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

- [Announcer] At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island, we believe a better tomorrow starts with a healthier community today.

Rhode Island Rising.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island is a proud sponsor of Rhode Island PBS.

- [Announcer] And the following patron sponsor, Pare Corporation.

- [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.

(relaxing upbeat music) Located just northeast of Providence, tucked into the Blackstone Valley, Lincoln is a quintessential New England town, its seven villages steeped in history.

For thousands of years, Narragansett, Nipmuck and Wampanoag tribes lived on these lands.

The rich soil of the Blackstone and Moshassuck Rivers lured European settlers in the 1600s.

For a century and a half, Lincoln was part of Smithfield until it became its own town in 1871.

Textile mills and lime quarries flourished in Lincoln.

Much of that early development can still be found along the town's scenic Great Road.

Today, Rhode Islanders can enjoy a variety of activities in Lincoln, including nature trails at one of the state's largest parks, Lincoln Woods.

Boulders here attract rock climbers from around the region.

Named for America's 16th President, it is no wonder Lincoln resonates with proud heritage and time-honored tradition.

Let's meet the people of Lincoln, sharing their stories about the town they call home.

This is "Our Town: Lincoln."

(relaxing piano music) (relaxing piano music continues) (relaxing piano music continues) - My name is Ana Marsden Fox.

Brae Crest is the name of the property, and at Brae Crest in Lincoln we have the Brae Crest School of Ballet, which is a school where students can learn how to dance.

It is also the home of The State Ballet of Rhode Island, founded in 1960.

This is where the first ballet classes were being taken.

It's where my grandmother had bought the property.

This is her home and this is where she hoped my parents would return with me, at six months old.

(film reel whirring) My parents met back in 1956 and it was in Croatia.

They were both dancing with the Split National Ballet Company.

My grandmother wanted my father to return with his new wife and six month old baby named Ana and return to America to start their own ballet school and maybe a ballet company in the future.

(relaxing upbeat music) (film reel whirring) In 1958, they founded the Brae Crest School of Ballet.

Many in town were aware of my father being a renowned dancer on the world stage because of the newspaper stories that were done about him from time to time.

I have performed in so many places all over the world.

One in particular was when we returned to Croatia with the ballet company back in 1972.

I had a chance to dance with these beautiful dancers with our ballet company, The State Ballet of Rhode Island, and with my parents as well.

We returned with about 50 dancers from the United States and we performed in Croatia, up in the mountains, down near the ocean.

And that for me was a spectacular time.

(film reel whirring) So this is the studio, and believe it or not, it was a horse's barn back in 1956.

We teach children as young as three and we have some wonderful dancers throughout our school.

But then we also have dancers that do ballet for their mental, physical stress release.

They're amazing.

They're over 70 years old and they're still dancing and this is where they've been for over 40 years, for many of them.

(upbeat orchestral music) - Yes!

A!

(upbeat orchestral music continues) You're a little late!

- I think that my mother, who became sole proprietor of our Brae Crest School of Ballet, so many people got to see her perform and now that she's just, she's 86 years old, you have to think of all the generations that have been affected by her.

- One plie!

Balance double time.

Pirouette!

On the dot!

Beautiful practice, Janet.

- [Ana] Of course, she's no longer dancing, but she instilled in us the work ethics that she has.

I think it's amazing that my parents starting the school in 1958 and it's continued to this date.

I think it all only could have been done because of all the love that people wanted to give to the school and the ballet company.

Honestly, we wouldn't be here unless people wanted us.

And it's not just about the ballet, it's just about people who just come to see you perform.

They saw my mother perform.

They saw the first time I took on a lead, and then they just wanna follow the family.

And this is how we've continued for so long, generation after generation.

(relaxing guitar music) (relaxing guitar music continues) (chickens cooing) (upbeat clapping music) (upbeat clapping music continues) - I'm Emily Bonci and I'm the owner of Chaos Farm Alpaca.

We moved to Lincoln because in originally we were in Uxbridge when we started our farm and we wanted land that was dedicated for agricultural purposes.

So we wanted to open up our horizons and move to an area with agricultural zoning.

And so we purchased the land in Lincoln, which was agriculturally zoned, and were able to do more with it.

