Jamestown RI Luxury Homes

Jamestown is on Conanicut Island, at the mouth of Narragansett Bay. The community was named for James, Duke of York, later James II. Burned by the British in 1775. The first Beavertail Lighthouse, built here in 1749, was known for many years as the Newport Light. The beacon aided trade in Newport before the Revolution, when ships carried molasses, rum and slaves between the colonies, the West Indies and Africa. For thousands of years before the first Europeans set eyes on the land around Narragansett Bay it was the home of Native Americans.

Jamestown Real Estate for Sale

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Classically elegant waterfront estate w/ 7.27 acres comprised of two lots, 406ft of beach frontage, waterfront pavilion w/ fireplace, deep water dock, mooring, shingle style barn, carriage house/garage & pool w/spa. 5 bedrooms, 5/1 baths, List Price $8,950,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Greer Beecroft - Mansions & Manors. ML# 641707.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Spectacular waterfront retreat w/155 ft beach front on Narragansett Bay, 2 moorings & dock. Dramatic interior w/vistas from every rm. breathtaking expansive entertainment patio,portico & spa w/infinity waterfall. 2 Bonus rms on third fl w/ wtrside deck. 4 bedrooms, 5/2 baths, List Price $5,495,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Melanie Delman - Lila Delman Real Estate. ML# 730187.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Waterfront on Mackerel Cove.Views to RI Sound & Beavertail. Comfortable 10 room home with 3600+square feetof living space. Separate 2 car garage with complete studio above. Exquisite landscaping. 4 BR Septic awaiting approval. Seller will install. 2 bedrooms, 3/0 baths, List Price $4,500,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Carol Hopkins - Island Realty. ML# 645798.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Totally charming single story 1920's cottage with architect designed and landscape upgrades dating from 1990. 1 bedroom guest cottage, boat house, dramatic great room and master bedroom suite, both with massive stone fireplaces, multiple porches. 4 bedrooms, 3/0 baths, List Price $3,800,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Michelle Drum - Gustave White Sotheby'S Realty. ML# 663350.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Surfs up! Glorious south facing ocean cottage & guest house on 1.3 acres in spectacular private setting. Big sandy beach, scenic cliffs, gorgeous views of Atlantic Ocean. Rare hidden jewel. 3 bedrooms, 1/0 baths, List Price $3,200,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Petra Laurie - Residential Properties Ltd. ML# 732430.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Sunset water views from this extraordinary new construction shingle-style gambrel. Gracious design affords bright and spacious interiors w/ every amenity. Gourmet kitchen, fieldstone fireplaces, luxurious baths, private porches, library, family room. 4 bedrooms, 4/2 baths, List Price $2,725,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Melanie Delman - Lila Delman Real Estate. ML# 660333.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Stunning,custom shingle-style cottage w/frontage on Sheffield Cove & two moorings in Dutch Harbor. Breathtaking sunset and water views. Graciously proportioned rooms, high ceilings, great floor plan, fine finishes, 1st floor master. Walk to Mackerel Cove. 4 bedrooms, 2/1 baths, List Price $2,695,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Gloria Kurz - Mansions & Manors. ML# 731037.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Rented August 2007. July 2007 available for rent. Walking distance to town and harbor, Shoreby Hill neighborhood, pool, a/c, pub room, lcd tv, movie library. 5 bedrooms, 4/0 baths, List Price $2,499,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Susan Zwick - Lila Delman Re of Jamestown. ML# 648488.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Spacious Shoreby Hill Classic. Beautifully renovated w/ graciously proportioned rooms. Grand living room w/ fireplace,new kitchen,wonderful sunroom/porch. Fabulous property w/sweeping lawn to stone wall at edge of golf course. Distant water views. 5 bedrooms, 3/1 baths, List Price $2,450,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Greer Beecroft - Mansions & Manors. ML# 662539.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Attention Developers! Great opportunity to direct the future of one of the largest undeveloped properteis in Downtown Jamestown. Currently a stately 4 bedroom Victorian with a detached 2 story garage/barn situated on 1 acre. Numerous possibilites! 5 bedrooms, 1/2 baths, List Price $2,395,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Connor Dowd - Keller Williams of Newport. ML# 662318.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Jamestown WATERFRONT! The Bridge & Bay views greet you in the morning from the Master, Florida room, dining room and even the kitchen! Dock, 3 moorings in place. Sandy beach! Beautifully maintained... list of extras available! Don't miss this one! 3 bedrooms, 3/0 baths, List Price $1,950,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Linda Wallace - Re/Max Bayview. ML# 730958.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Unique "Dumplings" grambrel with fabulous waterviews. Spacious open floor plan offering both formal and casual living. Large wrap deck with views to Newport, formal gardens and pool area. Privately set, deeded beach rights steps away with dock. 3 bedrooms, 5/2 baths, List Price $1,850,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Virginia Burgin - Island Realty. ML# 652293.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Nantucket contemporary enjoys spectacular western waterviews of bay & abuts w.reach pond! Casual & elegant, this home has 3 br, 2.5ba, gourmet kitchen, fp, built-ins, dumb waiter, exquisite landscaping, all amenities. Meticulously designed & cared for! 4br septic. 3 bedrooms, 2/1 baths, List Price $1,775,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Dianne Grippi - Island Realty. ML# 657824.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Waterfront. Stunning views of Narragansett Bay from every room of this striking Jim Estes designed contemporary cottage. Gourmet kitchen. Open floor plan. Gorgeous furnishings included. Dock permits. Beach at your doorstep. 2 bedrooms, 2/1 baths, List Price $1,695,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Melanie Delman - Lila Delman Real Estate. ML# 643067.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Unique waterview/ front shingled cottage. Charming open living, Master bed/ bath, large windows face the water. Many upgrades. Seperate office, study, or bed, blgd with bath. Large 2 car garage, power doors. New 4 bed septic. stairs to water!! 3 bedrooms, 3/1 baths, List Price $1,495,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Virginia Burgin - Island Realty. ML# 630988.

Single-Family Home - Jamestown. Superb custom residence in the heart of Jamestown open space conservation land provides privacy just a short walk to the shore. No expense spared in construction zambezi teak, brazilian hardwoods, cherry and mahogany, marble, granitetop appliances. 4 bedrooms, 4/0 baths, List Price $1,395,000.

