Background and formation

The Narragansett Pier Railroad was the brainchild of Rowland G. Hazard, an industrialist and member of the prominent Hazard family. In the late 1820s, he and his brothers inherited a mill in Peace Dale, Rhode Island, founded by his father Rowland Hazard in the early 1800s.^[1] The Hazards at first focused on relatively inexpensive wool and cotton products, but focused exclusively on high-quality wool products after an 1845 fire destroyed the factory and necessitated rebuilding; Rowland G. Hazard's strong abolitionist sympathies harmed the sale of cotton products in the slaveholding southern states. While the mill had long used water power from the Saugatucket River, not long after the rebuild steam power started to be used instead. The boilers required coal, imported to the coastal town of Narragansett Pier 4 miles southeast by ships and then brought to the mill by wagons, which was neither efficient or cheap for the mill. Narragansett Pier itself was growing as a coastal resort, but with the nearest rail line being on the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (commonly known as the Stonington Line, for its western terminus in Stonington, Connecticut) at West Kingston, visitors were required to take a stagecoach the remaining 8 miles to the town, which depressed potential traffic. This missing rail link also hampered the mill's ability to import and export materials and finished wool products. The solution for all of these issues was a new railroad, and Rowland G. Hazard set about organizing one with industrialist and politician William Sprague IV, receiving legislative approval for a new charter in 1868.^[1]

Construction

While a survey was completed for the proposed railroad promptly after Hazard and Sprague obtained their charter, neither party had ever built a railroad before, and Sprague's eponymous Sprague Company was devastated by the Panic of 1873. By the time the economy began to recover, the Hazards could count on only a handful of small industries in Wakefield and several hotels in Narragansett Pier as partners in their railroad venture. With the original charter set to expire in 1875 and no progress in construction made, Rowland G. Hazard reorganized the company at a late 1874 meeting in Peace Dale. The primary issue to be settled was the route of the railroad, with two routes available that either bypassed or entered downtown Kingston. Kingston native Elisha R. Potter provided an additional $15,000 in funding to support the more expensive downtown Kingston routing, but when the stockholders held a meeting on January 26, 1876, to decide on a route, the option bypassing Kingston was the clear victor.^[1] The Stonington Line also agreed to subscribe $15,000 towards the line's construction between 1875 and 1876, in hopes that the opening of the new railroad would provide more business.^[2] The company ran its first train on July 17, 1876.^[1]

Operation by the Hazard Family

By September, the Boston Evening Transcript reported the opening of the railroad to Narragansett Pier "has had a marked effect on this very popular seaside resort", including the demise of the stagecoach previously used by visitors from points west or south.^[3] The introduction of fast transportation to the resort town prompted a boom in construction of hotels and casinos.^[4] Travelers from Providence could reach Narragansett Pier in approximately 80 minutes' time.^[5]

In 1890 the railway transported more than 100,000 passengers and several thousands tons of freight and luggage. An express train needed 13 minutes from Kingston to Narragansett.^[6] During the Gilded Age of Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1880s and '90s, privately owned railroad coaches belonging to famous families from Philadelphia, New York and other places would arrive at Kingston Station to be transferred to the NPRR to continue on to Narragansett Pier, where their passengers would then transfer to an NPRR-owned steamboat for the short trip across Narragansett Bay to their "summer cottages" at Newport. That service ended with the sale of the steamer MANISES at the end of the 1900 season.

Electric trolleys of the Sea View Line at Sea View station

The railroad arranged with the Sea View Railroad to add overhead wire between Peace Dale and Narragansett Pier and allow the latter to run its trolleys on the line, which began in 1902.^[4]

