Haunted hotel guide · Block Island, Rhode Island

The Haunted Harborside Inn, Block Island: The Woman in Black, Room 302 and the 2023 Fire

For more than 140 years a Victorian hotel faced the ferry landing in Old Harbor, with a story of a woman in a black dress who walked into Room 302. It burned in August 2023, and a new Harborside Inn is now rising on the same spot.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

1879Opened as the Pequot House
2023Destroyed by fire

Current statusMeet the ghosts

Destroyed by fire in 2023, being rebuilt

The historic Harborside Inn burned on the night of August 18, 2023, and the ruins were demolished that September. A new 32-room hotel broke ground on the same Water Street site in May 2026, built to the old footprint and scale, with opening hoped for in summer 2027. Until then there is nothing to book. For a haunted stay in the meantime, try the General Stanton Inn near the Point Judith ferry, or Newport’s Hotel Viking.

For generations of visitors, the Harborside Inn was the first building they saw on Block Island. It stood on Water Street directly across from the Old Harbor ferry landing, a three-story Victorian hotel of 36 rooms that opened in 1879 as the Pequot House and was a contributing building in the Old Harbor Historic District. On the night of Friday, August 18, 2023, a fire that investigators believe began in the ground-floor kitchen gutted it, and the ruins were demolished a few weeks later.

Its ghost story was short and specific. A woman in a black 19th-century dress was said to walk into Room 302, and desk clerks downstairs said they had been grabbed around the waist from behind. Not everyone agreed: at least one longtime island worker said publicly that she never saw anything in years at the inn. A new hotel is now being built on the site. For places you can book today, see our guide to haunted hotels in Rhode Island.

Harborside Inn at a glance

  • Address 213 Water Street, New Shoreham (Block Island), RI 02807, across from the Old Harbor ferry landing
  • Opened 1879 as the Pequot House; the Hotel Royal in the early 1900s; the Harborside Inn from 1980; destroyed by fire August 18, 2023
  • Most haunted spots Room 302 and the front desk, in the building that burned
  • Best-known ghosts A woman in a black 19th-century dress; an unseen presence that grabbed desk staff
  • Booking the haunted room Not possible: the old building is gone. The replacement hotel is planned to open in 2027.
  • Good to know A new 32-room hotel broke ground on the site in May 2026, designed to match the original’s footprint and scale.

The ghosts of Harborside Inn

The woman in the black dress

The story most often told about the Harborside was of a woman dressed in black, in the style of the 1800s, who was seen walking into Room 302. She was never described as frightening. She simply appeared in the corridor and went into the room, as if she still had a key.

Nobody put a name to her. In a building that had stood since 1879 on an island that lived by the sea, it is tempting to imagine a widow or a captain’s wife, but there is no record tying the figure to any real person, and we would rather leave her a mystery than invent one.

The hands at the front desk

The second story belonged to the lobby. Desk clerks working downstairs described being grabbed around the waist from behind, firmly enough to feel as if they were being moved out of the way. When they turned around, nobody was there.

It is the kind of report that is hard to check and easy to dismiss, and the inn itself never promoted it. It was repeated for years on user-submitted haunted travel sites, and after the fire local ghost tours and former employees still told it.

A guest outside Room 302

In a 2016 comment on HauntedPlaces, a guest who stayed in Room 311 wrote that he felt a presence as soon as he walked in. Walking past Room 302, he said, his wedding ring suddenly grew hot on his finger, and his camera failed several times while he tried to photograph the door.

The skeptic's view

Not every account pointed the same way. In 2014 a woman who said she lived and worked on Block Island, and had worked at the hotel for years, wrote that the claims were “absolutely ridiculous” and that there had never been any sign of a haunting. We include both sides: the Harborside’s haunting was a quiet, contested one.

Will the ghost come back?

The fire took the building but not the story. The new hotel is being designed, in its architect’s words, to “sit in the place and scale of the original structure,” and one piece of the old inn survived: its 1880s annunciator, the call box that once told the front desk which room was ringing.

Whether the woman in black finds her way into the new Room 302 is a question for the guests of 2027.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • Room 302: The room the woman in black was said to enter. It burned with the rest of the building in 2023.
  • Room 311: Nearby on the same floor, where one guest said he felt a presence on arrival.
  • The front desk: Where clerks said they were grabbed around the waist. The 1880s call box that hung behind it survived the fire.
  • The new hotel: About 22,000 square feet with 32 rooms, on the original footprint, planned to open in summer 2027.

History of Harborside Inn

Old Harbor is Block Island’s front door, the place where the ferries tie up and most summer visitors first step ashore. In 1879 Darius B. Dodge opened the Pequot House facing the landing, and by 1881 it was managed by the neighboring Ocean View Hotel, owned by Nicholas Ball, according to the Block Island Times.

In the early 1900s it became the Hotel Royal, and the Block Island Times says it took the name Harborside Inn in 1980 (WPRI dates the change to the 1990s). Local lore says it was a rumrunners’ hangout in the 1920s and 1930s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Old Harbor Historic District.

Late on Friday, August 18, 2023, fire broke out at the height of the summer season. About 50 firefighters, some brought over from the mainland by air and sea, fought it into Saturday morning. Guests were evacuated without serious injury, but the roof collapsed and the 36-room hotel was declared a total loss. The fire was believed to have started in the ground-floor kitchen, and demolition began in September.

In November 2023 the town’s Historic District Commission approved plans by VVO Real Estate Holding Corporation and architect Glenn Fontecchio for a replacement, estimated at $8.5 million, with shops at street level and hotel rooms above. Ground was broken in May 2026 for a 32-room building, and if construction stays on schedule it should open in summer 2027.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Do not try to book the Harborside through old listings or third-party sites until the new hotel opens; the original building is gone.
  • If you visit Block Island, stand on the ferry landing and look across Water Street: the new building is designed to match the old one’s scale.
  • Check back in 2027 for the reopening, and ask then whether rooms are numbered as before.
  • For a haunted night on the way to the Point Judith ferry, stay at the General Stanton Inn in Charlestown, where Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunts.
  • Newport’s Hotel Viking and Castle Hill Inn are the best bookable alternatives with ghost stories of their own.

Ghost hunts near Block Island with Haunted Rooms

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

See all Haunted Rooms ghost hunts

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We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Harborside Inn on Block Island haunted?

It had a modest haunted reputation. Stories described a woman in a black 19th-century dress seen entering Room 302 and desk clerks being grabbed around the waist, while at least one longtime worker said she never experienced anything there. The building burned in 2023.

What happened to the Harborside Inn?

The historic hotel burned on the night of August 18, 2023, in a fire believed to have started in the kitchen. Nobody was seriously hurt, but the building was a total loss and was demolished in September 2023.

Is the Harborside Inn being rebuilt?

Yes. Ground was broken in May 2026 for a new 32-room hotel on the same site, designed to match the original’s footprint and scale. It is expected to open in summer 2027 if work stays on schedule.

When was the Harborside Inn built?

It opened in 1879 as the Pequot House, became the Hotel Royal in the early 1900s and was renamed the Harborside Inn in 1980, according to the Block Island Times.

Which room was haunted at the Harborside Inn?

Room 302, where the woman in black was said to walk in. One guest also reported a presence in nearby Room 311.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.