For immediate personal assistance and detailed information on this great Jamestown home Call: Bruce Brast @ 877-855-7913

The Information Data Exchange is an innovative program between cooperating members to provide complete listing information to the public. Listed By: Kathleen Greenman - Gustave White Sotheby'S Realty. ML# 732944.

The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the IDX Program of the State-Wide Multiple Listing Service, Inc. Real estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Coleman, Realtors are marked with the MLS logo and detailed information about them includes the name of the listing brokers.

Jamestown RI - Donald Demers

The first contact between the bay area's native inhabitants and Europeans occurred during a brief visit by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1514.

A century later the Dutch established New Amsterdam at today's New York City, then extended their sphere of influence eastward along the coast and into Narragansett Bay.

Dutch Island was a place of trade for Dutch traders and Native Americans for about 20 years.

European settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled the northern part of Aquidneck Island in 1638 and in the following year started a community at Newport.

Newporters leased the rich meadows on several islands in the lower bay for grazing, and sheep were introduced.

In 1657 Conanicut Island and adjacent Dutch and Gould Islands were purchased from several Narragansett sachems. After Conanicut was divided among the proprietors, farms were laid out.

Ferry service was established linking Conanicut with Newport to the east and the Rhode Island mainland to the west, and a road connecting the ferry landings was laid out across the island.

Sunset - Steve Dunwell

By 1700 Jamestown shared the prosperity and much of the way of life of the large farmers on the mainland and the residents of Newport.

Conanicut's farmers and their slaves raised cattle and sheep, which, with their by-products, especially cheese, found ready markets along the east coast and in the islands of the West Indies, largely through the port of Newport.

Jamestown's age of commercial agriculture continued until the onset of the Revolutionary War, when British forces abruptly shattered the island's tranquility.

On December 10, 1775, a British contingent wreaked destruction along and near the ferry road and confiscated livestock.

Many islanders fled to the mainland until the British occupation of Newport ended in 1779. Following the war, the island's population grew again, and Conanicut enjoyed a long period of rural tranquility.

While most of Rhode Island was experiencing the tumult of the Industrial Revolution, Jamestown, with no adequate waterway, remained an agricultural island.

Although no water-powered mills were ever established on the island, strong and steady winds supplied power for a mill which ground corn into meal.

With an economy based largely on sheep, much of the island remained open farmland, mostly pasture, for several centuries. The eastern ferry landing supported a small settlement, but it was scarcely more than a hamlet consisting of a tavern, a few houses, and perhaps a store (there is evidence of one dating back to 1773).

A steam ferry, which made its first run in 1873, and which replaced an antiquated, wind-powered vessel, offered a swift and reliable passage across the bay and made Jamestown readily accessible from Newport.

In the same year that the steam ferry service was inaugurated, land companies platted several tracts of land in the village, near the eastern ferry landing, at Ocean Highlands--the former Cottrell farm along the southern part of the main section of Conanicut--and at Conanicut Park at the northern tip of the island, which was serviced by steamboats from Providence.

Shortly before 1900 another residential development, Shoreby Hill, was platted and built.

While Jamestown's landscape remained agricultural (large tracts including all of Beaver Neck were untouched by development), Jamestown was also a summer colony and recreational community, noteworthy for its fishing, its beaches, and its scenery.

The village at East Ferry had grown into a small commercial center containing three large hotels, boarding houses, town hall, churches, and several stores.

During the Civil War, Dutch Island was acquired by the federal government for a military installation, and in the early years of the twentieth century, the government acquired several parcels of land in the southern part of the island and built Forts Getty and Wetherill.

Fort Wetherill took part of the Ocean Highlands tract containing four cottages. Gould Island became part of the Newport torpedo station facility in 1918.

Aside from the military establishments, Jamestown's growth was slow and steady in the first half of the twentieth century. Gradual population growth did not disrupt the basic land patterns of the island, with its village, summer colonies, and farmland.

The construction of the Jamestown Bridge (since replaced) in 1940 was largely responsible for many changes on the island after World War II as newcomers from the mainland discovered Conanicut's beauty and convenience.

The most intensive development occurred in the vicinity of the bridge, where many houses were constructed along the shore and on newly-platted side streets nearby.

Houses were also built in other parts of the island, and farmland acreage continued to decline.

The Newport Bridge, completed in 1969, made the island even more easily accessible and brought in more people, many of whom just cross the island.

Today, Jamestown is a mostly residential town.

The village offers commercial employment; service jobs are available; some Jamestowners are employed in the fishing industry; and there is a small work force involved with boat yards and marinas, but there is no manufacturing on the island.

Many Jamestown residents work on nearby Aquidneck or on the mainland. Seasonal residents and tourists swell the population in summer.

Only a few tracts of open farmland remain; the rest of the island is covered with houses and large areas of scrubby woods which have replaced the formerly open land.

Despite the relatively large increase in permanent inhabitants and other changes, Conanicut's scenery and its quiet way of life remain the island's principal attractions.

NATIVE AMERICANS

When the Narragansett sachems Miantonomi and Canonicus agreed, in 1638, to let the English colonists use Conanicut Island for grazing, the newcomers had been in Rhode Island only two years.

The Indians had been there for countless generations, in the words of Pressicus, a Narragansett sachem, since "time out of mind."

Jamestown's history began thousands of years ago. Archaeologists have found Native American artifacts and other remains of early Indian settlements dating to at least 5,000 years ago.

It is likely that people settled the land earlier, between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, after the last of the glaciers melted away and well before Narragansett Bay and Conanicut Island as we know them today existed.

The cold, post-glacial climate was in some ways like modern arctic regions.

The landscape was an open, treeless tundra with plants such as birch sedge, myrtle, willow, hornbeam, and grasses.

Those plants provided food for animals such as caribou, bison, musk ox, mammoths, and mastodons.

Although people probably did live in the Jamestown area, archaeologists have yet to discover the materials they left behind.

In fact, only a few scattered artifacts from these ancient people have been found in Rhode Island, probably because much of the land available then is now underwater.

Narragansett Bay had not yet formed. Instead, a system of freshwater streams, rivers and lakes carried the glacial melt water to the coast, then located about eighty miles south of Providence.

