- [Announcer] "Our Town: Jamestown" is made possible by the following premiere sponsor.

- [Patricia] William Raveis is the largest independently-owned residential real estate company in New England since 1974.

I'm Patricia Orsi with William Raveis and I'm proud to be the premier sponsor of "Our Town: Jamestown."

I provide comprehensive, personalized real estate services to all Jamestown and Rhode Island home buyers and sellers through our extensive William Raveis network of marketing programs.

- [Announcer] And the following benefactor sponsor.

- [Narrator] Unleash your creativity at the Jamestown Arts Center, with art classes, exhibits, and more.

Explore, create, and connect at the JAC, proud sponsor of "Our Town: Jamestown" and Rhode Island PBS.

- [Narrator] Rhode Island PBS presents "Our Town," the program where we learn about the people, places, history, and happenings of each town around the Ocean State through the eyes of those who live there.

Watch now as they show us everything that makes their community a great hometown.

In a state filled with stunning seaside views, Jamestown is in a class of its own.

Despite having a population just under 6,000, Jamestown leaves a large impression on the Ocean State.

For centuries, Indigenous tribes lived on Conanicut Island, which comprises nearly all of Jamestown as we know it today.

In 1678, colonists incorporated Jamestown as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Then in 1746, Jamestown became part of Rhode Island.

The island remained separated from the rest of the state until 1940 when the original Jamestown Bridge connected it to North Kingstown.

Then in 1969, the Newport Bridge opened, and in 1992, a new replacement span debuted, the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge.

History is well preserved here, with generations still calling Jamestown home and still passing their families' stories along today.

Join us as we hear from the people and about the places that make Jamestown such a remarkable place to live.

This is "Our Town: Jamestown."

(thoughtful music) (thoughtful music continues) - Many people are unaware of the history, at one time including me.

The island at one time held the largest percentage of enslaved persons of any town in New England.

So why is this important?

(thoughtful music) Hi, Mom.

Hi Dad.

Hi, Sandra.

Hi, Paul.

We're filming today.

(somber music) Three of these are very recent deaths, so we're just all taken aback by the sudden deaths of people we're very close to.

I've joined another local resident, Peter Fay, and we've written a book soon to be published called "A Peaceful Patch of Earth: Blacks in Jamestown, Rhode Island in a time of Racial Turbulence in America, 1850 to 1920."

(bell ringing) (somber music) I grew up in Jamestown and no one talked about the Champlins, so I'm so glad that we're giving them voice here.

Hannah Elizabeth Champlin, 1855 to 1925.

Hannah Elizabeth Champlin was born free in Jamestown.

She lived her entire life in Jamestown and died quietly on the island at age 67.

Hannah lived through and was likely fearful of the prevalence of slavery, the turmoil of the Civil War, the horrifying assassination of President Lincoln, and the astounding 1865 passage of the 13th Amendment.

The Champlin family farm was the first farm in Jamestown owned by a family of color.

Moreover, land ownership afforded the male members of the family the right to vote.

Hannah and her brothers never married.

In many ways, the Champlin family's legacy is Cedar Cemetery.

(thoughtful music) (music fades) I just thought it was important, particularly since I grew up here and I'm a person of color.

And for some reason, the history of people of color, Native Americans, Blacks, Portuguese, et cetera, those histories are not being discussed.

(calm music) Olivia Johns Rice, 1880 to 1973.

Olivia Johns Rice comes from a storied family of civil rights champions and landowners.

In 1920, she was one of the first women of color on the island to register and vote.

Olivia died at the age of 93 and is buried at Cedar Cemetery, not far from the Champlin family.

Our strategy was to comb every available resource, and that included oral histories, census data, military service records, government documents, and historical narratives.

There are other stories in the book, such as Buffalo Soldier, Sergeant Major Benjamin Morrell and his wife Lucy.

They owned several parcels of land in Jamestown, including two lots on Clarke Street.

Benjamin Morrell was born enslaved in 1847 in Madison County, Kentucky.

His life was remarkable.

He overcame human bondage, rose through the US Army during the American Indian Wars to the highest enlisted rank of Sergeant Major, and retired in Jamestown with his wife to create a hospitality enterprise.

For at least a decade, it became the getaway resort for Black dignitaries across the nation.

He was buried with full military honors at Cedar Cemetery.

