Historical Homes
The Hale House honors Hale’s life and work and the deep affection he had for southern Rhode Island. The house was purposely designed and built for seasonal occupancy as a summer home at the base of the Matunuck moraine with a commanding ocean view over the Matunuck coastal plain of open farmland. The property borders an inland basement-fed pond and also has a boathouse dating from 1877. The Matunuck Preservation Society, which operates the house, invites all interested parties to visit during the summer season.
“We are here a mile from Sea Beach, three or four miles from Pt. Judith light,—in an old farmhouse that was once a tavern a hundred years ago, when this abandoned Post Road was one of the thororo’fares from Boston to New York… The farms here stretch from the hills to the sea… They are kept rich by the seaweed pulled up from the shores, and what with the hay and the native flowers and the softness of the air that I always rave about as Gulf-Streamy , the air is sweetly scented, swells with fragrance.”
Before 1873
In the early and mid-1800s, the Hale House site was part of the highlands of large land holdings of the Weeden family, whose homestead, Willow Dell, is just across Route 1 southwest of the house.
1873-1910
William Weeden had the house built as a guesthouse for Willow Dell, especially for his friend Edward Everett Hale and his family. The Hales family used the house until 1910, when Susan Hale, the last of the family to use the house, died there in September of that year.
Hale and Weeden families on the beach, Matunuck, 1902. (Smith/Weeden Family Collection)
Hale and Weeden families on the beach, Matunuck, 1902. (Smith/Weeden Family Collection)
“The house was placed on the edge of the hills, overlooking a wide tract of land, the meadows and salt pond towards Point Judith to the south-east, the meadows and woods towards the Sound and Montauk Point to the south-west, and straight ahead, to the south the meadows stretch to the sea.”
1910-1953
The house remained the property of the Weeden family or the Weeden Corporation. It was rented out as a summer rental for four decades; tenants included cast and crew from nearby Theatre-by-the-Sea and a variety of families.
1953-2005
The house, with approximately 1.5 acres of land on Wash Pond, was sold in 1953 to the John Steere family of Providence for use as a summer residence. The Steeres made few changes to the house during their stay. Other adjacent parcels were sold by the Weeden Corporation at the same time, dividing the property on the south and east sides of Wash Pond into several lots. It was at this time that Wash Pond Road was laid out.