As the ice sheet melted, sea levels rose, and slowly the streams and rivers changed from fresh water to salt water.

By 4,750 years ago, Conanicut Island had separated from the mainland, but was connected to Dutch Island.

Jamestown did not assume its present size until sea levels began to stabilize, about 3,000 years ago.

As the climate warmed, the tundra-like landscape was replaced by a spruce forest, and by 9,000 years ago, pine, birch and alder appeared.

The deciduous forest was taking root--oaks were common by 8,000 years ago, and by 5,000 years ago, an oak-hickory forest was established.

Deer replaced the moose and elk; migratory fish such as shad began their yearly runs up the larger rivers.

Although food was becoming more plentiful and the climate had become temperate, the archaeological evidence of human presence is still sparse.

About 5,000 years ago the modern bay with its mudflats and small estuaries had formed. After the establishment of this estuarine environment, archaeological sites become more abundant.

Archaeological sites from these years indicate the presence of fairly permanent settlements: an early village, perhaps as old as 4,500 years had been found in Middleboro, Massachusetts; on Conanicut Island, the Joyner archaeological site, along Eldred Avenue, also contains evidence of a village settlement, some of which was used 4,500 years ago; other parts were used perhaps 3,300 years ago and some as recent as 2,000 years ago.

The Joyner archaeological site contained the remains of circular wigwams, fire pits, trash pits, cutting implements fashioned from white quartz and argillite, tools for grinding nuts and seeds, hearths with the remains of deer and passenger pigeon, and stored caches of finished tools, paint stones and other objects used in village life.

The Joyner site is part of a large area on the island, extending south from Eldred Avenue (perhaps extending north of Eldred), to Narragansett Avenue that contains many important archaeological sites.

Part of this area, the Jamestown Archaeological District was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Within this district are other examples of Indian settlements including house remains, shell middens and human burials.

The largest documented Indian cemetery in New England is located in the Jamestown Archaeological District.

The modern village of Jamestown has grown up around and within this large Indian cemetery; the boundaries of the cemetery remain unknown.

Called the West Ferry archaeological site, the cemetery contains cremation burials dating to at least 3,300 years ago; also present are more recent Narragansett Indian interments dating to the 1600s, and quite probably earlier.

The presence of human burials in the same place for such a long period provides archaeological punctuation to Pessicus's statement in 1644 that his people had lived in the area since "time out of mind."

It also suggests why the Narragansett sachems Scuttop and Quequaquenuit were incensed at colonial assertions in the 1650s that the land had been sold to the colonists.

To these sachems the land had not been sold, rather the colonists had simply been granted rights to use the land, rights that the Indians believed had been abused.

Archaeological sites are also plentiful outside the area between Eldred and Narragansett Avenues.

Shell middens have been found around the island, generally close to the shore line; other Indian burials have been reported as well.

Conanicut Island has been the location of several archaeological projects that have made significant contributions to our understanding to the Native American history of the island, in particular, and southern New England, in general.

The Jamestown Library includes the Sydney Wright Memorial Museum, the repository for Narragansett Indian and European artifacts recovered from Narragansett graves in the 1960s by archaeologists from Harvard University.

The skeletal remains were reburied by members of the Narragansett tribes in 1972, in one of the first reburial ceremonies in the United States.

Now, discussions are underway with the Narragansetts to determine the best way to care for the grave artifacts. The library also provides a place for occasional lectures and discussions about the island's archaeology.

With the preservation and study of Jamestown's important archaeological sites, the island will continue to contribute to our knowledge of the past.

JAMESTOWN'S SETTLEMENT

The first recorded European contact with Narragansett Bay occurred during the 1524 voyage of exploration by Giovanni da Verrazano.

Although he was probably the first European to see the Bay, his visit did not have lasting consequence. Ninety years later the Dutch sent a fleet of ships on an exploratory expedition to America.

One, commanded by Adrian Block, sighted Block Island in 1614, and either Block or Captain Hendricksen, on a second voyage in 1616, explored Narragansett Bay. From their base in New Amsterdam the Dutch carried on a considerable trade with Native Americans, much of it with the Wampanoags, principally in the Warren River.

In 1636 or 1637, Abraham Pietersen, acting for the West India Company, purchased the island of Quentenis (now Dutch Island), which was used by the Dutch as a trading post for about 20 years.

The Dutch traders were interested principally in furs, and they established no colonies or settlements in this area. The first settlers of Rhode Island were religious dissidents from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

After the establishment of a settlement at the head of the bay at Providence in 1636 a colony was started at Pocasset (now Portsmouth) at the northern end of Aquidneck Island in 1638. In the following year, some of the Pocasset residents moved to the southern end of Aquidneck Island and began a small settlement at Newport.

Under the leadership of William Coddington and John Clarke, the Newport founders in 1637 were given title to much of Aquidneck Island, as well as "the marsh or grasse" on Conanicut Island and the other islands in the bay (except Prudence), by the Narragansett sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi.

The lands bordering Narragansett Bay produced a fruitful bounty. Their rich silt loam soils were fit for general farming and apple orchards and excellent for grazing.

Conanicut and Dutch Islands, as appendages of Newport under the agreement with Canonicus and Miantonomi, were used as grazing land for several decades after 1639.

The first animals introduced by the Newporters were sheep.

Sheep raising was initiated on a large scale in the early 1640s; by the mid-1650s there were thousands in Rhode Island.

In 1656 a company of more than 100 men agreed to purchase Conanicut Island, and in 1657 Cashasaquont, then the chief sachem of the Narragansetts, deeded to William Coddington, Benedict Arnold, and about 100 other buyers Conanicut and Dutch Islands; in the same year, Koshtosh, another sachem, sold today's Gould Island to Thomas Gould.

Conanicut Island was surveyed by Joshua Fisher, and a plan was drawn in 1657.

Forty-eight hundred of the 6,000 acres were divided among the various purchasers, known as the proprietors; 260 acres were designated for a town plat, with 1-acre house lots; 20 acres were set aside for an artillery ground, a place of burial, and a prison house; and a 4-rod-wide road was drawn across the island.

Land was also made available for other highways. Although the artillery ground was proposed, it probably was not actually created at this time.

