Photo: Berger Bros., Providence (postcard) / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Travelers on Ocean Road in Narragansett can glimpse a stone tower rising above the trees. It belongs to Hazard Castle, a Gothic Revival building begun in the 1840s by Joseph Peace Hazard on his farm overlooking the sea. Today the property at 333 Ocean Road is the campus of Middlebridge School.
The Hazard family
The Hazards were among the earliest English settler families in the Narragansett country, and their names run through South County history. The family’s textile business, the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, built the mill village of Peace Dale in South Kingstown. Rowland Gibson Hazard, Joseph’s brother, led the company, was active in antislavery politics and wrote on philosophy; the family also funded civic buildings in Peace Dale that still stand.
Joseph Peace Hazard
Joseph Peace Hazard took a different path. He designed and built the castle on his Seaside Farm and kept adding to it, including the tall tower, over the following decades. He is remembered for his eccentric interests and for promoting Narragansett as a seaside destination at a time when the Pier was becoming one of the country’s fashionable summer resorts. Diaries he left are among the local history collections of the South Kingstown Public Library.
Later lives
After the Hazard era, the property passed through other hands, including use as a religious retreat. In 2012, Middlebridge School, a school for students with learning differences, opened at the castle, which became its permanent home. The school has worked to maintain the historic building as it adapted it for students.
Seeing it
Hazard Castle is private property and an active school, so it is not open for tours. The tower can be seen from public roads, and the stone wall-lined stretch of Ocean Road between the Towers and Point Judith passes many other reminders of Narragansett’s resort era. The Narragansett Historical Society and the Towers offer exhibits and talks on the town’s history.