(bell ringing) (thoughtful music) Mount Zion AME Church, established in 1896 with the Reverend William H. Thomas as deacon.

So here it stood for 138 years, its first 100 years as a church for the island Black community.

I recall when I was a little girl, my mother insisted that I accompany her to the services here.

By that time, only three or four Black residents attended.

The glory days were gone.

And now as I reflect, I'm glad that she insisted that I attend.

I was sitting in a special place, and in my youth I was unaware of its significance.

(thoughtful music) Just looking at the history of Jamestown, it's great to finally conclude the research for this time period, 1850 to 1920.

This has been exhilarating and enlightening and I hope that the readers of the book enjoy it and learn something different about Jamestown history.

(thoughtful music) (music fades) (jaunty music) (music fades) (tape reel hissing) (relaxed swing music) - The Jamestown Newport Ferry has been around for several hundred years.

It's one of the oldest ferry systems in the nation.

My name is William "Bill" Munger and I'm the president of Conanicut Marine Services, which is the umbrella for the Jamestown Newport Ferry, Coastal Queen Cruises.

Newport at the time was a slave trading colony back in the early days.

That was driving the early need for the Jamestown Newport Ferry in the late 1600s all the way through the 1700s.

The system prevailed all the way up to 1969 when the Newport Bridge was built.

- Well, the ferry boats were everything.

I mean, you had a ferry boat on both sides of the island, the West Ferry and and the East Ferry and until the Newport Bridge was built, and then of course, they didn't need the West Ferry any longer.

- When the ferry went out in 1969 when the bridge was built, it was really in a sad state with lots of peeling paint, boarded up windows, and it just had no purpose.

Jamestown Newport Ferry, that came around and revived after Paul Sprague started it in 1993.

So there was a gap between 1969 and 1993 with no service.

- I think it was 1993, I came up with this idea thinking about, "What am I gonna do this summer for a job?"

And it occurred to me that maybe there's an opportunity to start the ferry again.

So I went to see Bill down at the waterfront.

I said, "Hey, you know, what do you think of this idea?"

- It transitioned shortly after that in '95 or so to a group of Jamestown investors that wanted to save the ferry, to keep it going.

So the Conanicut Marine Services manage the ferry right up through today.

It's more about the go to lunch or go to dinner or take the grandchildren to Rose Island or take the grandchildren to Fort Adams.

Those sorts of things is how the transportation is used today.

It's a quality of life for Jamestowners.

People love being on the water.

It's special.

After the real ferries left us back in 1969, there has been a long slug back to having the village have a purpose.

Today, of course, the village has many purposes.

(relaxed swing music) (music fades) (calm music) (music fades) (relaxed bright music) - It's a very beautiful place to live.

Doesn't matter what time of year it is, it's always beautiful.

The seasons change and it's just fantastic.

It's like being on vacation all the time.

My name is Wendy Crooks and I'm a portrait artist and I also work part-time at the library.

I've been an artist all my life.

I remember spending hours coloring and drawing as a small child and kept doing it for the rest of my life.

Portraiture is my focus and it's my passion.

I find faces infinitely fascinating.

Everybody's is different and everybody's has something special to say.

I always come back to the people.

I love people faces.

I had started the project just before the pandemic came.

The project was called "A Reflection of Jamestown," and I decided to paint 50 portraits of people living or working in Jamestown in honor of Jamestown Day, which was to be October 2020.

I had a list of everybody who'd volunteered, and it just kept niggling at me that I needed to complete the project.

So I started calling people and they offered to come and sit on my porch or in my studio with all the doors and windows open or in gardens or wherever we could find where we would be safely distanced and still be able to paint.

So once COVID hit and I had to find different ways to paint people, this is one of the solutions, to come and sit on my front porch, which was a little noisy at times and a little chilly in the early spring and the late autumn, but it worked very well.

The best part of the project for me was sitting and talking to people, and I met people in town that I'd never met before, some that I knew vaguely.

I got to spend time with them, hear their stories, people like Jane Bentley, Chris Richards, Judy Kinzel, Don Miller, Richard Chellis.

The list goes on.

There were 50, so obviously there were quite a few.

They told me history of Jamestown, they told me who's related to who, some little gossip here and there.

That was the best part of the project to me.

Looking back on it, it's something I'm extremely proud of and I'll always be grateful to all those people who volunteered to come and sit with me.