Land was allotted to the proprietors in proportion to their investment in the purchase. Benedict Arnold's 1,411 acres were the largest share.

Most of his land was in the southern part of the island.

When the proposed town plat never materialized, one quarter of the proposed village land (260 acres) was also acquired by Arnold.

Other large landowners in the original purchase were William Brenton (805 acres), R. Smith (378), R. Carr (285), William Coddington (240), and Caleb Carr (120).

Many of the original investors sold their rights to others at the drawing of lots, so their names never appeared on the plat map, only the names of the permanent buyers.

Dutch Island initially remained undivided, to be used in common for pasture.

For many years after the beginning of settlement, the Narragansett Bay area enjoyed agricultural prosperity.

Many early settlers were husbandmen who came from agriculturally progressive counties of England. They learned from the Indians the skill and knowledge of cultivating native crops, principally corn, peas, beans, and pumpkins.

Within a few years of the founding of Newport, the rural economy was characterized by a commercial agriculture based largely on an extensive system of grazing, breeding, and fattening of livestock.

Sheep were the most important animals, but dairy cattle were also important, producing milk, butter, and cheese.

Beef cattle became more important, probably after 1660, when beef became a leading meat in the Rhode Islanders' diet.

By 1664 a royal commission report declared Narragansett Bay to be "the largest and safest port in New England, nearest to the sea, and fittest for trade."

The report also noted that the best English grasses and the most sheep were found in the colony.

During King Philip's War, when conflict between the Wampanoags and white settlers resulted in widespread destruction in southern New England, Conanicut and other islands remained fairly safe.

After hostilities ceased, some Indians came to Conanicut and gave themselves up to the authorities for protection; others were taken into Jamestown families as servants.

Narragansett Bay, after the war, supplied sheep to farmers in other parts of Rhode Island and the other colonies which had suffered during the war, resulting in an expansion of pastureland.

Jamestown was incorporated as a town in 1678 and was named in honor of Prince James (later James II), son of Charles II of England.

Its citizens adopted for a seal a shield with a green field surmounted by a silver sheep.

At incorporation, the new town's population was 150.

By the late seventeenth century, Jamestown, like the Aquidneck Island towns and the Narragansett Country (in South County), had already attained a measure of prosperity and a way of life unrivaled in New England.

A 1690 account of the region declared that Rhode Island was justly called the "Garden of New England" for its fertility and pleasantness.

It was an excellent country for raising sheep and horses, and the islands being surrounded by the sea were free from the dangers of bears, wolves, and foxes.

The colony's inhabitants, who lived in relative plenty, sent horses and provisions to Barbados and the Leeward Islands and great numbers of oxen and sheep to Boston.

Several Conanicut landowners, in addition to acquiring material wealth, were prominent in the affairs of the colony. Benedict Arnold was the first governor of the colony under the 1660 charter of Charles II.

Caleb Carr, one of the original Conanicut proprietors, also served as a colonial governor.

Many of the early settlers brought their Quaker faith with them from Newport. By 1684 they were holding meetings in private residences on Conanicut.

Town services were also evident in the late seventeenth century.

Ferry runs between Newport and Jamestown started at an early date, at least by 1663; by century's end, several ferries were operating.

In 1698 Nicholas Carr was instructed to build a town pound to hold stray animals.

By the end of the seventeenth century, Jamestown was a settled township.

Its inhabitants, numbering 150 in 1678 and almost 200 by 1700, lived on farms scattered throughout the island, and were served by a road network.

A road across the island, Ferry Road, probably existed in a rudimentary state.

Few of the island's earliest roads or buildings have survived in their original forms.

Ferry Road may still be as wide now as it was when it was first laid out, but only a short tree-lined section near the west ferry landing gives a hint of the character of the early roadscape.

Dutch Island - Al LaBanca

Most of the farmhouses are gone; some, like the c. 1695 Daniel Weeden House and the 1693 Nicholas Carr House, were replaced by newer structures, while many of the others were victims of fire, neglect, or old age.

The Thomas Paine House, also called Cajacet, at 850 East Shore Road, erected in the 1690s, is probably the sole seventeenth-century survivor.

Built as a two-story house, with a large room on each story, it was enlarged and altered at least twice in the eighteenth century, and again in 1882, in 1915, and in the recent past. Today it stands in relative isolation on a nine-acre parcel of land, serving as an interesting architectural document that chronicles the many changes brought about over the years at the hand of different owners.

AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

During the late seventeenth and throughout most of the eighteenth centuries, Jamestown's favorable location between the agriculturally prosperous Narragansett Country to the west and commercially wealthy Newport to the east was largely responsible for the economic well-being of the island.

Although Conanicut's farms were considerably smaller than those of South County, the island had the same relatively mild, water-tempered climate, fertile soil, proximity to water, and tolerance of slave labor, a combination of circumstances that resulted in a period of agricultural prosperity that lasted for more than a century, from about the 1660s until the eve of the Revolutionary War.

Jamestown's economy, like that of the Narragansett country towns, was based on cattle and sheep and their by-products.

Some Rhode Island dairy cows were in 1709 exported to the West Indies, but most were kept for dairy uses; they produced an excellent cheese which was shipped in large quantities to the other colonies, particularly to Boston, and to the West Indies. Butter was also exported, but in much smaller amounts.

The major crop, corn, became the bread grain of the colony, and it is likely that a windmill to grind the grain was built at an early date on Conanicut.

In 1709 the island was surveyed. The town was laid out with 22 lots.

A burial ground was established at this time, and it is probable that the artillery lot then came into existence.

Census data for 1730 and for 1775 show a slow steady growth in the population of Jamestown.

In 1730 the total population was 321. Eighty blacks, mostly slaves, comprised about one-quarter of the population.

The 19 Indians counted may also have been slaves. By 1775 the island's population was 556, including 130 blacks and 32 Indians.

Newport, selected as a town site for its excellent year-round harbor, was settled by substantial families who laid the foundations for Newport's greatness.

Some of these families owned land and maintained an active interest in the welfare of Jamestown as well.

By the 1660s, Newporters were profiting from a lively trade in sugar, molasses, rum, and cotton from Barbados, dry goods and hardware from England, and pork, beef, peas, butter, and cheese from the local hinterland.

