A view of a long dock along Rumstick Point in Barrington. Residents are never very far from the water. The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

The mile-long peninsula of Rumstick Point has a well-deserved reputation for being one of Barrington’s priciest neighborhoods.

Its scenic beauty, which first made it so desirable to the wealthy and influential, remains today, despite development pressures that seem to deliver ever-bigger residences there.

The water views on Rumstick Point “are just stunning,” said David Butera, whose construction company, Butera Building, is building three custom homes in the neighborhood.

Butera lives in Barrington, and his company has done a lot of high-end construction in that town, as well as in the East Side of Providence and in Narragansett. Butera said his company also renovated the lighthouse at Nayatt Point in Barrington, which has been a private residence for more than 100 years.

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“Not every house we build is 10,000 square feet,” he said, but he noted that on Rumstick Point, larger houses “are the trend.”

This is a neighborhood where a house, purchased just last year for $2.7 million — 255 Rumstick Rd. — has been partially torn down to make a newer, bigger house. Rumstick Point also had the top sale in Barrington last year, $4.1 million, for a house at 324 Rumstick Rd.

Rumstick Road is the access point to the neighborhood, as well as its main road; though this street begins at Route 114, the Point is generally agreed to start where Rumstick Road meets Chachapacasset Road. There is an old stone marker at this spot; it was painted around 1880 by Abbie Fessenden, who lived at 153 Rumstick Rd., and it depicts Indians dipping sticks into a barrel.

It is uncertain how the name Rumstick originated, but most stories involve the demon rum.

Ann Malik lives almost directly across the street from the stone marker, at 173 Rumstick Rd. She said she and her husband, Vinu Malik, recently bought a nearby house at 14 Chachapacasset and plan to move there after they sell their Rumstick Road house.

She said she and her husband, who runs a company in Warren that manufactures items for runners, lived in Cambridge, Mass., before moving to Barrington.

“We were so used to the city life” that at first, living in Rumstick Point felt like being “on vacation” all the time, she said. They moved to Barrington because they thought it would be a good place to raise a family, Malik said.

Her husband’s brother had bought a house in West Barrington, but they were familiar with the Rumstick and Nayatt neighborhoods because the annual Barrington triathlon is held there. She said her husband organizes group runs with friends on the streets near Narragansett Bay. “We think it’s fantastic,” she said of the neighborhood.

From the Maliks’ house south, stone walls and large old trees border the road, along with gracious homes of different styles, including Victorians, contemporaries, shingle-style mansions, and houses built in the style of French chateaus and English manors.

Not every house is super-sized — here and there is a modestly sized dwelling — but virtually all the new construction is built on a grand scale, with prices to match.

Listed at $649,000, the Maliks’ house, a 1925 shingled Cape, is the lowest-price house for sale in the neighborhood. It has 3 bedrooms, 1½ bathrooms, and 1,858 square feet of living space ( www.173rumstick.com).

Seven other houses in Rumstick Point were for sale last week on the statewide Multiple Listing Service, from $829,900 for a split level/contemporary house at 2 Holly Lane, built in 1961, with 5,621 square feet of living space, to $5,145,000 for a five-plus acre property at 306 Rumstick Rd. This same property is also listed for $3,595,000; the listing agent, Kris Chwalk, of Residential Properties, said the higher price includes the cost of tearing down the existing house and rebuilding a new home (by Meridian Custom Homes).

Chwalk said 306 Rumstick is “one of the very, very few estates left” on Rumstick Point; the land “goes from Rumstick Road down to the shore. Most of the big estates have been chopped up. Only two or three are left that have the whole original piece of property.”

The 1982 Colonial-style house on the property, with 4 bedrooms and 2½ baths, “is kind of dated,” she said. A historic house at 306 Rumstick was torn down by the current owners, who purchased the property nearly 30 years ago, she said, but a historic post-and-beam barn is still standing. The property also comes with a 200-foot dock, a mooring, an inground pool, a hot tub and a cabana, she said.

A Nantucket-style house built in 1941 at 375 Rumstick Rd. is on the market at $4,450,000. The house has 5,874 square feet of space, including five bedrooms, four full bathrooms, and one half bath. The waterfront property has a 300-foot private beach and abuts 20 acres of conservation land, according to the listing information.

POPULATION: (Barrington, 2000) 16,891

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE: (Barrington, 2007) $433,500

INTERESTING FACT: The Stone Tower Farm in Rumstick Point was originally owned by the Walcott family, and a Walcott daughter married the founder of St. Andrews School, the Rev. William M. Chapin, who raised five homeless boys on the farm. The original farmhouse was destroyed by fire in the early 1900s, but the stone tower is still standing.

cdunn@projo.com