Travel Back In Time: Hazard Castle on the Verge of Sale

An iconic piece of Narragansett real estate could soon be changing hands, despite the efforts of a local advocacy group.

, also known as Our Lady of Peace (or Our Lady If Peace thanks to a typo replicated by search engines), is currently under a sales agreement, according to an employee at . The buyer has not been identified, and the employee said that the agreement has not yet been finalized.

According to online town property records, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence owns Hazard Castle and the 38 acres surrounding it. The church purchased the property from the Hazard family in 1951, and ran a spiritual retreat for nuns there for several years.

It was last assessed at $7.52 million, however, the property has been marketed by Lila Delman at $5.95 million. According to luxury website Luxist, the price was cut from $7 million to around $5.95 million sometime between September 2009 and February 2011.

According to town records, the buildings – the castle itself, plus several accessory structures – are valued at $4 million, with the land and other features valued at about $3.5 million.

A slideshow of the property on YouTube, provided by Lila Delman Real Estate, can be seen here.

The property has a colorful history, to say the least. The original inhabitant of the property, Joseph Peace Hazard, was a partner in the family textile mill in Peace Dale, according to the Rhode Island Historical Society. Hazard was one of the first to see Narragansett Pier as a viable area for economic development, and he had a deep interest in spiritualism.

Specifically, Hazard believes that spirits attempted to communicate with members of the physical world. The RIHS has an excerpt on the above webpage from Hazard’s memo book, in which he believed that his pocket watch “was a medium for spirit communications.” A quote from Hazard’s memo book:

"On retiring to bed last night at about 9:30 I laid my watch under my ear, and was mentally speaking to the watch (that was ticking entirely normally) and had been so doing some minutes when it suddenly gave two or three consecutive ticks that rang like a bell, as was its old wont. I think this ringing may have been an accident on part of my spirit friend who was then attending me."

Hazard’s papers are available at the James P Adams Library at Rhode Island College. Hazard passed away in Peace Dale in January 1892, and the property was purchased by the church in 1951

Although the property at 333 Ocean Road is technically private, it is unguarded. The buildings are locked up, but residents and tourists often check out the grounds and the exterior of the castle structure, which includes a 105-foot turret.

According to an April 2010 article in The Providence Journal, two advocacy groups were interested in purchasing the property – Narragansett’s Friends of Hazard Castle, and the Ark of Life, based in Wakefield.

Both organizations have attempted to purchase the property from the church, with Friends of Hazard Castle to fundraise for a purchase. On Tuesday afternoon, John Shaw of Friends of Hazard Castle sent out an e-mail to the group’s listserv asking for a last ditch fundraising push, with a goal of putting together $3.8 million to $4.43 million as a back-up option if the current sales agreement falls through.