The latter were marketed in the American colonies and the West Indies.

Newport also developed important local industries--distilling, sugar refining, brewing, and the manufacture of oil and spermaceti candles.

About 1730 the manufacture of candles was reportedly being carried on at Jamestown's East Ferry and was said to be a thriving business. Also on Jamestown in the eighteenth century were two tanyards and several cordwainers and weavers.

Since Newport's hinterland to the north and east of Aquidneck was within the commercial domain of Boston, its merchants relied on products from the west, especially the Narragansett Country.

In 1720 some of the produce of the Narragansett plantations was coming over the Jamestown ferries to Newport.

By 1720, Newport was a leading urban center of the colonies, with a population of 3,800.

By 1742 its people numbered 6,200, and in 1755, 6,753 people lived in Newport. Jamestown, in contrast, had 517 inhabitants in 1755.

The establishment of ferries at each end of Ferry Road encouraged small settlements at the landings; they contained no more than a few houses near the water.

To accommodate ferry travelers and to provide a public place of meeting, four tavern licenses were issued by 1701.

In 1705, according to colonial records, a watch house was in existence at Beavertail.

A beacon was erected and a regular watch was set up in 1712.

Threat of war with Spain resulted in the construction of another watch house at Beavertail in 1739-40.

A lighthouse, only the third in the colonies, was constructed at Beavertail in 1749; it burned down in 1753 and was rebuilt in 1755.

The Quaker fellowship of Conanicut, which had been meeting in private houses, built a meetinghouse and established a burial ground along another ferry road--today's Eldred Avenue--in 1709-10.

In 1734 the meeting house was moved to a new site atop Windmill Hill.

Episcopal services were first conducted on the island in 1741 by the noted South County clergyman James McSparran.

Subsequent Episcopal services were conducted by volunteer lay readers or visiting clergy and were held in private residences on Jamestown for about one hundred years.

Jamestown's period of prosperity and population growth came to an abrupt halt with the onset of the Revolutionary War.

On December 10, 1775, about 200 British soldiers and marines landed at the East Ferry, marched across the island to the West Ferry, where they burned the ferry house and other buildings, and, on their return, burned all buildings which were easily accessible.

At least fourteen houses were destroyed, and 50 cows, 6 oxen, and a number of sheep and hogs were carried off the island.

In a skirmish at the crossroads of today's Narragansett Avenue and North Main Road-Southwest Avenue, the British suffered the loss of one marine and the wounding of seven or eight others.

One civilian bystander, who may have been a Tory or British sympathizer, was wounded.

Many of Jamestown's residents fled to the mainland. The population decreased from 556 in 1775 to 323 in the following year.

During the British occupation of Newport, from December, 1776, to October, 1779, the southern part of Jamestown was occupied almost continuously by British forces.

Batteries which had been established by colonial militia at Fort Dumpling and the Conanicut Battery on Beaverneck were taken and manned by the British during their stay, and destroyed by them, along with the lighthouse, when they left.

Following the war, Jamestown underwent a slow recovery. In the 1780s a new Quaker meetinghouse was built on the site of the one it replaced.

A new windmill, the third built on the island, was erected nearby on land confiscated from Tory Joseph Wanton.

Across the road, a farm owned by Governor Hutchinson of Boston, another Tory, was also confiscated.

In 1783 the population of about 345 inhabitants (on 47 farms) was only about a dozen more than in 1776.

Most of the farms were in pasture, used to graze sheep and cows; the rest was in hay meadow (21%) and in cultivated land (10%).

The town's returning prosperity is indicated by a rise in population to 507 in 1790; at that time wool, mutton, and cheese were Jamestown's major export items.

Conanicut's cheese, like that of Block Island, was famous throughout the colonies.

At the end of the century, Fort Dumpling, a huge, solid, stonework elliptical tower, was constructed.

Although it reportedly never saw military action, it stood as Jamestown's most imposing and romantic landmark for most of the nineteenth century.

Most of Jamestown's eighteenth-century buildings no longer exist.

Some were destroyed and never rebuilt; some, like the lighthouse at Beavertail, were replaced; and yet other structures, including the William Battey House, were so changed that their original form is no longer recognizable.

The few extant structures, however, are good examples of the early Rhode Island house type.

They are 2 1/2-story dwellings whose hallmarks are massive interior framing, with large posts and beams joined together by pegs; a large, brick, center chimney; and a simply-framed central entry in a five-bay facade.

Most are plain, functional structures lacking architectural detail and embellishment.

The Carr Homestead, at 90 Carr Lane, whose age is difficult to pinpoint with accuracy, has a transom-lighted entryway, and its small house lot still contains several fine farm outbuildings, including a corn crib.

Like the Carr Homestead, the Lyman-Cottrell House, off Hamilton Avenue, is of uncertain age; a large tract of its farmland was sold more than a century ago for summer cottages.

The c. 1760 Carr-Hazard House, at 30 Rub Street, has a less common 4-bay facade.

It is part of the Windmill Hill Historic District, as is the 1796 Thomas Carr Watson Farmhouse, a handsome dwelling with many of its original features, including multi-pane windows, intact.

The Watson House, on a 258-acre farm, with a cluster of outbuildings nearby, is owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, which protects this handsome house.

Also in the Windmill Hill Historic District are three structures built in 1787: the 1-story Friends Meeting House and the adjacent windmill and miller's house.

Two large, mid-eighteenth-century farmhouses, both with outbuildings, face each other across Fort Getty Road on Beaver Neck.

The Jonathan Law Farmhouse is on the south side of the road.

Fox Hill Farm, with a rare (for Jamestown) gambrel-roofed residence, slopes gently down to the waters of the west passage.

The small population of Jamestown's eighteenth century has left a remarkable legacy in these buildings.

They are a noteworthy group, both for their architectural quality and for their ability to document life in the period of Jamestown's development as a prosperous small farming community.

AGRICULTURAL DECLINE

For the greater part of the nineteenth century, Jamestown was a quiet, very sparsely populated town.

In the first decade of the century the population numbered just over 500 inhabitants, but after 1810 it began a decline.

By 1850 census takers counted only 358 people; in 1870 the town had gained only 20 people to total 378.

