- [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 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.

- [Announcer] And the following Benefactor Sponsor.

Unleash your creativity at the Jamestown Art Center, with art classes, exhibits, and more.

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

- [Announcer] 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 family's 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."

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) - There is so much history and so many wonderful, knowledgeable people associated with the Jamestown Historical Society.

It's just an incredibly rich history on the island, and we're discovering new things all the time.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) Hi, I'm Betsy Baldwin from the Jamestown Historical Society.

We're a nonprofit organization that's very active.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) We are very committed to diversifying the stories we tell.

We know that Indigenous peoples lived here thousands of years before European settlers ever arrived.

There was slavery on the island.

The island once had a third of the population were enslaved people, both Indigenous people and Blacks from Africa.

It's important to tell those stories as well as those of the early colonists and Europeans that arrived.

Jamestown was an agricultural area early on.

The land was purchased by the Europeans from the Native Americans in order to raise animals and crops over here.

The Jamestown Historical Society, which is a nonprofit in Jamestown that's very active and busy, we have over our 500 members and lots more that visit our sites and our events.

Beavertail Lighthouse is one of the most well-known and visited sites in the state.

In addition, the JHS owns the windmill, which is up on Windmill Hill.

The most common comment we get is, "Gee, we've driven by this for years, "and we've never stopped."

And we encourage everybody to stop and check it out.

It's open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons all from May to October.

The JHS was founded in 1912 to restore the Jamestown Windmill.

In 1787, the state granted Jamestown a half acre of the land for a new windmill.

It was built at once and operated until 1896.

The windmill filled a critical role in the early agricultural community of 500 people, milling grain, primarily corn, for home consumption and the growing commercial market in Newport.

The Jamestown Historical Society has almost 47,000 items related to Jamestown history.

There are people who spend 40, 50, 60 hours a week maintaining our collection, documenting, adding to it, looking for new items.

We do a lot of programs, talks, things like that, that focus on Jamestown history.

Sue Madden and Rosemary Enright, particularly, have written many articles and books about Jamestown history that are fascinating stories.

Sue and Rosemary and many others spend a lot of time researching and discovering new facts every day.

It's amazing.

We have a lot of great events and parties and things like that.

Everyone should come to Windmill Day.

We put the sails on the windmill, and if the wind is right, the sails turn, and there are food trucks and art events and kids' games.

Have reenacters in all sorts of wonderful old costumes reenacting Revolutionary Era events.

There are muskets and artillery.

It's very colorful.

I've only been on the island for about seven years, and the last five or six I've been involved with the Jamestown Historical Society.

I mean, it's just an incredibly rich history on the island, and we're discovering new things all the time.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) (waves crash) - Ah, I think it's quieter, although it's not as quiet as it used to be.

It's just a beautiful, scenic place.

When you drive back over the bridge and you land on Jamestown, you just exhale and feel relaxation.

(soft piano music) My name is Carol Chew.

I am the author of the story, which is "Five Generations in Jamestown: "1888 to Present Day."

My great-grandparents, Robert and Mary Chew, came to Jamestown in July of 1888.

They came from Washington, D.C., and over the years they had four children that came with them.

Chapter 1, Rob's Story.

His mother's next entry reads, "July 2nd, 1888.

"Went to Jamestown, Rhode Island with Rob.

"He had a fine time playing in the sand "with shovels and pail.

"Thus starts the history of the Chew family "in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

"We took the steam ferry from Newport to Jamestown.

"At East Ferry Landing, "our transportation was on horses "and two-seater chaises or carriages.

"While the whole family enjoyed "Jamestown Day celebrations, family picnics, "society parties, and boat races.

"Rob graduated from high school in 1906 "and desperately wanted to go into the Navy.

"The Navy was in Rob and John's blood.

"The Chew family had known and worked for "presidents Lincoln, Grant, "and Theodore Roosevelt over the years.

"President Roosevelt did his best "and sent Rob an appointment letter to West Point.

"Rob was not interested in the Army, "so he sent back a respectful letter "thanking the president and returning the commission.

"When Rob turned 21 in 1908, "he took the exam "and was commissioned into the Navy Pay Corps.

"Then Lieutenant Commander Chew "was paymaster on the coal carrier Neptune "when they received their orders "to go to France at the opening of World War I.

"Rob's sister Mary earned her nursing certificate "and was sent to France "to work in a field hospital behind the front lines.

