Built in 1888 directly across from the Old Harbor ferry landing and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, The National Hotel anchors Water Street with a wraparound porch, forty-six restored guest rooms, and a back garden of firepits that runs as the island's unofficial evening centre.
"The front porch is still where Block Island's evenings happen. Forty-six rooms, the ferry at your feet, and a backyard that hums until midnight."
The National Hotel was rebuilt in 1888 after the original 1881 structure burned, and the second iteration has stood unchanged in silhouette ever since on the prime corner of Water Street, directly opposite the Old Harbor steamer landing. It is the first building most visitors see stepping off the Point Judith ferry and the most photographed exterior on the island. The wraparound mansard porch with its rocking chairs is the property's defining image and runs the full length of the Water Street frontage.
Forty-six guest rooms occupy three floors of the main building. The rooms were taken down to studs in the most recent renovation: original casement windows kept and reglazed, period mouldings restored, but plumbing, electrical, air-conditioning, and bathrooms all rebuilt to current standards. The rooms are not large in the modern resort sense, but the front-facing units carry the unbroken harbor view and the back-facing rooms open onto the garden. All rooms have flat-screen televisions, private baths, and free WiFi; the harbor-view kings on the second and third floors are the most sought-after rooms on the property.
The hotel restaurant on the ground floor serves three meals a day in the high season with a porch dining room that opens out over the harbor. The kitchen runs to American coastal classics: steamed lobster, fried clams, raw bar, an oyster list that draws on the Rhode Island ponds, and a pasta menu that has been the surprise of recent seasons. The back garden, restored in 2022, holds eight wood-fire firepits, a covered bar, and nightly live music through the summer, and is one of the most consistently busy hospitality rooms on the island after sunset.
The National's value proposition is its location. The property is the closest hotel on Block Island to the ferry landing, the central retail of Water Street is at the front door, and the Old Harbor beach is a four-minute walk south. The forty-six-room scale is large enough to absorb a wedding block, a bachelor party, or a family of fifteen across multiple connecting rooms, and the price runs comfortably below the boutique competition uphill on Spring Street and High Street. For travellers who want to be in the centre of Block Island village rather than five minutes' walk from it, the National is the obvious address.
The National holds the largest contiguous block of rooms on the island, sits directly above the back-garden firepit bar that the rest of the island's twenty-somethings come to find at midnight, and is two blocks from the Atlantic at the head of Water Street. For a Block Island bachelor or bachelorette weekend, the National is the unambiguous staging address.
Forty-six rooms over three floors means real flexibility for a family group: two connecting rooms across the hall, a third one floor up, the kids walking themselves to the ice cream store at the front door without a parent's escort. The front porch is the gathering point at the end of every day.
For an anniversary the National's harbor-view kings on the second or third floor are the value play on the island: not the smallest room and not the cheapest, but the only room on Block Island that puts the entire Old Harbor ferry traffic, the schooners coming in for sunset, and the village lights at night directly in your window for under four hundred a night.
36 Water Street
New Shoreham, RI, 02807
United States
Old Harbor, Water Street
46 guest rooms
From $295/night
3-Star Historic Landmark
Rated 4.5/5 across 1,847 reviews
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Built 1888; on the National Register
Seasonal property (May-October)
Wraparound mansard porch on Water Street
Back-garden firepits with nightly music
Three-meal restaurant with porch dining
Directly opposite Old Harbor ferry landing
Free WiFi throughout
Harbor-view second and third-floor kings
From $295/night. Peak July and August book three months ahead; harbor-view rooms book five months ahead.
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