Historic Walking Tours of Narragansett Pier
Treasures Ocean Road Map
Left: Irving H. Chase Family Memorial Collection (SCM) Right: SCM photo-jet 2010
Dunmere entrance, c. 1900 and 2010
Dunmere Entrance
560 Ocean Road
This granite entrance, with its iron gate, leads to a 13-acre property with 500 feet of ocean frontage
and several major buildings. Robert G. Dun, of Dun and Bradstreet, the first owner, gave his name
to the estate.
The site of Dunmere and its successor, Casa Nostra, is now occupied by a modern one-story dwelling,
built in 1972, with large windows facing the ocean.
A special issue of the Narragansett Times in 1888 devoted considerable space to "the palatial
summer house of R. G. Dun," calling it "the show-place of the Pier." The original Dunmere cottage
was constructed in 1883, on property which was known as "Bog Rock." That name, the Times
commented drily many years later, was "a description that didn't attract many developers." The paper,
in a special 1983 edition commemorating the Pier, reported that "The dismal bog at the foot of the
Rocks is being metamorphized in to an artificial lake, around which will be a carriage drive."
Dunmere Cottage was severely damaged by a
1929 fire. The principal building now on the
property is The Gatehouse, a picturesque,
rambling, complexly massed residence, built in
1883 near the road on a height of land
overlooking the Dunmere grounds. It comprises
a three-story stone and wood frame tower, and
was originally topped with a windmill [photo at
top left]. An attached two-story, hip-and gable-
roofed dwelling constructed of massive granite
blocks was added in 1889. An addition, based
on plans by Providence architect William Kite,
was built in 1982.
Dunmere Stable, probably built in the late
1880s, is a wood-shingled structure with three garage-door openings and gable-roofed dormers, sited
north of and below the gatehouse of the Dunmere estate. Originally the stable contained six stalls, a
carriage room, and a harness room on the first floor, and four bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a
hayloft on the upper floor. This structure is now a private residence accessible from Bass Rock Road.
Another house on the Dunmere property, at 580 Ocean Road, in the fall of 2010 was sold for a town
record price of $6.4 million. The house is a contemporary structure built in 1972. The buyers were Alfred
J. Verrecchia, former president and CEO of Hasbro, and his wife Geraldine.
Edward Cormier Postcard Collection (SCM) Mabel Dimon Postcard Collection (SCM)