History of the Inn

A watch house was built at Castle Hill in 1740 when England declared war against Spain. It was garrisoned during the Revolution and the War of 1812. In 1776, the British ships Scarborough and Cimiter, trying to escape the harbor after the bombardment by the Americans, "had another fiery ordeal to pass at Castle Hill where they received a severe and vigorous cannonade from the American batteries."

Historical records also tell that the Spanish brig, Minerva, was wrecked on Brenton's Reef on the night of the 24th of December, 1801 ~ one of the most violent storms on record. "It was truly solemn to hear the minute guns, which continued as long as the brig held together. Ten perished. Three of the bodies were recovered and were buried nearby, on the Castle Hill farm."

Castle Hill was built as a summerhouse, in 1874, for the renowned scientist and explorer, Alexander Agassiz. From personal knowledge of the Atlantic coast, Agassiz had reached the conclusion that no place offered better facilities for summer study of marine animals than Newport.

One room of the house was fitted as a laboratory. In 1877 Agassiz replaced this with a very complete little research laboratory overhanging the cove. Its architecture suggests the chalets of his native Switzerland. It was fitted to accommodate some dozen advanced students. A windmill nearby supplied the power to pump seawater to a cistern in the attic. Many biologists, later famous, rode in the omnibus that plied each morning from Newport to the laboratory with a party of eager, young naturalists.

The laboratory was discontinued after the Marine Biological Laboratory replaced its function at Woods Hole, MA. The building was turned into a guest cottage and was used as summer home by the family of the present owners of Castle Hill, until it became part of the Inn in the 1980's.

Agassiz's dream was to make enough money to devote his life to science. As a geologist he was asked, in 1866, to inspect some copper mines in Michigan. After a careful look at the whole terrain, he reported a fabulously rich vein being badly mismanaged.

Upon being asked to manage the mines, he borrowed a small sum of money to invest in them. After two years of hard labor in most primitive conditions, he set the mines on a profitable basis and was able to withdraw from active management, while retaining an ownership interest. Thus he made the fortune that enabled him to explore the world for scientific knowledge. He firmly established the Museum of Comparative Biology at Harvard, first founded by his father, bestowing upon it more than $1,500,000. His oceanographic expeditions, when the study of oceanography was in its infancy, form the basis for the modern science of marine biology.

He filled his house with the best of Chinese and Japanese art and furnishings, especially bronzes and porcelain. He enjoyed giving small dinner parties. His beloved wife died at an early age, leaving her mother as his hostess upon her death. For recreation he took horseback rides, worked in his extensive gardens, and played on a small golf course, now gone, he had built on the grounds. Agassiz deeded the land for the lighthouse to the U.S. Government for $1.00. The light was first shown on May 1st, 1890.In the great hurricane of 1938 the waters of Castle Hill beach and cove became one, cutting the peninsula off from the mainland. Mrs. Maximillian Agassiz, daughter-in-law of Alexander, became so frightened that she never wanted to stay in the house again. The property was sold to J. T. O'Connell, a local businessman whose heirs are the property's current owners.

Thornton Wilder was a frequent visitor to the inn. In Theophilus North, he has Theophilus describe one of our bedrooms as "the pentagonal room in a turret above the house: from that magical room I could see at night the beacons of six lighthouses and hear the booming and chiming of as many sea buoys." (Permission of Harper & Row)

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