Hey, Frezzy.

Good morning, Dawn.

(llamas cooing) Who are we missing?

One of the challenges was I had a small child.

I had a 5-year-old, and when we moved and purchased the property, I was pregnant.

So I had a newborn when we started up.

I raised my kids at home, so we don't have daycare, we didn't have any local family to help us out.

It's interesting and it's wonderful for us to see our children be able to experience, you know, every day go get the eggs, and my son will visit family members in the city and he'll look under their bushes in the backyard for their chickens.

Not understanding that not everybody has chickens, Lance.

Wow!

Nice job mucking!

- [Camera Operator] Good job!

- Big helper.

And we have been chaos ever since.

From a young family learning how to farm to just the everyday ins and outs of a farm, something going wrong here and there, everywhere.

We've always just been in chaos and so the name stuck.

Hi, sweetie pie.

Yeah.

Hi!

Having alpacas they're really kind of easy to care for.

They're very quiet.

It's really no different than having just a couple large dogs out in the yard really.

(razor buzzing) We were given the opportunity to purchase alpacas and we purchased our first three alpacas, Judy, Mary Jane, and Olive.

Since then, we've had such success and support we've doubled our herd of alpacas.

We now have six gal pals.

We have Judy, Mary Jane, and Olive, Sassafras, Dawn and CeCe.

Good morning!

Hi!

Hi, Ollie.

What really comes into play here is the attention that it brings to you.

You have a lot of people that will stop off, pull over to the side of the road and look at your animals.

I think Chaos got a really big break when COVID was happening and the shutdown was very active, scary, and new for everybody of course.

And what we did was we allowed people to book private times at the farm and visit the alpacas and they could bring their families and wear masks and interact at a place that wasn't their living room, and they were able to just get outta the house and see something different and have a little joy and happiness.

Hi, Mary.

Hi, Caesar.

Chaos Farm runs parallel to 60 acres of protected historical forest.

And when we purchased the property, we loved that 'cause it meant nobody could build behind us.

And then we found out that right behind us against our stone wall is a historic cemetery with some of the founding people of Lincoln buried inside of it.

And that became really exciting, not only for a family that really likes that kind of history, but also for the town because that cemetery is landlocked by residential housing, making it very hard for anyone to visit or take care of or just checkout.

And so we opened up our property to allow people to come and see the cemetery.

So we not only introduced them to Chaos, which is relatively new to town within the past 10 years, but also the historical, 300 year old side of Lincoln.

So it's a nice combination of the both.

It's pretty neat.

We're tiny 'cause we're on less than two acres, but we're mighty.

(relaxing upbeat music) We do so much in our little tiny square.

(relaxing upbeat music continues) And we fell into all of this by accident.

I went to school to be a speech therapist.

My husband's a computer engineer and I'm so proud.

Even though we're so small, we can do so much and I'm really proud of us.

(relaxing upbeat music continues) (relaxing enchanted music) - If I had to describe coming to Lincoln and coming to Great Road, I would say that there's nothing like it because there's so much history in a very small space.

It's 300 years of history in three miles.

My name is Kathy Chase Hartley.

I first realized that history was important on Great Road, probably when my son was born.

And I realized that the next generation was coming along, who was growing up on Great Road, and even though I never liked history before, I found myself getting really, really interested and deeply involved in it.

- Welcome to Hearthside.

- [Visitor] Oh, thank you.

- Glad you can join us today.

I started a volunteer organization back in 2001 and that was to save Hearthside.

There was no plan for what use for the properties and there were no funds to do anything with them.

So I felt that somebody should come forward and do something.

So I decided it would be me.

(laughs) It was in 2001 that I started The Friends of Hearthside to preserve the Hearthside House.

It was also purchased by the town of Lincoln back in 1997.

So our story today is about preservation.

It's about the preservation of the original historic sites here on Great Road, as well as the preservation of the stories that history tells here.

Great Road has a long and rich history.

Since it was laid out in 1683 as a route from Providence to Mendon, Massachusetts, it has been and still is used today as a major route.

Great Road Day is an annual event that we created and it was a way to bring people into town and for our own residents to see what was in their own backyard.

Here we have all these historic properties and people are going by a million times and wondering what's in these buildings.

