Built in 1879 on six acres atop High Street Hill, twenty-three Victorian guest rooms in the original gabled main house, Restaurant 1879 in the parlor floor dining room, and the most uninterrupted sunset position on Block Island.
"Six acres on High Street Hill, twenty-three Victorian rooms, and Restaurant 1879. The most quietly serious dining room on Block Island."
The Atlantic Inn was built in 1879 on a six-acre parcel at the top of High Street, the highest hilltop position on the village side of Block Island. The original Victorian summer-house was commissioned as a private seaside residence in the late-1870s building boom that followed the post-Civil-War expansion of New England rail and steamer routes; it was converted to a guest house in the 1890s and has operated continuously as an inn since. The Pennell family acquired the property in 1988 and has run it for nearly four decades, the family-owned-and-operated tenure that defines the property's deeply personal service.
Twenty-three Victorian rooms occupy three floors of the original main building. The rooms are narrow by contemporary standards, in the period 1879 dimensions: lath-and-plaster walls, ten-foot ceilings on the second floor, original brass fittings refurbished, and original Eastlake-style woodwork preserved throughout. Furnishings run the room: antique walnut and burled-mahogany beds, marble-topped washstands, period prints, and (a Pennell signature) freshly laundered white linens that are remarked upon in every published review. All rooms are air-conditioned, all have private bathrooms in restored period finishes, and the upper-floor and ocean-side rooms hold sunset water views that no other Block Island hotel can match.
Restaurant 1879, the dining room on the parlor floor, is the property's central proposition and one of the most decorated kitchens on the New England islands. The format is four-course prix-fixe nightly in season, with a contemporary American menu that draws on Rhode Island seafood, North Atlantic shellfish, and the inn's own kitchen garden. The wine cellar holds roughly 6,000 bottles with a particular depth in Burgundy and California Pinot Noir, and the room has held a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence for more than two decades. The veranda bar runs as the unofficial sunset venue for the entire island; guests and locals alike book the 6:30 cocktail slot weeks in advance.
The Atlantic Inn is the most architecturally and culinarily ambitious of Block Island's historic Victorian properties, and the only one with the six-acre lawn that gives it the right scale for outdoor events and the right distance from the village. The position (High Street Hill, the highest hilltop on the village side) means the inn sees every Block Island sunset; the size (twenty-three rooms) means the Pennells and their team know every guest by name within a day. For Block Island travellers willing to be five minutes' walk from Old Harbor village in exchange for genuine quiet, the right view, and the right dining room, the Atlantic Inn is the unambiguous answer.
A second-floor ocean-side king at the Atlantic Inn, three nights, Restaurant 1879's prix-fixe one of those nights and a long sunset on the veranda each evening, is the Block Island honeymoon at its most considered. The Pennells handle every detail without making the operation feel programmatic.
For an anniversary the Atlantic Inn delivers more substance than scale: the historic envelope is intact, the dining room is one of New England's best, the lawn is private when wanted, and the family-run service does not exist on the corporate hotel side of the trade. The property's milestone-anniversary repeat-business rate is reportedly among the highest of any New England inn.
Six acres of private lawn, the highest hilltop on Block Island, every sunset in the year visible from the front porch, and a four-course dinner at Restaurant 1879 afterward: the Atlantic Inn is the obvious Block Island proposal address. The Pennells will quietly help with the choreography if asked, with the discretion of forty years' family practice.
359 High Street
New Shoreham, 02807
United States
High Street Hill
23 guest rooms
From $395/night
Four-Star Boutique Victorian
Rated 4.8/5 across 612 reviews
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Built 1879; Pennell family ownership since 1988
Restaurant 1879 (Wine Spectator Best Award of Excellence)
Six private acres on High Street Hill
Sunset views every evening
Veranda cocktail bar
Period-correct restored Victorian rooms
Free WiFi throughout
Seasonal property (May-October)
From $395/night. Peak summer and holiday weeks book three to four months ahead; shoulder weeks generally available with two weeks' notice.
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