And a lot of them who didn't actually know me at the time came out during the pandemic to spend time with a stranger.

So I'll always be very grateful to all of them.

When I started this project, it was all about Jamestown Day and the community of Jamestown.

But when COVID came along and the shutdown happened, it all became about something else for me.

It was this is what got me through COVID.

What did you like about being painted?

- That's interesting.

I really enjoyed my time here.

I enjoyed you.

We had some nice chats, and I didn't know you very well and I got to know you well.

- Portraiture has a huge history for mankind.

It puts faces to history, things that have happened in history.

I wish more people would have portraits done of people they love, because I believe that a painted portrait very much shows what's inside the person, not just their features.

(relaxed bright music) It was a very important project to me.

I learnt a lot; not just about where I live and the people who live here, but also it increased my painting skills and my enjoyment of painting faces.

(relaxed bright music) (music fades) (bright music) (music fades) (relaxed music) - Back in 1949, things were very different here in Jamestown.

There was no Newport Bridge.

So, a local singer and organist, Rita Murray, put together the first Jamestown Choral Group, which was 12 women who got started back in 1949.

My name is B.J.

Whitehouse.

I'm the music director of the Jamestown Community Chorus.

I've been doing it for a few years, started back in 1989.

It's our diamond anniversary, it's our 75th anniversary since Rita founded the Jamestown Choral Group, and it means a great deal.

- I joined the chorus in this past fall, fall of 2023.

- I joined in 1997.

- I joined the chorus in 1986.

- I joined the chorus in January of 2006.

- It is an absolutely wonderful group of people.

In our rehearsals, I will just stop and I will say, "I'm the luckiest guy on the planet.

I get to work with you people and we get to sing.

There's nothing like it."

♪ The chorus ♪ ♪ Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la ♪ ♪ Follow me in merry measure ♪ ♪ Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la ♪ - Our two major performances are in May, first weekend in May, and then usually the second weekend of December.

We were at the top of the Jamestown Bridge the day it opened in 1992.

We have sung everywhere.

Until you get to COVID, then the worst thing you can do is sing.

So we did the "The Brady Bunch" look virtual chorus.

♪ This light of mine ♪ ♪ I'm going to let it shine ♪ ♪ And shine and shine and shine ♪ - I think the smallest chorus of all time was 22, but we had 85 one year.

And so right now we're singing with 45 or so.

I have a feeling for our 75th we'll have quite a few alumni showing up.

We have people who were 13 years old.

We have some people who are much older, like myself, than 13.

But to be honest, it's an older group.

- We're always pleasant with each other.

We have no real problems within the community.

Maybe in a regular community it's different, but we have this interest and it's just a wonderful place to be.

- I've made some lifelong friends and we celebrate occasions, triumphs with each other, and there have been other occasions when we've been asked to sing at memorial services for members who have died, and that's always very meaningful to me.

- I tell everybody, community comes before chorus in our name, and that means that I care more about the people.

I mean, we wanna sing well, we wanna know our part, we want to do our best, but it comes down to people.

And what we try to do is we try to encourage everybody to sing.

♪ For those in peril on the sea ♪ - But I tell everybody who's interested in joining our group, and to be honest, any chorus, these are friends who you just haven't met yet.

'Cause it's some of the finest people I've ever met.

♪ And my heart's still full with the sound ♪ (audience applauding) (steady brass band music) ("The Star-Spangled Banner") - One day in 1993 while standing on the sidewalk for the Memorial Day Parade, I'm standing there and there's a Jeep coming in the parade with a loudspeaker on the front of the Jeep playing music, and there was no band.

So I thought, "Gee, this is a shame.

You know, I've kind of restarted playing instruments and there's got to be at least 10 people in town who can play an instrument."

And my wife said, "Well, why don't you do something about it?"

(grand music) And it has really grown into this concert band that consists of anywhere from 25 to 30 people.

(energetic marching music) My name is Joe England.

I'm the founder of the Jamestown Community Band.

I came here to start a medical practice as a family doctor in 1984.

After I retired from my practice, I then began to spend more time with the band again.

And so for the last six years I've been able to make every rehearsal and I'm the vice president again.

(playful music) my father was very musical.

He played in fife and drum corps.

He said, "Well, you should play the flute, 'cause I play the fife."

And when I was around, I think I was around 11 years old, this man by the name of Ralph Pitocco started a swing band for kids to play in.

