Property Detail - Ad Number 166688

Full Description

Started on Monday, October 26, 2009, 8:15 PM EST.

Updated on Friday, November 6, 2009, 11:24 AM EST.

Private waterfront, oceanfront, vacation cottage. $265,000

This property boasts the longest developed waterfront on the plat of a completely private island in pristine waters of Narragansett Bay; one hundred and twenty-seven feet. The State of Rhode Island has five classifications of waterfront, starting with five for industrial, four and three for commercial, two for residential and one for pristine. Ours is classified as one, pristine. We have some of the best fishing and shell fishing in the bay. I have video of the fish jumping in front of our cottage.

The lot is the northernmost on the island and in mid-summer you can watch the sun rise over Bristol Neck and set over Poppasquash Point from the porch.

Hog Island is a completely private island with no public roads or access of any kind. There is not a single square foot of pavement, no sidewalks, telephone poles or any commercial businesses; just small cottages dotting a landscape of mowed lawns. There are no fences. Most (better than 99%) of the traffic is by golf cart.

The only way to reach the island is by private boat. Most property owners reach the island through Bristol, a beautiful quaint waterfront New England town with a hint of Newport. Bristol has a Yacht Club (with lots of Hog Island members), a commercial marina, town docks and three public boat ramp access points. Private moorings are also available. There are four public boat ramps on the mainland in Portsmouth (of which Hog Island is a part) and many more throughout Narragansett Bay and many commercial marinas.

Hog Island has no electric service or any other utility, but we have put in solar charged batteries (new Trojans in 2008) for lighting, TV and small appliances. We do use candles for mood lighting and to supplement our batteries. Candle sconces and candles are visible in our porch photos. We have a generator in a shed for power tools and large appliances. We have propane for stove, refrigerator and hot water. Baseboard gas heat and a small air tight wood stove make the cottage useable year round. In my younger days I never missed a month of the year. In winter you could have the entire island to yourself. We have a shallow well that has never been low even in the most severe droughts during its (about twenty year) existence. There is a 12 VDC pump system that delivers forty pounds water pressure to the kitchen and bath. We have an on demand hot water heater. You have no utility bills.

In front of our cottage is a small spit of sand where we land with our boat and where we swim. In over forty years, only our family and guests have ever swam here. On any weekend including holidays we hardly ever see other people, only an occasional beach comber. Less than an hour from the capitol, Providence, or Newport, we are a world away in total peace and quiet. This place is truly a piece of heaven. If you are like me you will regret leaving every time.

We are selling the cottage furnished as seen in the photos. The pictured sofas are foldout beds. The cottage can sleep seven comfortably. All the furniture is in very good condition or we will remove anything that is not wanted.

Life on Hog Island:

Currently there is no one living on Hog Island in winter. It is a summer use private resort island. There are approximately one hundred cottages here. There are several associations.

The Water Association has about seventy members. An artesian well and pump building delivers water to the member’s cottages between April and October. We are not members. We have our own well and water system. They are still accepting new members. There is an initiation fee which I believe to be about two thousand dollars and a yearly maintenance fee that varies between $150 and $250 depending on actual improvements, repairs and operating costs.

There is Hilda (Hog Island Little Dock Association) which has about 40 members and also is accepting new members. The initiation fee is $400 with a yearly maintenance fee of $50 (also dependent on improvements). The dock is for loading and unloading people and cargo. Most members have moorings for their boats. We do have a mooring and there is plenty of room on the island for additional moorings from the town. The town allows one mooring per property owner at no charge, but it must be inspected on a bi-annual interval by a licensed mooring inspector. Only property owners are allowed to have moorings on Hog Island. Additional moorings are available for a small yearly fee. There are several private docks that owners allow open use of for loading and unloading. We have always used the beach which is directly in front of our cottage and is most convenient.

The Hog Island Improvement Association is a social organization and is open to everyone at $50 per year. They hold a field day event, a dance, a crafts fair, a Fourth of July parade and barn fire, bingos, golf and you may chair for an event of your choosing. This association has a meeting house which abuts open land where field day is held.

There are other services available. One young entrepreneurial man has a landing craft and is available for hire and second man will deliver propane bottles for you. We use two forty pound bottles which are easy to handle and we do it ourselves. A third island man owns and operates a pile driving business and is currently building a dock for an owner. There are always youths and adults who spend the summer on Hog Island who will cut your grass and do other services in order to pick up pocket money.

Warning: The serenity of this place, coupled with the absence of manmade electromagnetic radiation (sixty cycles and sixty cycle hum), spectacular sunsets and bay breezes will make you loath where you live, work and the rest of the world also.

Why am I selling? I arrived on Hog Island at the age of twelve. It was a utopia then and it is a utopia today. I am now fifty-nine years old and I want to stop working for vacation property. I have no children. Two homes have kept me property poor and I do not believe I can retire to Hog Island. I did live here exclusively for thirty straight months once when I was younger. It was without comparison the best months of my life. It is time for me to retire to a single property and we have decided that home will be in New Hampshire where we love to ski and hike.

Here is what I aspire to do there. I will start a hobby farm (no expectation of profit). I will model it after Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm. It will be off-the-grid, self-sustaining and organic. I will purchase everything locally, employ local help and feed as many local residents as I can with focus on the aged sick and needy. I will form a non-profit cooperative to continue in my absence.

I look forward to hearing any questions that you have about the place so that I may improve this site.

Paul