On June 8, 1874, photographers captured a stunning look at Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, just six years after the Victorian-style waterfront resort originally opened its doors in 1868. As an iconic relic of the Golden Age of American seaside tourism, the massive wooden hotel stood for generations before being completely demolished in 2005.
Because the original structure was deemed completely beyond repair due to rot, architects undertook an unprecedented architectural cloning project. When they rebuilt the new “Victorian” structure five years later in 2010, they used modern, safe materials but painstakingly salvaged, mapped, and reinstalled over 5,000 original architectural elements—including the iconic front parlor fireplace—preserving the exact historic soul of the 1868 landmark.