It was called The Young Rhode Islanders.

It was interesting, it was kind of an early introduction to what it's like to be in a band going out and playing gigs at night.

We were doing a performance and I don't know why Duke Ellington was there, but he was there and I got to shake Duke Ellington's hand, along with all of us.

(delicate music) So I think the youngest person right now is 14 and the oldest is 83 or something like that.

We have a lot of very experienced musicians, but trying to get the middle school on up through high school to be involved consistently is difficult, so it tends to be a little bit older for the majority.

My idea was to have a marching band, and I succeeded at that.

And then my time was limited and I said, "I'll be at the parades," you know?

And the real growth of the band was dependent on this other group of people.

Those type of people were who really made this work.

I had the original idea, but, you know, it really falls on other people who literally took the ball and ran with it.

(hopeful music) When we have a concert and then I listen to the recordings afterwards and say, well, this really developed into something very nice.

I mean, this is talented people getting together to do something fun.

(triumphant music) (audience applauding) (bright music) (calm bright music) - [Casey] Art and community is really what we're all about here.

It's like a home away from home where they can come and this is where they make art.

- Robert Brosnahan.

I do knitting, because of my grandmother's generation.

- My name is Tim Gavalakis and this here is a picture of Superman.

- I'm John Kotula.

I'm a member of Out of the Box Gallery.

There's a lot of literally thinking out of the box about what art can be or should be.

- We are at Out of the Box Studio and Gallery in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

We are a vibrant community arts hub that is really made up of artists with and without disabilities who have a passion for art.

My name is Casey Weibust and I am the art director at Out of the Box Studio and Gallery.

Around 2006, Out of the Box was formed, and we renovated the space in 2018 just to be a space where the community could gather and connect through art.

When you open the drawer, I feel like it's a great way for people to communicate without words.

(pen hissing) - My favorite color is ultramarine blue.

- [Casey] Some of our artist members that comes Out of the Box is Tim Gavalakis.

Tim also really likes superheroes, so it's kind of cool when Bob and Tim are in the space together.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Superman!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

- [Casey] Bob really enjoys watching "Superman" when he's making art.

"It's a bird!

It's a plane!"

- [Bystander] It's Superman!

- [Narrator] Yes, it's Superman!

Strange visitor from another planet.

- [Casey] Bob likes to use the oval circular shape.

- [Superman] I'll be back soon with everything you need- - [Casey] So he uses the stencil and draws with a permanent marker or a sometimes a pencil and just kind of very orderly goes down the whole map.

He then goes in with either watercolor or acrylic and paints.

He likes to use a variety of color.

They're, like, all colors of the rainbow.

(serene music) - [Mary] I have had my solo show here.

A lot of it is farm animals and flowers, - [Casey] and then there's Mary Jo Roberts.

- I got introduced to this gallery because of my brother Chris.

He attended this gallery when it first opened.

Chris eventually had congestive heart failure and eventually passed away from that.

But because of this place, I have fabulous pieces of artwork that I can look at and think of him every time and smile.

(playful music) - I'm Nick Shapin, and I'm an artist.

- [Casey] Nick really came to me and said, "I wanna try clay."

We usually go in the front door.

Nick really walks everywhere.

He lives in town.

He will walk to The Secret Garden and get a batch of flowers.

(playful music) - [Cashier] There you go.

- Oh, they're nice ones, huh?

Nick will then promote their shop, The Secret Garden, on his social media.

(playful music) Can you put some in this one?

So, Nick, we're gonna take a picture of all of them, right?

Does that sound good?

You want that?

Has got the whole base.

- Yeah.

- And then we're gonna put 'em on your Instagram, right?

We had known here about this Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council that does business classes.

So if you complete the whole entire course, you can apply for a grant that will give you money, like starter money for your business.

Nick often will go to the Jamestown Arts Center.

- [Will] Hey, Nick.

- [Casey] And work alongside Will Simons.

- So, Nick, we got a bunch of stuff to work on today.

Get this heavily-textured slab that we can build with to make bowls or cups or vases.

- Oh boy.

And statues.

- And statues too.

He's got a good eye for composition.

- [Casey] When you have a good community, it allows artists to be able to take risks and really build their confidence.

- [Will] This looks good, Nick.

I like it.

- [Casey] We want the artists to be seen as artists.