"His brother, John, graduated from Cornell "and entered the Navy Civil Engineer Corps as a lieutenant.

"The Chew family was blessed "that they all returned from World War I."

The original house that they were renting in 1888 was the Putnam Bungalows, which was down off of Racquet Road, and then the Bleecker Box actually was a property that was purchased in 1885 by the Bleeckers.

The Bleeckers bought a plot, and I finally discovered that the house was finished in 1889.

In 1945, my grandparents bought it, and then it became Brushwood because of all the brush that had grown up around it.

Chapter 6, The Box.

"In 1945, Skip and Dick bought The Box, "on the corner of Racquet Road and Walcott Avenue, "from the Bleecker family.

"Skip changed the name of the house from The Box, "as it was listed in the Jamestown directory, to Brushwood, "to recognize Bill's triumph over the invasive brush.

"Jamestown history places responsibility "on the 1938 hurricane "for the influx of seeds "that led to the overwhelming quantity "of invasive brush, weeds, and trees "that choked vast portions of the island."

Art is important to our family.

I think it was the nature, having a focal point like the windmill, which was a historic location even in the 1950s.

My dad did two oil paintings, one of Clingstone and one of the Windmill.

My mom did a painting of Brushwood.

And then my uncle used to climb out on the rocks at Beavertail.

And one of the paintings I included was "A Very Stormy Day," and he would be out there with the waves crashing around him, and his mother out there going, "Ricky!

Ricky, come in!"

(Carol laughs) Chapter 7, 1960 to Present Day.

"Bill and Kendall married in 1960, "and my brother and I were born "over the next couple of years.

"I married my husband in 1988, "and we brought our children to Jamestown "starting in the 1990s, "collecting sea glass on Dumplings Beach, "catching crabs off the dock, "and swimming from the pier.

"I think that my great-grandparents, "Minnie and Robert Chew, "would be happy to know "that three of their descendants "are living on Jamestown year round, "with their fourth generation of great-greats "visiting on a regular basis.

"Jamestown's magic continues."

(soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) (soft ethereal music) (soft ethereal music continues) - It was the third lighthouse established in the colonies.

In 1749, so it's been there and been a a big part of the island, plus being the most beautiful place to visit.

(soft ethereal music) (soft ethereal music continues) I'm Linda Warner, and I am a board member of the Beavertail Lighthouse Association and a past president as well.

(soft ethereal music) From the beginning, its original role was to guide the ships coming into Narragansett Bay from all over the world, and through the years, there's so much history there.

(soft ethereal music) The lighthouse is no longer manned by a lighthouse keeper.

They've excessed off the lighthouses.

And so now it is a museum which we founded in the '80's to keep the building as it is and keep area the way it is and educate people as to what was there in past years.

(soft ethereal music) (soft ethereal music continues) The lighthouse is open all summer.

We open the week before Memorial Day, and it's open until September.

It's open seven days a week, six hours a day.

We give tours every other weekend.

- Welcome to the Beavertail Lighthouse, located on the southernmost tip of Jamestown, Rhode Island.

The Beavertail Lighthouse and Museum features a collection of information, artifacts, and narratives about the history and the site of the third oldest lighthouse in North America.

- I'd like to tell you a little bit about this lens.

It's one of seven sizes.

This is about in the middle.

And these lenses refracted the light so the light could be seen much further away.

These lenses were made up of prisms that were stacked in certain shapes.

We have a small bulb in here which will show you what it looks like when it flashes, but it is much smaller than the regular bulb because it would be very hard on people's eyes.

And we let people climb to the top in groups of eight to 10 and get to view the view from up there.

- Restoration of the buildings and light tower began in 1983, and the museum opened in 1989 as part of the Rhode Island State Parks Association.

The light station and the buildings were previously owned by the United States Coast Guard.

However, the ownership of the lighthouse and its property was recently transferred to a partnership between the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, the town of Jamestown, and the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association.

- [Linda] I believe it is the most important landmark because it's the one thing that has been there since early colonial times.

- Right in back of me is the 1749 original foundation of the lighthouse.

This was covered over right after the 1938 hurricane.

(soft ethereal music) - [Linda] It just built up to a very, very important link in the lighthouse system throughout the United States.

(soft ethereal music) (soft ethereal music continues) (soft ethereal music continues) (soft piano music) - I enjoy exploring just about anything outside.

