South County Museum

South County Museum
Rhode Island's Coastal Legacy

And the Old Narragansett Pier Life Saving Station
And Canonchet Memorial Corner

The Towers, which stands astride Ocean Road, is arguably Rhode Island's most recognizable landmark. Once part of a major hotel-casino complex, the Towers, built in the early 1880s, is reminiscent of the days when the Narragansett Pier area was mounting a challenge to Newport's fame and popularity.

The Towers today is a venue for all sorts of functions, including meetings, dances and concerts. It is also where the tours of historic Narragansett begin and end and where the Narragansett Chamber of Commerce's Visitors Center is located.

Right next to the Towers is the Old Narragansett Pier Life Saving Station. This historic stone structure was built in 1888 by the great architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White. It served as a Life Saving station for 50 years and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is now a famous restaurant, The Coast Guard House. A short distance from the Towers, at Beach Street and Ocean Road, is the Canonchet Memorial Corner, boasting the three-ton limestone statue of the heroic Narragansett chief, Canonchet. It was sculpted in 1977 by Robert K. Carsten.