- This is a picture of a black Angus bull.

This is a pic...

These are three pictures of American buffalo.

- I love this gallery.

It's always been an incredible spot in my heart.

- [Interviewer] Say it louder, Suzanne Maccarone.

- Maccarone.

- [Interviewer] Which side are you trying to show?

- This side.

- [Interviewer] Oh, the pink side.

- It's a nice place.

(cheerful music) (music fades) (jaunty spooky music) (mysterious music) - What could possibly link our peaceful and picturesque little town of Jamestown to H.P.

Lovecraft, the most influential writer of fantasy and horror fiction of the 20th century?

Well, let's find out.

(mysterious music) I am Paul Raterron.

I've been living in Jamestown for 10 years now, so I feel very attached to the town and I'm really a Jamestowner.

That would be my first title.

And indeed, you can hear from my accent, I'm from Europe originally.

I knew about H.P.

Lovecraft, which is a very famous author, maybe one of the most famous influencer of horror and fantasy stories of the 20th centuries.

I came to Rhode Island, I really realized that he grew up in Providence.

He was born in Providence in 1890, and so of course, I looked into it and then I found a link between one of his book and Jamestown.

And I was living here, so that was exciting.

I am standing today at the very location where Dr. Bates' Sanitarium, Maplewood, used to be located here in Jamestown.

And the building that you see behind me is actually the last standing building of the complex.

(thoughtful music) One of the first book that he wrote, which is actually the longest that he ever wrote, which is called "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," a little private hospital on Conanicut Island is mentioned twice in the book.

And it just happened that I believe this fictional hospital was actually inspired very strongly with a real hospital, that was the Sanitarium of Dr. Bates that used to be on Jamestown.

(bright jazz music) H.P.

Lovecraft was raised by his mother, Sarah Phillips, and her two sisters, Lillian and Annie.

In the spring of 1926, after a failed marriage and a few unhappy years spent in New York City, his Aunt Lillian invites him to come back live with her at 10 Barnes Street in Providence.

He gladly accepts.

- [H.P.

Lovecraft] My dear Lillian.

And now, about your invitation.

Oh, hooray!

Long live the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations!

- The following years are the most productive of his career.

In "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," H.P.

Lovecraft's longest and most personal work of fiction written in 1927, Charles undergoes a bizarre mental collapse.

In 1927, while Lovecraft is writing his fiction, Dr. Bates' Sanitarium is a real and respected therapeutic institution established on Conanicut Island.

Dr. Bates himself were then an influential character in Jamestown.

It is very likely that Lovecraft knew about and was inspired by Dr. Bates' private sanitarium when he created Dr. Waite's private hospital.

To try to find a definitive link between the story of H.P.

Lovecraft and Dr. Bates' Sanitarium, we have two very important document.

One is this book written by Sue Maden and Rosemary Enright, which tells the story of Dr. Bates and all his accomplishment here.

So I'm a bit excited, because after looking through this document for about an hour, I found an entry right here that maybe Lillian and Annie, H.P.

Lovecraft's aunts, may have stayed at Dr. Bates' Sanitarium in September of 1926.

I thought I found a link, but it was a little bit deceptive in the way that his aunts were actually Annie and Lillian Phillips.

There was an Annie and Lillian Phillips that appear in this documentation, but it turned out that I was able to trace this other Lillian and Annie and they're not the one I thought.

But anyway, I thought it was extremely interesting for me to dig into this story and learn more about the history of the town, and in particular of the story of Dr. Bates.

Bates' Sanitarium continued to operate until 1944.

Dr. Bates believed that the best cure for most diseases was a healthy diet, the fresh marine breeze, and electrotherapy.

I have no doubt that H.P.

Lovecraft knew about Conanicut Island, he mentioned it in the book; likely knew about Dr. Bates' Sanitarium.

His aunt was very sick when he came to Providence in 1926, and he stayed with her, he was actually taking care of his Aunt Lillian.

So I'm sure he was looking for possibility of a cure.

I think it's all about what H.P.

Lovecraft wrote about.

We have a sense of reality, but the underbelly of reality is sometime something we want to be horrified by, by the landscape we may find there.

So I don't know, maybe the link is something we will never know and maybe it's better that it stays this way.

- [H.P.

Lovecraft] Did I know about Mr. Bates' Private Sanitarium?

