Witches Altar

Current local folklore has identified the "Witches Altar" as a place where "satanic rituals" are performed. Officially, this unusual site is the Antemortem Tomb of Joseph Peace Hazard, a member of one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most eccentric families in South County. Hazard, who never married, became a dedicated traveler, pursuing his interests in the spiritual realm, which he detailed in his diary. He wrote that, beginning with his first spiritual experience in 1854, "I have ever entertained an ardent interest in all that relates to the mysterious side of the Druids." In the early 1880s, Hazard built a tomb for himself and monument to his family, the so-called Witches Altar, at the northwest corner of Hazard Avenue and Gibson Avenue near Narragansett Pier. According to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, Hazard "named this area Kendal Green, after a location in England, and marked it with engraved stone piers. The tomb is composed of eight three-foot-tall, granite pillars arranged in a 27-foot diameter circle with a central monument. The monument is gone, although the base remains. . . . In his diary, Hazard remarked that only after completing the tomb did he realize that it formed a sort of Druid Circle. Other features at Kendal Green include a massive L-shaped rock relocated from the coast and dubbed by Hazard 'Druid Chair' and two granite pier commemorative monuments. All are sited in an approximately 225-foot by 180-foot area enclosed by a drylaid stone wall."

Text © Dr. Michael Bell