandas blur the line between indoors and out, bringing the sand and sea ever closer.