The one on Conanicut Island in the bay?

Well, you may never know, because some truths should stay buried!

(relaxed jazz music) (relaxed jazz music) - Life in Jamestown was very slow pace when we first moved here and my family bought a house in 1947, and at that time the population was probably about 2,500.

And because my dad was a dentist and my mother was a teacher, we knew everybody on the island and they also knew you.

My name is Jane Estes Bentley and I'm sharing a story about my dad, Dr. Nathan Anthony Estes, Jr, who was the first dentist on the island.

My father was one of those people that liked to give back to the community that gave him so much.

He was chairman of the board that did the building of the new Jamestown School in 1955.

(upbeat jazz music) He also was on the water board.

He tried to get the two doctors on the island to agree to put fluoride in the water here.

Never happened.

I'm over here at the top of Touro Street at 130 Touro, which is where the story begins.

My grandfather, my father's father, was also a dentist, and this is where his career started in the early 1900s.

My father went into the service in 1943 and he got out in 1945 and he came back to Newport and started his career here.

But my mother and he were looking for a place in Jamestown, so the story will continue over in Jamestown.

(bright music) Here I am in Jamestown now in this house my parents bought in 1947.

At the time that they bought it, it hadn't been lived in in 20 years and it belonged to an old sea captain.

It had a lot of work that needed to be done.

We were very fortunate to grow up like this right on the water.

When my dad passed away, I think that the thing that hit me most was the number of cards that came in and the number of people that spoke to me and stopped and talked to me about how he affected their life.

He wasn't just a dentist.

When people came into his office, he spent time with them, which is not the way that dentists do it today.

We never knew who was going to be there with us for Thanksgiving or any of the vacations.

He was a wonderful man that just opened his heart to everybody in the community.

I've been on the Historical Society for 23 years.

I was on the library board for seven years.

I'm now on the zoning board.

And I taught at the school, so I was always aware of giving back to the community.

I think it was something that was important to my dad and it was important to all the six kids in my family that he passed on to us.

(tender music) (music fades) (playful jazz music) (music fades) (upbeat jazz music) - The island was very insular and they took care of all their needs themselves.

After the bridge, changes occurred, so there were businesses that closed and then new businesses eventually opened, but it just changed the lifestyle and the needs of the people on the island.

(upbeat jazz music) My name is Joan Goldstein and I'm director of the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce.

The story I'm sharing is the comparison of commerce in Jamestown pre-Newport Bridge and then post-Newport Bridge.

I wasn't here before the bridge, but I just know from talking to people.

There were a lot of service businesses, there were a couple of gas stations, there were three supermarkets, and they took care of all their needs themselves.

And they had many businesses and supported each other, whatever needs they needed at the time.

After the bridge, there was no need for three supermarkets anymore, because people would go over the bridge and shop, and there was no need for as many service stations as we had as well.

The tourism business in Jamestown has changed dramatically.

We've been discovered, and we have many visitors, especially from spring through summer and fall.

Winter is very quiet, and it kind of probably is what the island was like before the bridge.

We have businesses sprout up.

We have great restaurants, we have great gift shops.

The other changes that over the past couple of years have had a renaissance, so to speak; food industry, in the shops.

It's a much more vibrant and lively place.

I think the future is great for commerce, just because we have so many more and such an influx of people.

A lot of people moved here after COVID or during COVID and they found that they could do their work from home, so that has made a change in Jamestown.

(upbeat jazz music) (music fades) (thoughtful music) (music fades) (warm guitar music) - I grew up in a family-owned business.

When the ferries were running, all of the businesses were located in the downtown area and it was a very vibrant area.

Five supermarkets, two gas stations, two hardware stores, a shoe store, restaurants, and at the far end of Narragansett Avenue was my father's business, which was Anderson's Dairy.

My name is Deborah Anderson Swistak, and the story I'm going to be telling is about life growing up in Jamestown.

My father had the dairy where the milk was processed, bottled, and delivered, but he didn't own the cows.

There were 11 farms in Jamestown, and every morning the dairy trucks would travel to the 11 farms and pick up the milk and bring it back to the dairy to be processed.

My brothers and sister have a collection of memories that they're going to share of what life was like living on an island with the ferry system.

- In my early years, in the early '50s, I would liken it to being Tom Sawyer.

You could leave the house in the morning, be gone all day, and come back in the evening.