So this was an opportunity for people to get inside the buildings.

- And right behind you is an example of how a joint in the 17th century would've worked.

- So we have anything from the beginnings of Lincoln with the 300 year old Arnold House, up to the more modern homes right along this roadway.

Great Road Day gets you inside some of the older homes, older buildings, and seeing them for the first time.

Chase Farm was founded back in 1867 by my great, great-grandfather, Benjamin Chase, and it continued through four generations of the Chase family.

(relaxing guitar music) (relaxing guitar music continues) For visitors to Chase Farm today, they will recognize the pond behind me.

This is what we call the reservoir and it was built by hand by my grandfather.

(relaxing guitar music continues) To have my family history here on Great Road going back all the way to 1867 is pretty amazing.

(relaxing upbeat music) I feel like I have a deep responsibility and I'm passing this on as a legacy, and I'm hoping that others will follow in my footsteps.

This is a coverlet that was made by the Talbots.

This is quite a complicated pattern.

It's called an overshot, and it is light on one side and on the other side it's a dark pattern.

I would say that Lincoln's brand is its historic places.

It really defines our community and I think that these historic places give our residents a sense of place here.

Great Road has the greatest concentration of these historic properties.

So if any one of these properties were to disappear, I think that we would begin to lose our sense of place here and we would become like any other community.

It really is a defining factor for us here.

(relaxing instrumental music) (relaxing instrumental music continues) (relaxing instrumental music continues) - Welcome to the Saylesville Quaker Meeting House.

The history of this meeting house begins around the 1690s, but the Quakers have always been an important part of Rhode Island history.

The Friends Meeting House in Lincoln has been here over 300 years and we are quite distinct in the Rhode Island history because we are one of the oldest Quaker meeting houses in New England.

(bell ringing) (relaxing guitar music) (relaxing guitar music continues) For a long time, Rhode Island was known as a Quaker state, and then of course Pennsylvania took that title away from us.

But the Quakers really were an important part of Rhode Island and of course in this location in Lincoln was considered very remote.

It was lovingly referred to as, "The world's end."

But the Arnolds, who donated this land to us, figured that this location would be equally inconvenient to everybody.

The role of the meeting house is a house of worship and we have a service every Sunday morning and we've been doing the same service again for over 300 years.

(relaxing music) (relaxing music continues) (relaxing music continues) Our most famous attender has been Stephen Hopkins and people in Rhode Island will probably recognize him as the signer of the Declaration of Independence.

(relaxing music continues) You can really feel how old it is when you go in.

The beams are very wide.

It's got just a very special ambiance and it's people who come and say they can almost feel the ancestors that have been there 300 years ago.

(relaxing music continues) We have a lot of activities at the meeting house.

We have a book swap that happens the third Saturday of every month.

- I love the book swap.

There are so many great books here to choose from and share and pass along.

- It was so fun coming to the book swap and trading some of our old books for new ones.

These were some of the treasures I found and I'm really looking forward to reading them.

- I love the book swap because when I'm done with a book, I don't have to throw it away.

I can pass it along for someone else to enjoy.

Or if I really like it, I can even make it into a cute little sculpture to keep on my bookshelf.

- [Kathy] And we also have a crafting group that comes once a month.

The thing that we really want is for people to come in and see it.

We just feel that history belongs to all of us.

So we try to do a variety of things to get people to just come into the building.

In fact, whenever we have the welcome sign out, people can come in and we'll try to give them a tour and answer any questions that we can.

(cheerful music) - Welcome to the Whipple-Cullen Farmstead.

Here we are in the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor in Lincoln.

(cheerful music continues) I've been a history teacher.

I love history.

Learning from the past is so important to make a better present and a better future by learning the lessons of what to keep doing right and what to correct.

So with the Whipple-Cullen Farmstead, there's only been two families that have lived in the farmstead since its erection in 1713.

The Whipples were there for 150 years and my great-grandfather purchased the property in the 1870s.

Eliezer Whipple, the father of Job Whipple, helped his son build the 1713 historic home and Job raised his children there.

His grandfather, who came over from England in 1630, settled first in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and then he came to Rhode Island in 1654, settled in the town of Providence and became very friendly with Roger Williams and the colonists who founded Providence.

