The Weekapaug Inn

Around the turn of the 19th century dozens of grand seaside resorts dotted the most fashionable coastal villages of the East Coast from Nova Scotia down to Florida.

Few of them remain and most of those that do now must pursue the lucrative conference business in order to remain solvent.

 Fortunately, the Weekapaug Inn, just a few miles outside of Watch Hill, has remained true to its original conception.

Still family-run, it's open only from Memorial Day through Labor Day, however the Inn has been closed for the 2007 season for renovations.

The rooms are spartan but clean.

There's no telephone in the rooms.

Children are welcome--the more the merrier.

There's no bar or any fancy spa services, but there is a lovely beach, terrific food and a cookout every Thursday night.

"Houses first started being built in Weekapaug in the 1890s, when the Rhode Island coast was becoming a popular summer retreat.

One of those houses was owned by Fred Buffum from Westerly, R.I.

In 1897, Buffum wrote to his beloved wife Pheobe, also of Westerly, "Pheobe, this view is too lovely not to share with friends and family."

 So Buffum began building the Inn about a quarter-mile east of his house; right on the beach.

In 1899, the Inn opened for its first season with accommodations for 35 guests. By 1905, it could accommodate more than 100 guests. In addition to swimming and strolling the beach, guests could play tennis or sail.

Four decades later, on Sept.21, 1938, the Inn and all the houses on the beach were destroyed in a hurricane.

Though Buffum had died in 1931, the second generation of Buffums (Fred Jr.) stood at the helm, rebuilding a new Inn that opened the summer of 1939.

That Inn is where Gabriella and I are staying.

No houses or Inn were ever built on the beach again.

Buffum asked all the landowners to deed their beach property to a common land trust so that no commercial or private development would ever ruin the beach's natural state.

It was a revolutionary idea at the time.

But it is the reason Gabriella and I can sit here rapt in a view that hasn't changed in 100 years.

Guests returning in the summer of 1939 complained they couldn't hear the sound of waves because the Inn's new location on the inland side of the salt ponds was too far from the beach.

But little else had changed.

Including dressing for dinner.

As in jackets for the men and dress clothes for the women.

In the entire Inn's history, the requirement has never varied except on Thursday cookouts."