Abby Epplett, Historian

All across Conanicut Island are sites maintained by Jamestown Historical Society . The sites opened to the public for the first time that year on the day I visited Jamestown. I visited three of the society’s sites: Jamestown Windmill, Conanicut Friends Meetinghouse, and Jamestown Museum & Town Hall. Jamestown Windmill The gray cedar shingled Jamestown Windmill was built in 1787 by the Watson family, the same people who owned Watson Farm down the street. The windmill was used for grinding corn in cornmeal. The windmill was in operation until 1896 when modern industrial methods of grounding corn made the business unsustainable.

Last Saturday, after a visit to Casey Farm in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, I crossed the bay on Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge and visited  Watson Farm in Jamestown, RI. While both properties are owned by Historic New England (HNE)  with 18 th century farmhouses and heritage breed animals, not to mention that they are located a quick seven minute drive apart in southern Rhode Island, the farms could not be more different.

Last Saturday, I visited Casey Farm , a Historic New England (HNE) property located in Saunderstown, RI . The property spans over 300 acres between Narragansett Bay and the Pettaquamscutt River and includes a Georgian style house, multiple barns and outbuildings, more than ten miles of stone walls, a family cemetery, working gardens, heritage breed animals, and a weekly farmers market. There is a lot to take in!

Last weekend, I attended birthday celebrations for Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) and the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. As a Smithsonian Affiliate and member of the New England Museum Association,  RIHS is celebrating the 200th anniversary of their founding throughout the this year with parties themed in 50 year intervals . The 1872 Jubilee Birthday Party was held on June 11 at the John Brown House in Providence, RI and was the second in the series. The event was free and open to the public.  Kevin Doyle's Roscommon Soles  provided live music. Named for a county in Ireland, the four-person group combined traditional Irish music on flute, guitar, uilleann pipes, and bodhrán with intricate tap dance. Doyle is an award-winning dancer who has been recognized by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and National Heritage Fellowship, and his skilled steps brought extra energy to the performance. Another highlight of the celeb...

Managed by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy  since 2001, this series of gardens was design by American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted over a period of eighteen years, from 1878 to 1896. Other well-known public gardens designed by Olmsted include Central Park in Manhattan, New York and the U.S. Capitol Grounds in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Olmstead designed landscapes for privately owned homes, including Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina for the Vanderbilt family, and his own estate in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is now part of the National Park Service .