So this is a rebel house.

They were a rebel family and they participated in the Revolutionary War, which, as we know, turned out successfully.

They had a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was a cousin, Stephen Hopkins, and one of the Whipples, Stephen Whipple, who was Job's son.

He served in the colonial legislature in 1776 in May when Rhode Island declared its independence from Great Britain.

And you can see the width of some of these floors is 16 or 17 inches, and that would be the King's wood back then.

But this was a rebel family.

So the rebels, you know, this was only supposed to be reserved for the King and that would be King Charles.

You know, way back then?

And then also King George too.

But the rebels went in and they cut the trees that they wanted and they made these beautiful floors here.

I did the research back in the 1980s, presented it to the Interior Department, and it was recognized in 1991 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

And then as far as the Cullen family coming into the picture here in the 1870s, being an Irish immigrant doing hard work, my great-grandfather established a dairy farm.

So the Cullens ran a dairy farm for approximately a little over 50 years.

Here we have the 1880 dairy.

The Cullen Farm had a little over a hundred cows and they had raw milk too.

And in fact, you know, when someone has a milk bottle, they say, "Where's the caps?"

And often, many times they don't have a cap.

Here's a cap.

Raw milk, Cullen Dairy.

And that was continued until 1930.

In fact, my dad was the last dairy farmer.

So that contribution to the home and it was, I think, special.

The home is the central piece, I think, of much of Lincoln in a way.

It's a seminal property.

It's architectural beauty says so much where people can learn the history of the early history of Lincoln.

Thank you very much for visiting the Whipple-Cullen Farmstead.

- Hi, my name is Hailie J. Harris and I'm a senior at Lincoln High School.

If you live in Lincoln, there's no chance that you don't know David Enos is.

He's our beloved band director and music teacher here at LHS.

My segment takes a look at the institution that is David Enos, Lincoln born and bred.

(relaxing upbeat music) (upbeat band music) (upbeat band music continues) (group chattering) - The first time I met Mr. Enos was during my interview process.

(upbeat band music) - Well, I started in '86, so this is year 38.

(upbeat clapping) Oh my God!

Tate's right, camera shy.

- [Brandon] And suddenly I learned how much he had been a part of the history of Lincoln High School.

He taught at the middle school.

- I wanted to be a teacher.

I figured that out in maybe junior year, I guess.

I got offers in a couple places.

One was in Westerly, one was in Taunton, Mass.

And then I got a call from Lincoln.

So since I was still living in town, I chose Lincoln.

So I ended up back here.

- And then suddenly talking about his brothers and how they all went here.

And then lo and behold, meeting his children who were also here in high school and realizing that, "Wow, Lincoln is Mr. Enos in a way, and vice versa."

- I grew up in Lincoln.

I went to Lincoln School, so I went to Lincoln High.

I graduated from here in 1980.

I was inspired by my high school band director John Asabido.

- So I've had him, I've had Mr. Enos, all four years.

I'm gonna say the experience changes as you get older.

So like as a freshman he's kind of intimidating 'cause you know, big, scary, bald dude yelling at you, right?

But as you get older, you get to see there is a softer side to him.

- [Commentator] He's such a great part of the community.

Every time we do a concert or an event and he sees people from the community, they're always talking to him, always saying, "Hi."

And it's mind blowing how many people know of Mr. Enos and the whole Enos clan at this point as well.

- Except for the brief time in college, I've been in this building for a long time.

I've actually taught every grade except for fourth.

I taught kindergarten, first, second, and middle school for a couple years.

I taught middle school and high school combined 'cause the middle school used to be attached to, we called it, a junior high back then.

I actually taught both bands at the same time for a while.

Taught junior high band and high school band, and junior high music courses and high school music courses.

- You grow to really respect him and admire him as a person, which is why I'm really excited to be his band president this year.

(crowd chattering) - [Mr. Enos] I guess you could just say I love my job.

And I guess, what else would I do that could be better than this?

(dramatic band music) (dramatic band music continues) (dramatic band music continues) - Hi, I'm Emily Lutai.

I'm a senior on Lincoln High School.

If the sun is shining in Lincoln, it's a good day to go visit Lincoln Creamery.

