Rocky Point Timeline
The history of Rocky Point goes back as far as the eighteenth century.
1726
Sisters Phebe Smith Stafford and Mary Eliza Stafford own the land.
1847
Captain William Winslow buys the eighty-nine acres for $2,400 and brings Sunday school excursions daily to Rocky Point via his steamboat, Argo.
1852
Winslow installs a sea swing in the bay, flying horses — a precursor to the carousel — and a bake-house. Dinner costs forty cents.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1860
Byron Sprague, the son of Governor William Sprague, purchases Rocky Point for $60,000. He builds a hotel and ten-story observation tower, determined to turn the park into a playground for the rich.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1860s
A fire destroys several buildings, including the dining hall, hotel, monkey cage and shooting gallery.
1869–1878
The park is owned by a series of steamboat companies. The ferry fare is twenty-five cents.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1880s
A camera obscura and a new dining hall are built.
1883
The rebuilt hotel, amusement center, dining hall and boathouse burn down.
1891–1917
The Rocky Point Grounds baseball stadium hosts minor and major league games.
1893
Five-year-old Maggie Sheffield is murdered on the grounds. Her father confesses to the crime.
1900
A railroad loop is extended to the park.
1910
Colonel Randall Harrington, below right, buys the park from the Providence, Fall River & Newport Steamship Company for $250,000. He adds a new roller coaster, a midway, and brings in vaudeville acts and the country’s largest organ while advertising far and wide.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1911
The Scenic Railway is built.
1914
Babe Ruth hits a ball into the bay while playing for the Providence Grays.
1915
The Circle Swing is built.
1918
Harrington dies. Brothers Alfred and Paul Castiglioni lease the park beginning in 1919.
Photo by Wolf Matthewson
1920–1931
The Utopia Ballroom, a new bathing beach and pavilion, and the Wildcat roller coaster are built.
Courtesy of Rhode Island Photograph Collection/Providence Public Library
1936
The saltwater pool is used as a training facility for the 1936 U.S. Olympic swim team.
1938
The Hurricane of 1938 destroys the park. The Harrington family resumes ownership.
1940
The park reopens part-time.
1944
Vandals hurl Leo, a sixty-year-old lion statue, into the bay. It’s never recovered.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1945
The park is sold to the Studley Land Corporation.
1947
The park is sold to Frederick Hilton, Joseph Trillo and Vincent Ferla.
1949
The Palladium is built.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1949
Vincent Ferla becomes sole owner of the park. His younger brother, Conrad, standing at far right, below, moves to Rhode Island from Italy to become general manager. “Mr. Rocky Point,” as he’s known, runs the park for thirty-seven years before retiring in 1986.
1954
Hurricane Carol destroys much of the park, including the Shore Dinner Hall, which extended over the water.
1963
The Castle of Terror (later the House of Horrors) debuts after workers transform the existing Fun House.
1966
An arch from the 1964 New York World’s Fair is erected at the park.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1966
The Windjammer opens.
1970s
Admission costs fifty cents. The Castle of Terror becomes the House of Horrors, and the Flume, Skyliner and mini-golf arrive at the park.
Photo by Wolf Matthewson
1976
The Shore Dinner Hall goes through 500,000 gallons of clam chowder, 9,000 pounds of lobster and 10,000 pounds of clams in a summer season.
Courtesy of You Must Be This Tall Collection
1977
Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan holds a fundraiser at Rocky Point.
1980s
The saltwater pool closes.
1984
The Corkscrew roller coaster opens.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society/Don D’Amato collection.
1988
The Freefall, with a stomach-churning eighty-seven-foot drop, opens.
1989
President George H.W. Bush attends a fundraiser for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Claudine Schneider at the park.
1993
An all-day ticket, including a shore dinner with lobster, costs $13.50 per person.
1995
After a series of financial difficulties, Rocky Point closes.
1996
The park files for bankruptcy.
Courtesy of Warwick Historical Society
1996
Most of the rides and attractions are sold during an auction in April.
2006
The Cliff House burns.
2007
The iconic front gate is torn down.
Courtesy of You Must Be This Tall collection.
2010
Voters approve a state ballot to turn the former amusement park land into a state park.
2013
The R.I. Department of Environmental Management acquires eighty-three acres of the former site, adding to forty-one acres previous purchased by the city of Warwick.
2014
Rocky Point State Park opens to the public.
Sources: Warwick Historical Society archives, President Felicia Castiglioni Gardella; Rhode Island Historical Society quarterly, Horace Belcher, Old Rocky Point, 1948; Rocky Point History, Don D’Amato; David Bettencourt and Stephanie Chauvin, Midway, 2009; Kelly Sullivan Pezza, Murder at Rocky Point Park, 2014; David Bettencourt, Rocky Point Park, 2015.