There are several ways of seeing when going out, exploring, looking for subject matter.

I research the Rhode Island forts and go around to their sites.

I try to stay open to what else makes a good picture.

You are cropping out the whole rest of the world.

What have you chosen to show people?

My name is Sandy Sorlien.

I'm a photographer and writer from Jamestown.

I'm standing on the wharf at the boat basin at Fort Wetherill.

(soft piano music) What I really wanna tell you about is Fort Dumpling.

(soft piano music) No one alive today has seen Fort Dumpling, yet it stood atop this cliff for the entire 19th century.

Fort Dumpling came before Fort Wetherill.

It was an elliptical stone tower, 81 feet wide and 108 feet long.

Coastal defense was a huge part of our history thanks to the location of Jamestown at the mouth of Narragansett Bay.

Fort Dumpling was designed by engineer-artillerist, Louis Tousard, as was Fort Hamilton on Rose Island and the original Fort Adams in Newport.

Fortunately, Fort Dumpling has been thoroughly documented by countless artists of the 19th century.

Including photographers.

(soft piano music) This is where Fort Dumpling used to be.

You can almost imagine that this earthwork was part of Fort Dumpling.

From all accounts, it sounds like Fort Dumpling was completely leveled.

(soft piano music) I was not much of a historian in school or even up until maybe the last 10 years, and I feel that I've become this amateur historian.

I'm a landscape and place photographer.

I don't photograph people.

It's aesthetic history because Fort Dumpling was such a subject for so many different artists.

(soft piano music) You can stand in that place and just look up at that cliff and imagine that this stone tower was there.

You feel the absence of it, but you also feel the presence of it.

I feel like Fort Dumpling is a little bit my place.

It's other people's place also, the other people who study Fort Dumpling, but I care about it.

(Sandy laughs) (soft piano music) We are lucky that Fort Dumpling endured well into the age of photography.

Demolished in 1898, nothing remains of the old fort except in our collective artistic memory.

(soft piano music) (light bouncy music) (troupe harmonizes) - I think it's a great experience for children to have a peer relationship with adults.

To have the same excitement together, putting on a play, rehearse together.

And it's worked out almost 35 years later.

♪ In your hands ♪ My name is Mary Schachtel Wright.

I am the co-founding director of the Jamestown Community Theater.

The history of the theater.

I think it was 1991.

We were given seed money, $500 seed money by the Jamestown Abuse Prevention Task Force to put on a play with children.

And I decided I really wanna mix adults and kids.

We used to put on two performances a year.

Now it's three.

We do musicals, comedy, straight theater.

Mostly musicals.

Big ones, very big.

The first play, "Peter Pan," that we did, and opening night we had, I hate to say this 'cause now we could never do it, but we had over 400 people in the audience.

Thank goodness our fire chief worked backstage.

He let everybody in.

And then we did "The Wizard of Oz," and, for auditions, 160 people showed up.

And everybody got a part.

Another time in the show, "Fiddler on the Roof," Matt Bowles, who was on the board and was with us for many years from the very beginning, he was playing Motel Kamzoil, the tailor, and he's singing.

♪ Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles ♪ Fell off the stage.

Got right up, continued.

I think he might have hurt his ankle, but I figure, you know, that's theater.

You gotta keep going.

I'm now having kids of people who were in the plays, their children.

Most of them say what the theater did for them was to give them self-confidence.

Sometimes they go off to college and then come back and do a play or two.

They really changed from those shy little kids who started off with us at seven years old.

- I was involved with the Jamestown Community Theater from its start.

I think that was in 1990.

As I got involved in the theater, what I noticed happened was that people started recognizing me for something that I loved and something that I was doing of my own choice.

- Jamestown Community Theater has really changed my life.

I've acted in two musicals of Jamestown Community Theater, and I've been having a lot of fun.

- Jamestown Community theater introduced me to theater, and I am so grateful for that because now I know that musical theater and acting and performing is what I want to go into.

- I think it's one of the few organizations that I know of that has children and adults together.

Working towards the same goal, same objective, wanting to perform.

After I directed my first play, I was out watching from the back of the room, and I thought, "I wonder who directed."

And I thought, "Oh my goodness, I directed this.

"I can't be stupid."

And that stayed with me.

And I think every child and adult who's been in the play has found that moment when all of a sudden they felt really good about themselves.