Photo - Robin Collins

While most of Rhode Island (except for Newport County) was taking part in the Industrial Revolution, with textile mills and hamlets and villages springing up on numerous waterways throughout the state, Conanicut's lack of a waterway large enough to generate power to run industrial machinery excluded it from most manufacturing activity.

Instead, the steady and reliable sea breezes were used to drive the large wooden blades of the island's sole windmill, whose stones ground corn into meal.

As in the previous centuries, agriculture was the mainstay of the island's economy.

Pease and Niles wrote in their gazetteer in 1819 that the rich loam soil was "peculiarly adapted to grazing," and "likewise productive in grain, especially barley and Indian corn."

Sheep grazing which heretofore had been very important was, in 1819, "less attended to."

At that time Jamestown had 60 to 70 dwelling houses, one religious society and church, two or three schools, and one grain mill. Hayward, recording the island in 1839, paraphrased the 1819 account regarding agriculture.

He considered the beautiful island, with its industrious and agriculturally skilled inhabitants, and its location, "a delightful place."

The 1850 census provides a snapshot of Jamestown at mid-century. Fifty-five hundred acres were devoted to farming. The 45 farms scattered about the island ranged in size from five to 380 acres.

The largest were Daniel Watson's (380 acres) and William Weeden's (365 acres), at the northern end of the island.

John Cottrell's 350-acre farm occupied the southern end of the island; it covered most of what later became developed as the Cottrell Farm and Ocean Highlands plats.

At Windmill Hill was the 330-acre Robert Watson farm, one of only a few farms that have survived to the present day.

All of Jamestown's farms had a few milking cows whose milk was probably used by the farm family. Each farm also made butter (the island's production totaled 30,847 pounds), but less than half the farms converted milk into cheese (of which 23,350 pounds were manufactured).

Leaders in both these dairy products were David W. Clarke, Ebenezer Tefft, Benjamin Cottrell, and John Cottrell. The farms of George C. Carr, William Briggs, and Daniel W. Watson also made a ton or more of cheese.

Swine were important both as a source of meat for the table and for their by-products.

William Briggs owned 27 pigs, an unusually high number for Jamestown, which averaged five porkers per farm.

The 1,122 sheep grazing the land of the 17 sheep-raising farms yielded 4,844 pounds of wool. Jonathan Lake led, with 900 pounds of wool sheared; John Cottrell was next, with 700 pounds of wool.

A variety of crops was planted for man and beast. Hay was harvested on all farms, each farm bringing in an average of 18 tons.

On 44 farms, a total of 11,387 bushels of Indian corn were picked in 1850, David Clarke and Jonathan Lake each harvesting 800 bushels.

Only 36 farms grew Irish potatoes.

The farms of Ebenezer Teft, John Cottrell, and Benjamin Cottrell, each gathered 400 bushels, about one third of the island's entire potato crop of 4,180 bushels.

Gradually, as the century progressed, services and institutions were established.

In 1827 a lighthouse was built at the southern end of Dutch Island.

Its poor construction, however, necessitated a replacement, and in 1857 the present structure was erected.

The Beavertail Lighthouse also became obsolete and was replaced in 1856 by the present structure.

Dutch Island's owner, Powell Carpenter, who unsuccessfully attempted to establish a fish works there, sold the island to the United States government in 1864, and a fort was erected.

Troops were stationed on the island for a short time in the 1860s.

Educational services continued to be limited, but records indicate the existence of a stone school house in Jamestown in the late eighteenth century. In 1801 plans were made for two new schools.

By 1818 there were three schools, one in the northern part, a middle schoolhouse, and one in the southern part of the main section of the island. In 1847 the Philomenian Library Association was incorporated, its books stored in private houses.

The Town Council gave a small parcel of land in the southeast corner of the artillery lot for a church building, which was erected in 1833.

Several years later the building was acquired by the island's Episcopalian society and it served as a missionary chapel of Newport's Trinity Church.

The Baptist Society of Jamestown built a meeting house on North Main Road about 1842.

This building was soon considered to be too far from the center of population and a new group--the Central Baptist Society--was formed in the village, and in 1868 erected a church on Narragansett Avenue.

Services continued to be held at the old meetinghouse until 1880; later the building was sold to Episcopalians, then in 1934 sold again and converted into a dwelling.

The first building on the island constructed specifically to be a store was erected in 1829 by Isaac Carr, who carried on a trade for about 50 years.

The first post office was established in 1844, with William A. Weeden, Jr., as the postmaster.

Although a few schoolhouses and churches, a post office, and a store were established in Jamestown during the first part of the nineteenth century, and even though farming was providing a livelihood for most of the island's inhabitants, perceptions of life here were mixed.

Two 1860 newspaper accounts provide glimpses of Jamestown.

A Providence Journal reporter noted that "around the east ferry there is a group of houses, forming a little village, running in a straggling line across the island to the west ferry.

These buildings are quite unpretending, but are comfortable and in good repair."

At the west ferry, which had a store, a new house had recently been erected, but in considering the island in general, the reporter considered its present condition to be "run down."

In a subsequent issue of the Mercury, the author of a letter (signed only as "W") stated that the land was being exhausted by poor agricultural practices. Due to failure to manure the fields, the land was worn.

But, said "W," some land was productive, and Jamestown supplied some of the best lambs in the market. Within a few years (of 1860) several new houses had been built, including a large boardinghouse.

The article by the Providence Journal reporter described the character of the southern part of the main section of the island.

He found: "undulating hills of rock, not half covered with soil, and not capable of producing anything more than a scanty crop of grass--just enough to keep up the appearance of verdure, and to cheat the few sheep pastured there into the belief that there was an abundance and to spare; but it requires the closest application on their part to the work of nibbling, to maintain a respectable appearance in the way of fat and wool."

Because Jamestown's population experienced a loss of 25% between 1800 and 1869, there was a limited amount of building activity.

The inventory of historic resources in this report includes only about ten significant structures from this period, including two lighthouses and a town pound.

Off North Main Road, in the Windmill Hill Historic District, the c. 1802 Watson/Hodgkiss House survives as a good example of the large, early Rhode Island farmhouse.

