On Block Island, parties in town and pristine, natural beauty to explore outdoors

Most visitors don’t bring their cars on the ferry — doing so costs $80 to $100, round trip — but bikes and scooters are available to rent on the island and there’s plenty to enjoy without spending much money. Traveling by foot or on two wheels makes for a more leisurely visit, and many people go straight to beaches, bars and restaurants in the heart of town.

Ballard’s Beach Resort is located just steps from where passengers disembark from the ferries. Once a small, family-friendly restaurant, it’s grown into a sprawling entertainment venue, with multiple bars, a private beach, and events that draw large crowds. After fights broke out during a free music festival on Aug. 8 and arrests were made on the ferry later that night, Ballard’s drew the ire of locals as well.

“You can go by on your average Friday or Saturday and watch people stagger out there… It’s not a pretty sight,” John Cotter, who spends his summers on Block Island and lives about half a mile from the venue, told the Globe a few days after the brawl. “Block Island isn’t a place to get drunk and throw up.”

Rent a bike and get out of the center of town, though, and there’s tranquility: rolling fields, quiet coves, the Great Salt Pond, birds and monarch butterflies making their migratory stops, and small farms set into gentle hills. Block Island is about 3.5 miles at its widest and 7 miles long; new real estate listings are millions of dollars, but many families have owned or rented the same homes for decades and, in some cases, generations.

“Conservation is a big part of Block Island,” Cotter said. “Unbridled growth isn’t Block Island’s culture.”

Long before Block Island was a party destination for visitors from New England and New York, it was home to members of the Manissean Tribe and, later, the Niantic Tribe, which eventually merged with the Narragansett Tribe. Researchers have identified settlements on the island dating to 500 BC and earlier. The Niantic called the island “Manisses,” which means “Little Island of Manitou,” in honor of the spiritual power revered by Algonquian peoples of North America.

European settlers started coming after the island was sighted in 1524 by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who named it “Claudia” after the wife of King Francis I. But it wasn’t until Dutch Explorer Adrian Block sailed there in 1614 that it became known as “Block Island.” The Rhode Island General Assembly incorporated the island in 1674 as the municipality of New Shoreham. One hundred years later, the island had become a key lookout point during the Revolutionary War, and the number of Native Americans there dwindled from 1,600 to just 51.

By the 1800s, Block Island had become a tourist destination. The first hotel was built in 1842, and the Spring House Hotel, which still operates today, opened a few years later, in 1854. The National Hotel, the island’s “flagship Victorian hotel ” was originally built in 1888 (and rebuilt in 1903 after a fire), but air conditioning was only installed in the guest rooms in 2020.

“Nantucket had enormous wealth from the whaling industry. Block Island had wealth from the tourism industry,” Dionis said. “In the mid-1800s, they marketed the island as a health resort to kind of escape consumption. The breezes kept away malaria, and the sea air and saltwater and spring water on the island were good for recovery of ‘nervous diseases’ and ‘brain exhaustion.’”

Block Island became a rum-running destination during Prohibition, and tourism waned until the first regular ferry service started in the 1940s. A construction boom in the 1970s and 1980s doubled the number of year-round residents to about 1,000, but the numbers are still small: In June, just 10 seniors graduated from the Block Island School, which serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

“It’s an absolutely beautiful place to live. I like that it’s busy in the summer and after you get through the summer months there’s a calmness and peace in the offseason,” said Caroline Barr, the executive director of Block Island Conservancy. She grew up spending summers on Block Island, and moved there full-time in May.

Those who live on The Block all year often hold multiple titles. Former state representative and House minority leader Blake Filippi has a beef and dairy farm on the island, works as an attorney, and co-owns Hotel Manisses with his brother, Paul Filippi. Another brother, Steven Filippi, is the owner of Ballard’s Beach Resort; he is running for a seat on the Town Council, whose members also serve as the town’s Board of License Commissioners.

Volunteer firefighters moonlight as wedding DJs. The island’s only newspaper, The Block Island Times, has an office in the center of town, where a former reporter is also the office manager and stacks of records and yellowing issues line bookshelves. One retired teacher, who has lived on the island for decades, writes books about spirituality that he hands out for free to the summer passengers who hail his cab. Business owners and inn keepers are also political candidates.

In addition to her work with the Block Island Conservancy, Barr also owns and operates an event-production company called Point 6 Productions and sells products from her family’s sea salt company, Block Island Salt Works, at the local farmers market.

“I do a couple different things,” she told the Globe. “It’s very much a tight-knit community. People are involved in a lot of things. You have to wear a lot of different hats. I love that sense of community. “

Everything slows down after Labor Day, and many popular spots close by October. Few restaurants or bars are open year-round, and there are no chain stores other than Ben & Jerry’s on Water Street.

Living on The Block year-round comes with its own set of bragging rights. The Islanders endure harsh New England weather largely isolated from the comforts and conveniences of the mainland. Since the 1960s, they’ve held their own population count on Groundhog Day, and some consider it more accurate than government counts held in better weather. This year, islanders counted 1,027 true residents — 383 fewer than the latest US Census.

“It really is a very neat place with a wonderful population of people that support each other,” said Dorrie Napoleone, who volunteers as the president of the Board of Block Island Conservancy. “There isn’t a lot of extra things to entertain you here. In winter, there’s no theater. It’s people getting together and socializing. I’ve lived in Boston and New York, where you don’t get to know people the same way.”

Businesses here depend on the summer tourism season, and for those hospitality workers, many of whom come from other countries on temporary work visas, island life is not as idyllic and living conditions can be dismal.

“Dirt floors, locks that don’t work, and leaking ceilings with a liquid that you don’t know what it is. Any of us who live or spend considerable time on the island have heard it all,” said Eli Holmes, a wedding photographer on the island. The workers would never speak out, they said, and employers who allow them to stay in such conditions face “no accountability.”

“It’s problematic,” they said. “If they get fired, they have three days to evacuate. There’s no other housing on the island right now and they’ll have to pay their own way to get back home.”

Change comes slowly to the island. The Block Island Power Company powered the island using diesel generators until May 2017, when National Grid’s 23-mile-long underwater cable linked the island to the mainland power grid. Now, turbines for the Block Island Wind Farm can be seen from the shore, and island leaders are working to improve internet service and boost the area’s one cell phone tower, Napoleone said.

While infrastructure improvements and modernization are needed, Napoleone acknowledged, too much development could have devastating long-term effects.

“We are a single-source aquifer. Water is very important here. If we run out, we run out,” she said.

What people really want, Napoleone said, is to enjoy the island’s natural beauty. The Conservancy is dedicated to preserving open spaces on the Island, like Rodman’s Hollow, which was threatened by development a few decades ago.

“It’s a very beautiful, pristine part of the island,” said Napoleone. “Our goal is to preserve and protect the rural character and nature here on the island, share it with the wildlife. That’s it. That’s what we want to do. “

Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz. Carlos Muñoz can be reached at carlos.munoz@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @ReadCarlos and on Instagram @Carlosbrknews. Lylah Alphonse can be reached at lylah.alphonse@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @WriteEditRepeat.