‘You feel a real sense of loss’: Vacationers return to mainland after Harborside Inn fire

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (WLNE) — Just days after the fire at the Harborside Inn on Block Island, some vacationers returned from their weekend vacation on the island.

That historic inn that so many people knew and loved, now deemed a total loss.

For one group of friends, their weekend getaway was far from ideal.

“We didn’t have water on Saturday so that was a little tough,” said vacationer, Caroline Lenihan.

“I have a 1-year-old, so little things like just simply getting her washed and basic necessities it was really difficult to do,” said another vacationer, Chris Skelton.

The group said they didn’t have water or power on Saturday while staying at The National Hotel, just two blocks down from the Harborside Inn.

Multiple agencies worked overnight to put out the blaze scorching from the historic hotel. Skelton said he’s appreciative of the first-responders who handled the situation.

“They were really good with getting bottles of water to us and stuff like that but the main strip was really eerie,” explained Skelton.

He said a pungent odor blanketed the island on Saturday, further calling the entire experience frightening.

“In the morning we woke up and were like oh my goodness look what’s happened, it kind of brought it home like wow, my kid and my wife were staying home that night and if they had been one building across, they would have been in real jeopardy,” Skelton said.

The fire was frightening and devastating, according to Janet Dionis, the Education Director at the Block Island Historical Society.

“To lose any of the original structures from the height of the tourism of the 1880s is really devastating, you feel a real sense of loss,” Dionis said.

She said the history at the inn is something you can’t recreated, first built in 1879 as the Pequot House, then named the Hotel Royal, before becoming Harborside Inn in 1980.

According to Dionis, the inn was one of the first attractions people would see when getting off the ferry, a sign saying “you have arrived.”

“You would just sit in the lobby and have a view of the ferry coming and going, so it was just a great spot,” Dionis concluded.

Dionis said all they can do know is try to salvage anything from the debris, if possible, as a nod to the past.

She further stated that this is not the first historic building to catch fire on Block Island. According to the Block Island Historical Society, The National Hotel burned to the ground in the early 1900’s before being rebuilt shortly after.