It closely resembles the nearby 1796 Thomas Carr Watson House, but the Watson/Hodgkiss House's features have been refined with a pedimented entry and splayed lintels over the windows.

Part of a working farm, it has a collection of varied-age outbuildings nearby.

The Tiddeman Hull House, formerly at 398 Eldred Avenue, is a small 1 1/2-story, center-chimney dwelling, which was reportedly built in 1840; if so, it is an unusually late example of its type.

Several mid-nineteenth-century buildings, the 1841 First Baptist Church, at 783 North Main Road, later converted to residential use, the 1843 Meadowsweet Farm, at 191 Narragansett Avenue, and the Carr-Howland Farmhouse, at 256 East Shore Road, have all been remodeled.

Thorncroft, at 175 Narragansett Avenue, built about 1860, which includes a fine carriage house on its large lot, was enlarged and improved in 1889, and has been subsequently reworked, but still retains its late nineteenth-century appearance.

The Maples, at 78 Narragansett Avenue, when built as a residence in 1866, was said to have been the finest Victorian-style house in Jamestown.

It has recently been enlarged and now houses professional offices, but it retains some of its architectural detailing and has the further distinction of being on the only surviving lot of the original 22 township lots laid out along the road in 1709.

The Dutch Island Lighthouse, first erected in 1827, was replaced in 1857 by a new structure.

Several ancillary outbuildings were recently destroyed, leaving the white, square tower as a solitary symbol of the island's maritime history.

At Beavertail, the 1779 lighthouse was replaced in 1856 by the present handsome structure.

It and the dependent buildings, now under the care of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, are in good condition today and include a museum devoted to lighthouse history.

Fort Dumpling

SUMMER VISITORS AND OTHER NEWCOMERS

In 1870 Jamestown's land use pattern was essentially the same as it had been for the previous two centuries. Narragansett Avenue was the most heavily settled part of the island.

Along this old road a line of houses extended from the East Ferry landing to the junction of North Main Road, and a few houses were clustered near the West Ferry landing.

But the remainder of Jamestown's houses and farms were widely dispersed over the rest of the island.

The southern end of Conanicut, south of Hamilton Avenue, was a single parcel of land owned by the Cottrell family, which also owned Fox Hill Farm on Beaver Neck. All of Beaver Neck contained only five houses.

North of Great Creek for a distance of about two miles, houses were strung out at intervals along North Main Road, and several houses were also spread out along Eldred Avenue.

The farmsteads at the northern end of the island were sited far off the road, near the shore along both sides of the island.

The last three decades of the nineteenth century, however, were among the most dramatic and exciting in the town's history, a time of profound change.

While much of the town remained agricultural, four separate and distinct residential tracts were established.

The greatest development occurred near the East Ferry landing, which became a full-fledged village. Growth here was mostly fueled by the construction of several large hotels and the establishment of boarding houses.

A summer colony called Conanicut Park was started at the northern end of the island. Remote and isolated from the village, this development, relying mostly on steamboats for contact with the outside world, was an ambitiously planned but scarcely realized resort, attracting Rhode Islanders and other New Englanders.

At the opposite end of the island, in the Ocean Highlands tract, wealthy Philadelphia families, among others, built the island's finest mansions, most perched on rock outcrops, on the high elevations and along the scenic and southern coast--sites that provided some of the most beautiful vistas in Rhode Island.

Jamestown -Wylene Commander

At the northern edge of the village, a group of wealthy St. Louis families established Shoreby Hill, a private enclave, in the closing years of the nineteenth century.

Jennie Lippitt House/Stonewall Cottage, 1873, 1026 East Shore Road, Conanicut Park. This picturesque residence, featuring a mansard-roofed tower and a wrap-around piazza, was built by Jennie Lippitt, whose family helped finance the Conanicut Part development.

George Taber Cottage, 1874, 1982, 921 East Shore Road, Conanicut Park. The embellishment of this cross-gabled residence, restored in 1982, include the bargeboards, balustrades, and porch railings.

Samuel Irons House/Hendry/s Retreat, c. 1876, 14 Fairview Avenue, Conanicut Park. This handsome Victorian house has some fine carpenterwork decorations.

Build by Charles Fletcher, a Providence textile manufacturer, for his summer residence; with its sweeping view of the bay, it was the most imposing structure at the Park.

In 1915 it began service as the Point View Hotel and was used as a summer hotel until 1972. It now houses condominium units.

Ferry Services

Perhaps the most significant event in the history of the island was the introduction of a steam-powered ferry boat, an event that ended two centuries of relative isolation and rural tranquility.

The first steam ferry, built by the Atlantic Works of East Boston, christened Jamestown, made the first Jamestown-Newport run in May 1873.

This 79-foot long, wood-burning side-wheeler, made five round trips a day between Jamestown and Newport until 1886, when the 125-foot long Conanicut took over.

The Jamestown then went into service on the west passage run. In 1896 this boat was replaced by the still larger and much faster Beaver Tail.

Benjamin Pease, recalling life on Jamestown (in Recollections of a Long and Busy Life), was not the first to note that the establishment of the steam ferry "inaugurated what was destined to be the key to prosperity on the part of the worthy burghers of Jamestown's fair isle."

Up to this time, the ferry had been used principally by island farmers to market their produce and buy supplies, and by travelers going eastward or westward across the southern part of Rhode Island.

The new steam ferry service, which provided relatively safe and efficient transportation to Jamestown, began the era of summer residences, a period that lasted well into the twentieth century.

When the steam ferry started there were three land developments underway in the southern part of the island near the East Ferry landing--the Howland Plat, the Gardner Farm Plat, and Ferry Meadow.

Two more developments--Ocean Highlands and the Bay View plat--followed soon after.

By century's end, the Cottrell Farm, the Bryer Farm, and Shoreby Hill had been subdivided into house lots.

Conanicut Park

A number of other steam ferries and steamboat lines also operated on Narragansett Bay during the late nineteenth century.

One route connected Wickford with Newport; another line ran boats from Providence to the southern shore.

These steamer services were responsible for establishing Jamestown's earliest summer colony, Conanicut Park, at the northern tip of the island.

The Conanicut Land Company, organized in 1872, purchased about 500 acres here.

Their tract was divided into more than 2,000 small rectangular lots which were platted along several gracefully curving roadways.

