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The Greene Farmhouse on Shoreby Hill is one of the oldest buildings still standing on Conanicut Island. Some sources believe it was built in 1672. Other evidence suggests that David Greene built the house in 1712 or shortly thereafter.
Legend has it that when the British burned the houses on nearby Narragansett Avenue in December 1775, the house was spared because the gentle Quaker mistress of the house hospitably offered the British commander a cup of tea.
In the mid-19th century, the Greene farm occupied most of what is now Shoreby Hill. Even as Jamestown grew, it looked as though the farm could never be broken up and sold because of the will of its last Greene owner. Joseph Greene, Jr. had no children. In 1839, he directed that his property be held in perpetual trust for the benefit of those who believed in his particular form of early Quakerism. The will seemed ironclad.
But in 1889, the Rhode Island Supreme Court faced a clever argument: that while it is possible to ascertain the religious professions of individuals it is not within anyone’s capabilities to ascertain beliefs. In 1891 the Court declared the will invalid; and in 1896 the Jamestown Land Company bought the old farm property and promptly began development of the private community of Shoreby Hill.
Shoreby Hill was the brainchild of two successful businessmen from St. Louis: Ephron Catlin, a drug manufacturer, and James Taussig, a lawyer. The Catlin and Taussig families summered in Jamestown for several years before deciding, in 1895, to buy the Greene Farm and build an exclusive and attractive vacation enclave for themselves and their St. Louis neighbors. To transform the farmland into a sophisticated “suburb,” as they called it after similar private developments in St. Louis, the two men hired Ernest W. Bowditch, who had recently designed the private community of Tuxedo Park, New York.
Bowditch’s design featured curved roads that followed the contour of the land and afforded maximum visibility of the waterfront. A private dock stretched out into the bay in front of a lawn that was to be used as a commons. Stone pillars at each entrance created an air of exclusivity. Deeds defined building and landscaping restrictions. Buried sewer lines funneled waste from the planned houses far out into the bay.
The first homes were ready for occupancy in the summer of 1898. By that winter, eight cottages had been built or were in the course of construction.
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