A shingled relic of Narragansett's Gilded Age summer scene is up for grabs for the first time in more than half a century. The Reading Room at 41 Ocean Road, a former liquor-free men's club, has landed on the market for $9.75 million, with water views and The Towers nearby.
The listing marks the first time the property has changed hands in 55 years, according to The Boston Globe. The 5,099-square-foot home was originally listed in June for $10,950,000 before settling at its current asking price. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and sits on a 0.69-acre lot that the Globe describes as unusually large for the area, with a mansard roof, sunrooms, a tower room, and a deep wrap-around porch overlooking the seawall.
From Gentlemen's Retreat to Family Home
Built in the late 1800s, the Reading Room began life as a liquor-free men's bed-and-breakfast club devoted to literature and smoking, according to the same Globe report. It originally stood on Matthewson Street before being relocated to its current Ocean Road address in 1899, when it became part of the Narragansett Pier Casino — a term that, per the Globe, referred to the era's social clubs rather than gambling houses. Patrons reportedly included Jerome Bonaparte and Dr. Charles Hitchcock.
The building converted to residential use in the 1930s and operated as a guest house after changing hands again in the 1940s. In 1971, Lila Delman — founder of the namesake real estate brokerage she launched in Narragansett in 1964 — bought the property and lived there intermittently with her family until 1999, using parts of the residence for her real estate office. Delman made historic preservation central to her professional identity, salvaging antique architectural elements from Gilded Age mansions slated for demolition, according to Lila Delman Compass.
“My mother loved the art of the antiques she brought into the house,” Pamela Delman-Hodnett said, per the Globe's reporting. State business records show title to the property is held by Reading Room, LLC, a company registered with the Rhode Island Secretary of State in 2012 that lists Pamela Delman as manager and resident agent.
A Window Onto the Towers and the Great Fire
The home's view of The Towers is more than scenery — it's a direct link to the catastrophic 1900 fire that reshaped Narragansett Pier. The original Narragansett Pier Casino, designed by McKim, Mead & White with grounds laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted between 1883 and 1886, anchored Gilded Age social life until a fire tore through the main complex on September 12, 1900, according to the Narragansett Historical Society. Only the granite arches now known as The Towers survived the fire.
Nineteen resorts graced Narragansett, and the Casino was one of America's most prestigious resorts, the historical society notes. The society also describes activities at the Casino.
Preservation Honors and a High-End Market
The Reading Room underwent an exterior restoration that was later recognized with a Rhody Award for Historic Preservation from Preserve Rhode Island. The former men's club was separately converted into commercial office space, according to Providence Business News.
Lila Delman Real Estate partnered with Compass and now operates as Lila Delman Compass. The firm posted more than $1.0 billion in total sales volume across Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts in 2021 alone, marking 13 consecutive years as the state's leader in luxury sales above $1 million, with high-end sales accounting for over $629 million of that volume, per Lila Delman Compass.
A Steep Market for Narragansett Buyers
The $9.75 million price tag lands in a Narragansett market that is already among the priciest in the state. As of September 2026, the median asking price for active single-family homes in town was $1,395,000, while year-to-date sales reached a median sold price of $997,500, according to Katie Kilcommons Real Estate, with the number of single-family homes sold rising from 129 to 142 year-over-year.