Most of the lots went undeveloped, and a proposed park never got beyond the drawing board, but the all-important steamboat landing and a hotel were built in 1873.

Four cottages were also built in 1873; in the next two years six more cottages were added.

However, the depression of 1873 slowed development considerably at this crucial time, and the introduction of the steam ferry from Newport to the East Ferry landing shifted the focus of summer cottage activity to the southern end of the island.

The steamers and other vessels received an aid to navigation in 1886 with the establishment of the North Light at the tip of the island.

In the following year, Dr. Jernegan of Boston began building "a substantial villa" at the northwestern part of the island not far from the lighthouse, on a large tract of land. Governor Henry Lippitt purchased the buildings and land of the Conanicut Land Company at public auction in 1889; soon after, three more cottages and a farmhouse were constructed.

In addition to residences and the hotel, the Providence YWCA was allowed the use of a house for its camp in 1878.

The house was acquired in 1881, and named Seaside. Later, the YWCA acquired four other Conanicut Park Houses.

Soon after the start of the project, a group of investors (Daniel LeRoy of New York; Samuel Campbell of New York; John B. Palmer of Providence; A.B. Darling of New York, the proprietor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel; and W.H. Carr of New York, a clerk in Darling's hotel) purchased a tract of land just south of the Park. Caswell and Darling had plans for a hotel, but it never materialized.

East Ferry Development

The first great building boom on Jamestown began at the East Ferry, where hotels, cottages, stores, and private residences were built in the latter part of the nineteenth century, transforming the place into a true village.

Near the landing, even before the advent of steam navigation, summer visitors were accommodated in private residences. Reportedly, William Champlin began keeping boarders during the time of the Civil War.

Ferry Meadow was part of the Howland Farm which had belonged to John Howland at the end of the eighteenth century.

With its proximity to the East Ferry landing it was the first plat developed. Twenty acres between Union and Brook Streets were divided into 70 lots and sold.

By 1873 Pardon Tucker's mansard-roof residence had been built and houses were being constructed for Philip Caswell and John Howland.

John Howland put up an entirely gas-piped house partly from the proceeds of land sales, and partly from faith in sales to come.

In June, 1888, no fewer than twenty houses were in the process of completion, or just completed, within view of the ferry dock, and "fully double that number were erected within the limits of the town proper during the past year," reported the Newport Mercury. By the end of the century, Ferry Meadow was the most densely settled part of the village.

Several other small housing developments were laid out in the village.

The Gardner Farm Plat, comprised of several shore lots south of Ferry Meadow, was platted in 1873 by James Hamilton Clarke. West of Ferry Meadow, between Narragansett Avenue and High Street, was the Howland Plat. Nearly all of the land along Howland Avenue in this plat was sold by 1874.

An 1888 newspaper account reported that most of the 60-x-100-foot lots in the Howland Plat had been sold and the area was "already a good sized village of small but neat and tasty homes."

In 1875 Benjamin Bryer of New York owned the southern 85 acres of the former Isaac Howland Farm, located about one quarter of a mile north of the ferry landing.

In 1884 part of this tract was developed for housing. Between 1883 and 1888 many summer cottages, ranging in cost from $500 to $80,000, were built on the island, according to the Newport Mercury, and architect Charles L. Bevins was "working night and day to furnish plans for others to be erected for the 1889 season."

In 1887 the Bryer Plat was made up of the cottages of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral H.C. Wells and Medical Director David Kindleberger, Mrs. Pascal Hacker of Philadelphia, and Cory's boarding house.

By 1888 several other houses were being constructed.

Development of the South End of the Island

South of the village and beyond the several small residential developments (that ended at Hamilton Avenue) was the vast Cottrell Farm.

Photo - Robin Collins

In 1844 John Cottrell had moved to Jamestown from South Kingstown and purchased the 200-acre Lyman Farm. Along with the 200-acre Dumplin Farm and Fox Hill Farm, the Cottrell family holdings in Jamestown totaled more than 500 acres. John Cottrell's son Frederick, who took over the farm, was more interested in business ventures than in farming.

Beavertail Lighthouse - Claymania Productions

He was instrumental in organizing the ferry company, was a part owner in the Ferry Meadow Company, and, for a time, was president of the Ocean Highlands Company.

Incorporated in 1875 with George C. Carr as president, the Ocean Highlands Company acquired a 265-acre parcel "comprising the barren tract known as the Dumplings" (and also known as the East and West Dumplings, or Dumplin Farm), the southernmost part of the Cottrell Farm, fronting the ocean.

The company's goal was the improvement of this part of the island for summer residences. By 1875, according to a Newport newspaper, they had begun constructing a road that would be a drive of five miles, and were planning to build a hotel and construct a wharf.

Although land in the Ocean Highlands began selling in 1875, no houses were built there until 1881, when William Trost Richards, a marine artist from Philadelphia, bought a lot and built a cottage, Gray Cliff, near the quartz dike known as "White Streak" in the cliffs along the water. Richards's high praise of Conanicut (he said that "certainly there is no place more lovely than Conanicut in all the world") encouraged fellow Philadelphians to purchase property there.

Joseph and Charles Wharton and Benjamin Shoemaker built cottages in 1882; James B. Sword, another Philadelphia artist, built a house in 1883; and Philadelphians Wistar Morris and Dr. R. Eglesfeld Griffith built in 1886 and 1887.

In 1887 the Newport newspaper listed at least a dozen cottage owners from Ocean Highlands.

In 1884 Walcott Avenue was extended across the Cottrell Farm; three years later the farm was platted for development. By then Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge had already purchased the southeast corner of the farm and built his cottage there.

The year 1888 was one of considerable building activity in the Highlands. Before summer, cottages were built by C.W. Larned of West Point, Mrs. Tilden of New York, and by General Robert Patterson and J.W.M. Newlin of Philadelphia. That summer the new steamer Dumplings began making regular trips between and the Dumplings.

Hotels & Boarding Houses

While large summer homes, or cottages, were being erected in the general vicinity of the landing, the immediate area of the landing site itself received the greatest attention.

William H. Knowles, a Jamestown resident, built the first hotel, a 2 1/2-story, mansard-roofed structure, in 1