So I think that's why it's so special.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) (soft guitar music continues) - The library, I believe, serves as a community hub for the town of Jamestown.

- We have such a kind, welcoming community around us.

- The Jamestown Library is so special because it's a cornerstone in Jamestown.

- A library is the heart of the community, and a good community has almost by definition a good library and vice versa.

Because this is the place where people can come together.

(soft guitar music) - This is 150th year of the Jamestown Philomenian Library.

The library grew from a little house to what you see right now.

With a couple stops along the way.

And today we have this beautifully renovated building, which just opened a couple months ago.

150 years ago, you went to a library to pick up a book or return it.

Today, a library is the heart and soul of the community.

- One common question we get about our library is, "What does philomenian mean?"

(Gene laughs) - I was afraid you'd ask.

(Gene laughs) Philomenian, best we know, means love of books.

But it's a concocted word.

I don't think it's in any dictionary.

- The name carries over from the Philomenian Debating Society, which was organized in 1828.

The group set an agreement to contribute $1 per year to fund a library.

Eventually, the group's library merged with another on the island to officially become the Jamestown Philomenian Library.

- [Gene] Well, for a long time the library was, as conventional libraries were, an information hub.

Was where people went to get data, literature.

It's evolved.

Ours has evolved, and I think others have evolved from that to community centers.

- We're on a small island of 5,500 people.

It's a small community.

The percentage of people who have library cards in Jamestown is very high compared to a lot of other towns.

It became apparent that we needed to update our mechanical systems at the library.

Our electrical system and our HVAC and our plumbing was actually failing.

- [Gene] We underwent, after many years of discussion, a $5-million total renovation and slight expansion of the building.

Obviously, while this was going on, we couldn't be in this location, so we moved to the second floor of the Jamestown Golf Course building.

- [Lisa] When we operated out of the clubhouse during the renovation, we were in a much smaller area.

We had many fewer books, we had much fewer staff space.

But somehow it worked.

- [Gene] It's very airy and light.

It has a wonderful feel of spaciousness.

I think particularly the two areas that we've added, the bump out of the building for young people and for children, one each, are really marvelous.

They're brilliantly designed, and I think it's, above all, very functional.

- I'd like to show you some of the highlights of our 2024 renovation.

In the teen bump out, for example, you'll see this now interior exposed brick wall which was previously the exterior of the library.

This is our youth area.

One side is dedicated to younger children and the other side to teens.

Each section has an addition that was added during the renovation.

- [Lisa] For this new building, for lack of better term, we really wanted to make sure that we could change as the building and society sort of changes.

We don't know what the next big thing is going to be, so we wanted to try and plan for that as best as possible.

(soft guitar music) - [Emma] This is our meeting hall, which is our largest meeting space, and is perfect for speakers, concerts, and, of course, our weekly Tuesday matinees which we show on this large screen.

- [Gene] When institutions created by citizens thrive, adapt to the times as they go along, and emerge in the present strong and giving the public what it needs and wants, it is an extraordinary success, I think, over a long period and many generations.

(soft guitar music) - The library is now open.

(audience applauds) (bright guitar music) - [All] Welcome to the Jamestown Art Center.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (crowd chatters) - [Narrator] The Jamestown Art Center was founded in 2008 by a group of artists, parents, and Jamestowners who envisioned a home for the arts in the heart of town.

In December, 2009, a former boat repair shop on Valley Street was purchased as our future site.

Today, the JAC remains a community-driven organization dedicated to nurturing creativity in all its forms.

(light upbeat music) We exhibit six exhibitions a year, including curated shows from internationally recognized artists, group exhibitions that feature emerging artists alongside established ones, and our members show with art from the local community.

Beginning in 2020, the JAC began to place temporary, publicly accessible outdoor art throughout Jamestown for the enjoyment and enrichment of the community and visitors.

(light upbeat music) - [Narrator] Artworks are placed at various locations around town in partnership with other organizations, thus highlighting those organizations and strengthening community collaboration.

Not all outdoor art is sculpture.

So by showing other forms such as murals, site-specific installations, temporary or ephemeral works and so forth, the exhibition offers a wide range of experiences.

- [Narrator] The outdoor arts experience invites us to reflect on our landscape, our history, and to celebrate our town.

In the staff offices at JAC, there's a sign that reads, "There are artists among us."

