A timber house at dusk, warm light through the tall windows and along the covered terrace, long chairs set out beside still water

Watch Hill, Rhode Island

A house with three rooms
and a long view

Name: Aurelia House
Address: Watch Hill, RI, US
Telephone: (401) 555-0170

Aurelia House keeps three rooms above the harbour at the end of the lane. Breakfast at eight, supper at seven, and the rest of the day belongs to you.

See the rooms

Arrival

18 Oct

Departure

21 Oct

Guests

2 Adults

Ask for a room

Open April to early January(401) 555-0170

The House

Built in 1912, run by two of us

The house went up as a summer place for a family from Providence and has taken guests since 1968. There are three rooms, and that is the whole of it. No lobby, no key cards, no lock on the pantry door.

Two of us run it, which is why the coffee picks up where you left it yesterday and why the fire in the front room is lit before you come down. It is also why we will never ask how your stay is going. If something is wrong you will tell us, and we would rather you enjoyed your book.

The lane ends at the seawall, so the only cars that reach the house are the ones that meant to. In October you can hear the bell buoy from the top floor with the window shut.

Where: Bay Street, Watch Hill, Rhode Island
Rooms: Three, each with its own bath
Season: April through the first week of January
Arrival: After three, or any hour if you ring ahead
Breakfast: Eight to ten, in the front room
Supper: One seating at seven, Thursday to Sunday
The house goes quiet: Ten at night, and stays that way
Reservations: (401) 555-0170

The Rooms

Named for what they look at

No two share a floor plan, a bath or a price, and only one of them has the moorings.

A king bed under timber eaves, a brass reading lamp beside it, and a low window seat looking east over dark water

Third Floor

The Lighthouse Room

Top of the house, in under the eaves, with the beams left exactly where the carpenters put them in 1912. The window is small and set low, which makes the seat beneath it the best chair in the building. After dark the Watch Hill beam crosses the ceiling every few seconds, and the tub stands close enough to the glass that most people never turn a lamp on.

Bed	One king, linen sheets, wool blankets
Bath	Freestanding tub and a walk-in shower
Outlook	East, over the water and the point
Getting up	Back stair, nineteen steps, no lift
Sleeps	Two

From$585a night

Ask for the Lighthouse Room

French doors folded open from a bedroom onto a stone terrace with two chairs, a small round table, a lavender bed and a clipped hedge beyond

Ground Floor, At The Back

The Garden Suite

The doors here fold all the way open and stay that way for most of June. Outside is a walled terrace with two chairs and a table the right size for coffee and nothing else, then lavender along the hedge that you smell a good while before you see it. The hearth is a working one, and there is dry wood in the basket from the first week of October.

Bed	One queen, and a daybed in the alcove
Bath	Tub and shower, window into the garden
Outlook	West, into the walled garden
Getting up	Level with the lane, no steps at all
Sleeps	Three

From$465a night

Ask for the Garden Suite

A timber-framed room at the waterline, a wall of glass onto a deck, moored sailboats on flat water at dusk, and a freestanding tub facing the glass

Its Own Building, At The Waterline

The Boathouse

Down the lawn and standing on its own, near enough the water that the moorings knock in a westerly. The old boat doors came out in 1994 and the whole south wall is glass now, with the tub set in front of it and no neighbour on any side. Breakfast arrives in a basket, because carrying a tray back up that lawn is not a fair thing to ask of anyone.

Bed	One king on a low oak frame
Bath	Freestanding tub at the glass wall
Outlook	South, over the moorings and the harbour
Getting there	A hundred yards of lawn from the kitchen door
Sleeps	Two

From$720a night

Ask for the Boathouse

Thursday, 18 OctoberFour courses · $78

Oysters, coldSix each, off the raft in the pond, cider vinegar and a little shallot.
Chowder, the clear kindNo cream in it. Quahogs, potato, a lot of black pepper, dill from the bed by the door.
Bluefish, brown butterLanded this morning. Potatoes and beans from the garden, lemon.
An apple, in a bowlBaked slowly since four o'clock, with cream poured at the table.

Wine is whatever we are drinking, poured by the glass. Tell us at breakfast if you would rather not have fish and we will cook you something else.

The Table

One supper, at seven

Thursday to Sunday there is a set supper for whoever is in the house and eight or nine people from town. One seating, one menu, no ordering. It changes when the boats come in with something better than what was planned.

The board in the hall is written up by four, so you know what you are in for well before you have to decide whether to change your shirt.

Add supper to a request

Out The Door

What is within a walk

Watch Hill is small enough that we have never needed to run a car service. The times below are from the front step, at the pace of somebody who is not late for anything.

The seawall and its lantern2 min
The town dock6 min
The shops along Bay Street5 min
The ferry landing8 min
The beach at the end of the lane7 min
The carousel, running until Labor Day9 min
The lighthouse path, one way22 min
Napatree Point, out to the end and back1 hr 10

Boots in three sizes and two torches live in the cupboard by the front door. Nobody has ever needed to ask.

Reservations

Ask for a room

Pick the room, the night you arrive, how long and how many. The line below keeps up as you go, the way it goes into the book at the desk.

Room

Arrival, the week of 18 October

Nights

Guests

Room

The Lighthouse Room

Arrival

18 Oct

Departure

21 Oct

Guests

2 Adults

3 nights x $585 a night = $1,755 before tax. Rates are sample figures, Aurelia House is a fictional inn.

Request this stay

Nothing was sent. Aurelia House is a fictional inn and this page is a concept demo by BellCode, so there is no desk on the other end. On a real build this request lands in the innkeeper's inbox with the room, the dates and the party already written out. See what we build

A house with three rooms
and a long view

Built in 1912, run by two of us