In the halcyon days when Jamestown was a summer resort, visitors stayed in hotels and cottages for weeks at a time. One of the premier hotels was the Thorndike (sometimes spelled Thorndyke). It was located where BankNewport is now.

For over 100 years Fort Dumpling stood at the southeast tip of the main part of Conanicut Island looming over 85’ granite outcroppings that dropped to the sea.

The Carr School was built in 1889 on the site now anchored by McQuade’s Market. It was a large two-story building serving grades K-4 and was in use until 1955 when the Lawn Avenue School was built.

This fan has been dated to the 18th century by the Textiles Department at URI. The donor was Mary Howland (Gardner) Clarke, the daughter of John Howland Gardner.

Clara was the daughter of Clara Silvia Furtado and Manual Dutra Lewis who immigrated from Fayal Island Azores and were married January 14, 1906 in the Parish of St. Mary, Our Lady of the Isle in Newport.

From Jamestown’s very beginning to the present day, working farms make up a considerable portion of the acres on our island. According to a map produced in 1933 to show all the farms of Jamestown at the turn of the twentieth century, at that time most of the land was farmed.

The National Register, authorized by the National Historical Preservation Act of 1966, is the official list of the Nation’s historical places worthy of preservation.

In 1873, the town of Jamestown initiated the first steam ferry service between Jamestown East Ferry and Newport. Fifteen years later, in 1888, steam ferry service between West Ferry and Saunderstown on the mainland began. Just how did passengers and their belongings travel the one-mile between ferries?

Although we have featured the 38 Hurricane in an earlier “From the Collection”, we would like to feature one of our films this month. Many Jamestown residents have never experienced a strong hurricane or seen the extent of the damage caused by one.

On September 19, 2021, Judith E. Garlick, passed away leaving the Jamestown Historical Society an extensive collection of albums containing pictures of students who graduated from the Carr and Clarke Schools.