When you step into the building, you see proof of that statement in every corner.

The JAC is a working space meant to create art as much as it is a place to exhibit and perform the final product.

♪ In my soul ♪ ♪ I've got joy like a fountain ♪ ♪ I've got joy like a fountain ♪ ♪ I've got joy like a fountain in my soul ♪ ♪ I've got joy like a fountain ♪ ♪ I've got joy like a fountain ♪ ♪ I've got joy like a fountain in my soul ♪ (soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) (waves crash) - The natural beauty of the coastline in Jamestown, which is just gorgeous.

I think the attractiveness and the incentive was the fish.

Just getting out in nature, getting out on the coastline.

I'm Leo Orsi, and I'm a Jamestown resident.

My love is fishing, and I was born to fish and forced to work.

I've been coming to Jamestown since, oh my, for 50 years.

I wasn't even sure where Jamestown was, let alone Rhode Island at that age.

But when they told me that there was fantastic stripe bass fishing here, we left the very next weekend to come up here and check it out.

My introduction to Jamestown fishing was at the age of 17 when I and one of my high school best friends from Princeton visited the island for the first time to fish.

That's when we met Rebelle Felice.

Rebelle was the owner of the Creek Bait Shop, which he started in 1954.

- There weren't that many people fishing.

Me and my brother was one of the first ones to start fishing bass for the poor people.

Before that, it was a rich man's prize to fish for bass.

- [Camera Operator] And they were all over then.

- All over.

- [Camera Operator] I mean, in the bay you could catch them?

- Everywhere!

- Rebelle was the most charismatic fisherman I have ever met in my life.

Surf fishing is technically fishing from the surf, and you have a surf rod and reel, and some fishermen fish with bait.

Fishermen heard the stories about how plentiful the fish were on the island, and it became so popular that some of the well-to-do fishermen actually erected little fishing cottages and so forth out on Beavertail, and it became a big deal.

But it was expensive to do that.

I mentioned previously that my introduction to Jamestown sport fishing came at the age of 17.

That trip to Jamestown changed my life forever.

I immediately fell in love with the nautical beauty of the island and the prospect of great fishing.

- Merry Christmas, everyone, Happy Hanukah, and welcome to the 2001 Christmas fishing video.

- [Leo] And for many years on these trips, I would record interesting moments and catches on each of the trips.

I never let any of my colleagues view any of the video that I shot throughout the year until the end of the year and just before Christmas.

I would edit the videos and send each of the team members a VCR cassette tape as a holiday gift.

We didn't have DVDs back in those days.

It became known as the Christmas fishing video.

- Welcome to the 2001 Christmas fishing video.

- Welcome to the 2001 Christmas fishing video.

(crowd cheers) - The sport of fishing in Jamestown still today is tremendously popular.

The challenge of fishing that really, I think, is the incentive for sports fishing but also getting out is a fabulous experience.

Even if you don't catch anything, which happens.

So the tradition lives on.

Go fishing in Jamestown and have fun.

(soft guitar music) (soft guitar music continues) - I think I just developed a passion for sailing, and then had a series of experiences, interactions with people that sort of led me to where I am.

My name's Meg Myles, and I am the Executive Director of CISF here in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

Through boating and education, CSF inspires and engages people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds with the marine environment.

We just wanna get people outside into nature so that they can care about the ocean.

- These are the legs, here are the joints, these are the joints, and then the claws on the end.

See where there's claws here?

And in fact I drew a little diagram of that guy right here, and I labeled it.

- [Meg] I didn't really like sailing until I was 15, and then I had a great female coach that really changed things for me.

I competed in the 2004 Olympics, which was in Athens, Greece.

It was actually my worst event in three or four years.

But, leading up to it, the actual event and being there was amazing.

(soft guitar music) - Maybe choose like even bottles.

- [Instructor] Oh, make the bottles more even so it's not tilted at all?

- Or push this one down and pull this one up.

- [Parent] So make it a little more even?

- Our summer is is truly the best time.

It is pure freedom, pure fun, and, gosh, I love summer.

We focus a lot on creating environmental empathy with children.

I think what makes us different is, although we are an environmental education and sailing organization, we are about creating community and giving back to the community.

(soft guitar music) - [Meg] Well, there's a ton of sailing on Narragansett Bay, and I think Jamestown, we're sort of in the middle of it, which is fantastic.

