Built in 1872 on Spring Street and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Hotel Manisses occupies seventeen restored Victorian guest rooms in the heart of Block Island's historic Old Harbor district. The Abrams family has owned and operated it since 1972.
"The most carefully restored Victorian on Block Island. The Abrams family has run it since the seventies and it shows in every detail."
Hotel Manisses sits on Spring Street, a four-minute walk uphill from the Old Harbor ferry landing, on a parcel that has held the same Victorian frame structure since 1872. The building was commissioned as a private summer house by Edward Ball at the height of Block Island's first resort era, fell into disrepair through the mid-twentieth century, and was rescued in 1972 by Justin and Joan Abrams. The Abrams family has run it for more than five decades and now operates it alongside the 1661 Inn, the Abrams' Animal Farm in the back garden, and The Oar restaurant on the harbor.
Seventeen guest rooms occupy three floors of the original gabled main house. The rooms are intentionally individual: vintage floral wallpapers in different patterns from room to room, antique walnut and brass beds, marble-topped washstands, original Eastlake-style mouldings, and massive wood-framed mirrors restored to the original silvering. All rooms have private bathrooms in period-correct tile and fixtures, all are air-conditioned, and the upper-floor rooms hold long views down across the village rooftops to the Atlantic. Furniture is sourced from estate sales across New England; nothing is reproduction.
The restaurant at Hotel Manisses, the original Manisses dining room, is one of two restaurants under Abrams family management on Block Island and operates a contemporary American menu drawn from local seafood, the kitchen's own garden, and ingredients from the Abrams' Animal Farm directly behind the inn. The wine list runs to roughly four hundred labels with an emphasis on California and the Loire. The bar is the quieter of the two Abrams properties; the 1661 Inn's lawn carries the weekend crowd, and Manisses is where guests come for the longer, slower evening.
The Abrams family operation is the central reason to choose Hotel Manisses over Block Island's other Victorian properties. The same family has been receiving guests at the front desk, training the housekeeping staff, ordering the wine, and feeding the goats in the back garden for five decades. The result is a hotel that runs to a standard that the chain properties cannot match and at a personal warmth that the corporate boutiques cannot replicate. For a long weekend, an anniversary, or a deliberate stay away, the Manisses is the most considered address on the island.
A second-floor king with a private bath and the long village view, three nights, and a four-course evening at the Manisses dining room is the Block Island honeymoon at its most intimate. Seventeen rooms keep the property quiet, and the Abrams family handles every detail personally.
For a milestone anniversary the Manisses delivers the right scale. The historic envelope is intact, the dining room is one of the island's best, and the Abrams team will quietly arrange the cake, the flowers, and the table by the window without making a production of any of it.
Hotel Manisses is the rare hotel on the island where a solo traveler is treated as a long-form guest rather than a half-table problem. A single front-facing room, the kitchen garden in the morning, and an unhurried dinner at the bar is one of the more restorative weekends available on the New England coast.
251 Spring Street
New Shoreham, RI, 02807
United States
Spring Street
17 guest rooms
From $325/night
4-Star Historic Victorian
Rated 4.7/5 across 428 reviews
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Built 1872; Abrams family ownership since 1972
Seasonal property (May-October)
On the National Register of Historic Places
Manisses dining room (contemporary American)
Abrams' Animal Farm in rear garden
Sister property to 1661 Inn
Period-correct restored Victorian rooms
Free WiFi throughout
Walking distance to Old Harbor ferry
From $325/night. Peak summer weekends book three to four months ahead; shoulder weeks generally available with two weeks' notice.
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