By 1910, the railroad was no longer profitable and the Hazard family was looking for a way to exit. They found a buyer in the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (the New Haven), which was fearful of the Southern New England Railway and its plans to build a competing rail line in the area; were the Southern New England to buy the Narragansett Pier, it would have an outlet to Narragansett Bay. While the threat of this happening was rather remote, purchasing the Narragansett Pier was small change for J. P. Morgan, whose interests controlled the New Haven. The Narragansett Pier Railroad was therefore made a subsidiary of the Rhode Island Company, also controlled by Morgan. The Rhode Island Company was having issues turning a profit, and the loss-generating Narragansett Pier Railroad did not help matters; there wasn't enough money to properly maintain the railroad and matters deteriorated further when the railroad was nationalized by the United States Railroad Administration as a wartime measure in 1918. When the USRA returned the nation's railroads to their previous owners in 1920, the Rhode Island Company was bankrupt, the New Haven was desperately trying to avoid following suit, and the Narragansett Pier Railroad was given back to the reluctant Hazard family.^[1] The Sea View trolleys also ceased using the Narragansett Pier Railroad at this time.^[4]

The former Peace Dale station, now privately owned

A gas-electric rail car (colloquially a 'Doodlebug') was bought in 1940 for passenger service.^[4]

Royal Little

Royal Little personally purchased the railroad from the Hazard Family in 1946. Little was also the founder and owner of Textron, then a textiles company.^[4]

The company's doodlebug broke one of its axles in June 1952, and was not repaired. Passenger service was subsequently officially terminated at the end of that year. With passenger service gone, only minimal freight traffic was carried to and from Narragansett Pier. At the behest of the State of Rhode Island, which was building a highway crossing the railroad right-of-way near Narragansett Pier, the now seldom-used segment beyond Wakefield was abandoned, shortening the line to approximately five miles in length.^[4]

Later owners

Narragansett Pier Railroad 38 in 1959

Narragansett Pier Railroad 40 with a passenger excursion in 1965

Little decided to sell the railroad in 1953, and found a buyer in a lumber yard along the line, which paid $12,000 to take over.^[4] The largest single customer was a fish-processing facility located in Galilee which shipped "liquified fish guts" in tank cars for reuse as fertilizer. The closing of the fish factory in 1963 eliminated the majority of the railroad's business overnight.^[1] Another change of ownership took place in 1964, with J. Anthony Hanold becoming the line's new owner. Hanold brought back passenger service in the form of excursion trains, but these were not a success.^[4] Since the railroad no longer reached Narragansett Pier, there were no major attractions for tourists on the line, and cost-cutting meant that the vegetation along the line had become overgrown, making sightseeing near impossible.^[1]

During the 1970s, freight traffic consisted of fertilizer, lumber and building products.^[7] By 1977, the railroad was owned by John Miller, a dentist who lived in Newtown, Connecticut, and planned to turn the railroad into a museum. Miller announced his intention to acquire a steam locomotive from a New York railroad museum for passenger excursions. At this point, trains ran only once or twice per week for freight service, and the railroad was losing money, though this was mitigated by fellow railfans doing much of the railroad's labor on a volunteer basis.^[8] Miller decided to sell the line at the end of 1979, stating that while he had enjoyed running the railroad, it was too far of a drive from his western Connecticut home and that all remaining freight customers had ended their rail service. He sought a buyer for $100,000, the price he had paid to buy the line, and would otherwise sell the company's real estate for development and scrap its remaining equipment.^[9]

The railroad's final owner was Anthony Guarriello, who purchased it solely to remove its trestles through Peace Dale that he considered an impediment to traffic. The entire remaining line was abandoned in 1981, though several pieces of its equipment were saved, including a caboose transferred to the Valley Railroad in Connecticut, and a diesel locomotive that ended up in Micaville, North Carolina.^[1]

Legacy

Wakefield station seen along the William C. O'Neill Bike Path

Approximately 6.8 miles of the railroad's right of way was converted into the William C. O'Neill Bike Path (formerly known as the South County Bike Path), with first phase completed in 2000 and second phase in 2003. Phase three of the project is completed to Mumford Rd. in 2011. Phase IV has started to get funding as of June 2016.^[10] The railroad's two-stall roundhouse in Peace Dale still stands.^[7] The Peace Dale and Narragansett Pier train stations are also preserved.^[4]