Watch Hill grew from a Revolutionary War vantage point into a peaceful Victorian seaside village. Prominent families flocked to the beaches of Rhode Island’s southwestern-most shore every summer for the sea breezes and high society. By 1908, Watch Hill reached its pinnacle as a resort village, with five grand hotels. The Ocean House, built in 1868, was perhaps the greatest of them, and exemplified the age: stylish, leisurely, refined. Movie stars and politicians sat on the wide shady porches. A 1916 film, “American Aristocracy,” starred the Ocean House as the ultimate gathering place of the wealthy and well-connected.