We ventured down to Front Street to explore the flavors and fun this local institution has to offer.

(relaxing pulsing music) (no audio) (upbeat music) - People come here because they like ice cream.

(upbeat music continues) Some of them love ice cream.

They like the fact that we have lots of different flavors, that we have long hours.

They don't like the long lines, but they seem to work through it pretty good.

I have a great crew.

They're very friendly.

They make sure that all the customers are treated the way they should be treated, and all of their needs are taken care of.

And it's a fun place.

Ice cream's fun.

That's why I think people like to come here.

- Hi, I'm Lydia Paul.

I've been working here for two years at Lincoln Creamery.

We got a fryer this year, so we've been having dough boys, churros, and fries this season, which have been doing really well with people.

- Hi, I'm Isabella Ackerman and I've been working at the Creamery since August, 2022.

So usually, especially because this is a really popular local staple, we'll have a lot of rush hours, especially as it gets later, I'd say from like seven o'clock to close, we're like busy, super long line.

But mid-afternoon at like, there's waves of coming and going, but it's always really busy at night towards the end.

(cheerful music) - And there are up years and there's down years.

The COVID year was a very difficult year for us because we couldn't open when we wanted to open and we had to keep people six feet apart and that had a big impact on what we were doing.

But, you know, we rebounded because we have real loyal customers who like the ice cream product, like coming to Lincoln Creamery.

And because of that, we've been able to bounce back I think maybe a little bit quicker than a lot of business, especially in the food industry have done.

So we're thankful for our real loyal customers.

- Hi, I'm Zani and I like Lincoln Creamery because as someone who can't have dairy, they have flavors for everyone.

- Hi, I'm George from Florida.

I'm here at Lincoln Creamery having some vanilla ice cream.

It's really great.

- Lincoln Creamery is a hotspot of Lincoln because we have like a really good community here, our Front Street faithful.

Yeah, just we have a lot of regulars that come by all the time and it's just a hotspot here.

- So we've been around for a long time and we've always just kind of been the place you can bring your kids after school.

It's a very relaxed place.

We offer a lot of flavors and we're always looking to expand and do more things.

I think that just, we've always been the kind of family feel good staple.

(cheerful music continues) (relaxing music) (relaxing music continues) - [Camera Operator] There they go!

Hi!

(laughs) - Lincoln is such an amazing place.

It has this proximity to a city and yet you feel like you're in some other time, in some other space.

I'm Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve and I am the owner of the Butterfly House.

We thought it was a beautiful and charming house.

We drove up and we saw kind of the front facade, but we didn't feel it until we actually walked into the backyard and we saw kind of stretches of land.

And one of my favorite memories is just seeing the kids enjoying nature almost immediately.

- I felt the boys and us needed more space.

We lived in cities, but, you know, we wanted to have a more relaxing lifestyle with them.

Our older son has also stated that he can't even imagine living in Providence anymore because it's so loud and populated.

That he enjoys being out in nature.

(swimmers chatter) (Camera operator laughs cheerfully) - Ready?

- [Camera Operator] Here he goes!

- When we purchased this house, we were looking for a place that could get us closer to nature and what we found was that the yard buttress, the Lincoln Woods, and it was such a special place.

See you soon!

(relaxing guitar music) We've had them catching frogs and snakes and running and through the ponds.

And so it's just been really a magical place to combine childhood with nature.

One of the challenges that we've had is that we moved into this property and it's very old, but it's so historic that we feel that there is a special responsibility to be stewards of this land, of this space, of this home.

And I think for us that meant doing a whole remodeling of what we call the barn, but was likely the mill space.

It was a two story building that was adjacent to the house.

It had seen better days, it was flooded, it had kind of rotting wood.

For me, I'm a writer and a professor and one of the things that I had always dreamed and imagined was a writer's retreat space.

And I said, "Well, why don't we think about just refurbishing it and really making sure we preserve it historically.

But what will the new life be within the space?"

And the idea of having a writer's retreat where people can come.

So far we've invited professors from Harvard and Boston University, and of course Brown, and they come and share the space, collaborate.

Shortly after we purchased the Butterfly House, we had an unexpected visitor.

His name was Glen McLeod.