There were no restrictions.

If you wanted to walk the beach, there were no no restricted areas.

You could just walk the beach.

- I liked every wall around the ferry.

We had the ferry parking lot right in front of our house, and we would jump over the wall and run through the parking lot down to the beach or to the rec center or to the ice cream store.

The ferry was definitely the hub of Jamestown.

The town suffered.

It was a very abrupt ending of the ferry stopping and the bridge opening simultaneously.

There was a very sharp learning curve for us living here in Jamestown.

And it wasn't a gradual change.

It was boom, one stopped and the other opened, and now we had a new reality.

(calm bright music) (calm bright music continues) My sister and my mother opened a business in 1972 called Jamestown Designs, and this was after the ferry stopped running.

We came from a little bit of a decline into a flourishing business.

- After we opened our business, then the town saw an influx of young families like Debbie's family, and they relocated to Jamestown.

- [Deborah] All of these new families came to Jamestown, and I was thinking of how many families that I, as a young mother, how many young families moved here in the '70s, and I came up with easily 20 families that my children grew up with and are still friends with many of those people today.

And because of the beauty of it, the quality of life here, and they made Jamestown what it is today.

They set the foundation for a beautiful community.

(upbeat music) (music fades) (upbeat rock music) - [Announcer] All right, folks, let the construction begin!

(cannon booming) (upbeat rock music) - How would I describe the Fools' Rules Regatta?

Well, I would say it was an event started in 1978 by a guy named Karl Smith.

He saw a wacky race in California, decided he would do the same thing in Jamestown.

My name is Chris Powell.

I'm the Chief Fool Emeritus of the Jamestown Yacht Club's Fools' Rules Regatta.

I did it for 37 years and then I passed it on to Greg Hunter, who is now the Chief Fool.

- Zach and Jack Attack.

(audience cheering) - [Chris] You build your own boat on the beach, non-marine items.

You have two hours to build the boat.

You can have all the people you want on it, we've had 30 or 40 people on a boat try to get on a boat, and race in the downwind course about 500 yards and see who wins.

(sailors clamoring) - Oh wait!

- Class 3.

Class 3 only.

Class 3 only.

Two, one.

(cannon booming) (upbeat rock music) - Every year I make sure to come up for the Fools' Rules Regatta.

I've been doing this for about 10 years with my dad and family.

I almost missed the Fools' Rules Regatta because my flight was canceled at the last minute.

From now on, I'm always taking the train.

I'm never leaving it up to fate.

(upbeat rock music) - We are the defending champions from two years ago.

We're sort of modified design from what we did then, but we're confident that this is an improvement, that we're gonna go even faster.

So our leaders of the Viking clan are Ellen and Steve DeVoe who live here locally, and then you just got a bunch of ragtag sailors.

- Chief Fool check in, over.

Chief Fool checking in.

- [Chris] Greg Hunter, who's now the current Chief Fool, has taken over for me.

- Oh, this is so much fun.

The gratitude, the appreciation from both the boat builders and the crowd is just what makes it all worthwhile.

- I don't think we've ever had a lack of crowds.

It's a real Jamestown, Rhode Island spectator event.

It's fun to watch people come.

They laugh at themselves, they laugh at the regatta.

That's the kind of event it is.

All right, the 25th annual, 25th anniversary of Fools' Rules Regatta can now begin.

(cannon booming) Over these many, many years, it's carried on and on and on.

The town and the people in town have been very cooperative with helping us to keep it going all these years.

We've had lots of people that have volunteered all kinds of things.

The town letting us use the beach, the town picking up after us.

It's been a very cooperative event, and that's why it's so successful.

And that's the reason why I did it for so many years, because people loved it.

(crowds cheering and applauding) (calm bright music) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (calm bright music continues) (music fades) - [Patricia] William Raveis is the largest independently-owned residential real estate company in New England since 1974.

I'm Patricia Orsi with William Raveis and I'm proud to be the premiere sponsor of "Our Town: Jamestown."

I provide comprehensive, personalized real estate services to all Jamestown and Rhode Island home buyers and sellers through our extensive William Raveis network of marketing programs.

- [Narrator] Unleash your creativity at the Jamestown Arts Center, with art classes, exhibits, and more.

Explore, create, and connect at the JAC, proud sponsor of "Our Town: Jamestown" and Rhode Island PBS.