Narragansett

We came around the curve of Ocean Road and there they were: the Towers, two round stone turrets connected by an arched walkway straight over the road, all that survives of the Narragansett Pier Casino that burned down in 1900. Lia stopped the car right there to look, and it set the tone for the whole visit — Narragansett is a town defined as much by what’s gone as by what remains, a once-glamorous Gilded Age resort that lost its grandest buildings to fire and time and quietly became a surf town instead. The stone and shingle mansions that still line Ocean Road hint at what the town used to be; the wetsuited surfers paddling out below them show what it’s become.

Narragansett Town Beach and the surf

Below the Towers, Narragansett Town Beach stretches wide and sandy, one of the better surf breaks in New England, and we spent a morning watching wetsuit-clad locals catch modest but consistent Atlantic swells while gulls picked at the tideline. Lia rented a board and got up twice before giving up gracefully, declaring the water “aggressively cold” even in July. Afterward we walked the sea wall south toward Scarborough State Beach, passing the granite jetties and the low stone breakwaters that have shaped this coast since long before the casino burned, the whole scene smelling of salt, sunscreen, and frying dough from the beach concession stand.

Galilee and Point Judith

We drove south to Galilee, Narragansett’s working fishing harbor, where trawlers unload the day’s catch beside the ferry dock for Block Island. We ate a paper basket of clam cakes and chowder at a dockside shack, the fritters greasy and studded with quahog in the way only Rhode Island seems to get exactly right, then continued out to Point Judith Lighthouse, its black-and-white tower standing at the exposed southern tip where Narragansett Bay meets open ocean. The wind there was relentless, whipping Lia’s hair across her face as we watched the Block Island ferry cut a white line toward the horizon.

Getting There

Narragansett sits about thirty-five minutes south of Providence, whose T.F. Green Airport is the closest with regular commercial service, making it an easy day trip or weekend base for exploring South County. From Boston, it’s roughly an hour and a half south on I-95 and Route 1. There’s no train service directly into town, so a car is the practical way to arrive, and it also makes it simple to continue on to the Block Island ferry terminal in nearby Galilee.