At Fort Getty where we operate from specifically, we have the most remarkable environments.

(soft guitar music) - Cross, around.

Cross, around, - Yep, now the loop.

- [Camera Operator] Ooh, nice.

- Wooh, first try!

That's awesome.

- [Meg] One student said, "You know, they say Rhode Island is the Ocean State, "but I really had no idea until this program."

And that was really one of the goals that we were looking for is to show people different marine trades, what their options are, and how much water there is in the state of Rhode Island.

(soft guitar music) - Yes!

You guys are killing the loop part!

- [Meg] Sailing has taught me a ton.

I think it's given me confidence.

It's taught me how to lead or be a member of a team.

It's taught me how to tune into the earth systems and different ecosystems.

- And then you're gonna twist it underneath so that your free line is underneath the line that you're currently using, and then you're gonna pull tight like that.

- And that's the thing that I love about it the most.

Sailing's just been a really big part of my life.

I'm just grateful for it.

(light bouncy guitar music) (light bouncy guitar music continues) (tractor engine roars) - Most of our annual operating budget comes from donations from people in the community.

It's been the community over the 23 years that has made all the difference.

If the community had not shown the support that they do for the Jamestown Community Farm, we would not have existed.

My name is Bob Sutton.

I am the Farm Manager and also the President of the Board of Directors of the Jamestown Community Farm, Incorporated.

Our idea was that we would grow fresh vegetables and that we would deliver them to food pantries in areas where essentially they're not available, in what's called kind of a food desert.

And so that's what we did.

We started that in 2001.

- My name is Heather Hole Strout.

I'm the Executive Director of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Jamestown Community Farm helps us to meet our mission year after year with the amazing growing of produce for our food pantry.

Jamestown Community Farm has brought in so far 2,700 pounds of produce this fiscal year into our pantry.

- One of the programs we're able to run in the summer is called Healthy Harvest, and we're able to offer produce to all of our members weekly because of generous donations from farms locally, including the Jamestown Community Farm.

I think sometimes people don't realize that having access to really nutritious foods in addition to just food security is so important.

- [Bob] As we have evolved, we've moved into what is titled as regenerative farming, which is showing as much concern for the nutrient value of the soil as we are with the vegetables that we grow.

Essentially, what's happening, and this isn't just in Jamestown or Rhode Island or the East Coast, it's actually nationwide, where soil has been treated with a considerable disrespect.

And that's meant a change in the way the equipment that we use, and it's made a change in the way we grow our crops and basically in the way that we till the soil.

(tractor engine roars) We don't pay anybody to be there.

None of the directors are paid.

None of the people that come and do the work are paid.

- Hello, this is Dick Steinbach.

I'm a fairly recent Jamestown resident and got involved with volunteering here at the Community Farm.

I love the idea that the farm is raising crops for folks who wouldn't otherwise get fresh vegetables, that the crops are raised in an environmentally friendly way.

- Hi, my name is CC Carnevale.

I'm an intern at Jamestown Community Farm, and I have been for the past two years.

I'm 17 years old, and I've lived in Jamestown my whole life.

As an intern here at Jamestown Community Farm, I've taken on the role of taking care of the chickens.

I clean their coop about once a week, and I let them out every morning.

And I love the chickens, 'cause although it's not the main project of the farm, they are of course some fun animals to be around.

- Well, the future of the farm is in an interesting situation right now.

For years, we have leased the land.

We've had an incredibly good landlord who, for the first 18 years of our operation, did not charge us any rent.

Three or four years ago, we started paying some rent.

And then last year for the first time he's agreed to sell it to us.

Now, as you can imagine, land in Jamestown is quite expensive.

We had an appraisal done about a year and a half ago.

That appraisal valued the land at $3.3 million.

It's going to take a major fundraising effort to do it.

And the community generally has been just totally supportive of the farm.

The word community was not just, "Well, we're in a community, "throw the word into our title."

It was an understanding that, right from the beginning, it has to involve the community.

It's a community of interest, of people who say, "Yes, what you do is important, "and, yes, I'd like being a part of that."

(light upbeat music) (light upbeat nostalgic music) - Jamestown, for us, was paradise.

Very early on we became extremely interested in boats, and obviously the place was surrounded by boats.

I can't tell you what it's like for me here to be here on Jamestown right now because I will always think of it as my major home.

(light upbeat nostalgic music) (light upbeat nostalgic music continues) My name is Art Paine, and I now live in Maine in a place as much like Jamestown as I could possibly have found.

- Am I centered vertically?

- [Art] Oh, perfectly.

- Okay.

- [Art] Perfectly centered.

So what we've gotta do... - Is it working now?

- It is.

Oh by the way, I'm Art Paine.

- And I'm Chuck Paine.

- I lived on Jamestown.

- We grew up on Jamestown.

(light upbeat nostalgic music) (light upbeat nostalgic music continues) - [Art] My twin brother, identical twin brother, Chuck, grew up here in Jamestown beginning in the year 1946, and we stayed here for about eight years.

(light upbeat nostalgic music) - And of course the ferry boats were what made Jamestown.

- You know, really, you look at Jamestown today and it was defined by the fact that it was much more an island back then, and those ferry boats added so much character to the island.

We both regret, I think, that they're gone.

And I'm standing inside the wheelhouse of the Hammonton Ferry, which operated at Jamestown.

It was coal-fired and it was steam-driven, and that was one of the first boats my twin brother Chuck and I ever fell in love with in our lives.

It was a very different place 70 years ago.

- It was a magical place, and we were very fortunate to be brought there and particularly fortunate to have living grandparents.

(light upbeat nostalgic music) My grandfather was a very prominent person on this island in a great many ways.

Arthur S. Clarke.

He was an excellent plumber, but he was probably better known for all of his other extracurricular activities like hunting and fishing.

- Our grandfather was really quite a famous fisherman.

He's the fellow whose fish is in the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum.

One of the stories in Art's book is named "A Fluke," and it's a story about fishing with our grandfather.

- I'm here because I wrote a memoir, this memoir, "Jamestown," at a certain point when I was having some health problems and my daughter said to me, "Dad, you know, you may or may not make it.

"We'd love to hear again your stories."

Most of all one word she put on her list of seven topics she wanted me to write about, and that word was Jamestown.

I'm gonna read it right from the book.

"What did far more often all throughout the year "was ride around with grandpa's big green pickup truck.

"We had the privilege of his company on just normal days.

"And if so, the truth was "that his normal days were punctuated "with endless cool trips and adventures."

Having a twin brother was the best thing that ever happened to me, to us, I think.

Whenever Jamestown comes up between Chuck, we just lapse right into this incredibly happy nostalgia because those were for sure the happiest days of our lives.

(light upbeat nostalgic music) And we would go up to the top where the captain stood, and we would see him at the wheel, and he'd blow through the speaking tube, I believe the Hammonton had a speaking tube, and he would say important things to the people down in the engine room.

And you'd hear the clank, clank, pinging of big, massive things were happening.

And we would run and look over the rail where the ferry was and the slip was, and we wanted to see the moment it started.

- When the propeller began to turn, the propeller, I never saw it out of water, but it had to be huge.

Because when they put it in gear, just masses of water would turn green and beautiful.

Full of bubbles.

- And filigrees.

- But the thing was so heavy it took a while for it to get going, and you wanted to perceive the moment.

- We would compete with each other to see who could see the first millimeter.

- Who actually saw when it actually.

- We always competed.

- Moved.

- So much fun.

(Art and Chuck laugh) I can't wait to get out of this interview room and get my video camera and my regular camera and go to Beavertail and visit some of the places.

And when that's done, I'll get on my cell phone, and I'll call Chuck and I'll say, "You won't believe what I saw.

"You won't believe the place "that we used to go to years ago to pick berries "or to do all of the marvelous things that we did."

Which were many.

Jamestown is a way of life for me.

It definitely informed both myself and my twin brother moving to Maine.

I live in a little fishing village, and my twin brother did exactly the same thing.

He's also in a fishing village and also experiencing as much like the Jamestown of the 1940s and early 1950s as we could possibly find.

We just had so much fun as little kids in Jamestown.

(light upbeat nostalgic music) - [Announcer] We hope you've enjoyed watching "Our Town: Jamestown."

The people on the island have formed a close-knit community where they take pride in their history and in life on Jamestown today.

So much so, they have even more stories to tell.

For the first time, "Our Town" will be presented in two parts.

Join us on December 11th for the premiere of part two of "Our Town: Jamestown."

(light upbeat guitar music) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) (light upbeat guitar music continues) - [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.

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

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