He was the original steward and groundskeeper of the land for the first owners that lived in the Butterfly House, the Parker family, and it was his creativity and physical labor that built the bridge that ties the lawn of the Butterfly House to the farm meadow.

And so he explained that it took about 90 days from laying the first stone of that bridge to driving his car over the bridge to the meadow.

And we just so cherish it that the history of this space is built by people and people that cared for it so much that they wanted to return and share it with their family.

- This mound over here used to be much, much higher.

And this is where in World War I, the Rhode Island National Guard used to use this as a firing range.

- [Nicole] It's hard to be new to a community, and what we found about Lincoln is that there's so many people that are lifelong Lincoln families, they've gone to high school, their parents went to high school here in Lincoln.

And I think one of the most magical things about the community is that through sports and through activities and through school, we really have a whole new friendship network.

I think there's something really wonderful about having a house that has a history, that has a story to it, and we feel like we're continuing that story in a really special way.

(relaxing guitar music) - The farm is a huge piece of the town of Lincoln.

It's kind of right in the center of town.

It's a historic piece of property that has been around for over 100 years.

And it's been a part of people's lives for all different reasons.

I've been involved with Butterfly Farm since I was about six to seven years old, helping out a good family friend whose name is Joyce Smith.

And the Smith family owned Butterfly Farm prior to me.

And I've always had a passion for it, for agriculture.

So in my mid 20s, Joyce Smith, who owned the farm prior to me, decided that she was ready to retire and she was going to sell the farm, which was kind of a surprise to all of us that she was gonna sell it at that point.

And as a 26, 27-year-old, I looked at her and I said, "I'm gonna buy this farm."

And she looked at me like I was crazy and I said, "I'm gonna do it."

The first couple years were hard financially, but we made it happen.

And with the help of a lot of family and a lot of friends and some great staff, the farm has now grown into what it is today.

(relaxing cheerful music) (cow moos) Throughout the year, Butterfly Farm has many events and we have many different pieces of Butterfly Farm that make it successful.

We have a huge Sunflower Festival with vendors.

People come, they go into the field, there's all sorts of activities going on.

We had another event called Blooms and Brews, which was during our Sunflower Festival.

It was one of the nights during the Sunflower Festival and we were basically at dusk we had live music and people came and there was, we serve wine and they got to walk through the sunflower field right at dusk with the sunset.

It was really beautiful.

Once that kind of dies down, we start to move into our fall events where we're selling mums and pumpkins and we're having things like the Fall Festival where there's all sorts of crafters and vendors and people come and they pick their pumpkins and paint their pumpkins, and tag a Christmas tree and whatnot.

I always love Christmas tree season.

Christmas at the farm, it's just so nice.

People are always so happy.

People have been tagging their Christmas trees here at Butterfly Farm for probably close to about 35 years.

So some, there were kids that were tagging, people that were tagging as little kids that are now adults and have their own kids and they're tagging Christmas trees.

Serving the community, for me, is a huge piece of why I love running Butterfly Farm.

And being able to provide products and happiness to the community and really giving back is so nice and it's so nice to see the community being involved with my property and really seeing, letting people understand what goes into the agriculture and what goes into our products that they buy and they support us through.

(wind blowing) (relaxing music) - Lincoln Woods has become incredibly important to me.

(relaxing music continues) It feels like such a special place, especially because the history of rock climbing there is so great and it's just the only place you can climb in Rhode Island.

I'm Kristin Re and I'm the executive director of the Ladies Climbing Coalition.

(upbeat music) Our mission is to really empower and connect people through rock climbing, providing safe spaces for women and non-binary people to try it, get to know each other and grow.

- [Bystander] Come on, dude.

- [Kristin] This competition is something that we held last year and then this year again.

- [Climber] So what's the climb from here like?

- [Guide] Straight up.

- [Climber] Straight up?

- It feels really special because we've never had a competition outside in Rhode Island or in Lincoln Woods, even though people have been climbing there for decades.

I hope everyone had a great day.

- [Camera Operator] Thank you, Kristin!

- [Group] Thank you.

- Thank you.

(group laughs and chatters) (cheerful music) - [Kristin] Surprisingly, I actually didn't start rock climbing until I was about 24 years old and I didn't even know that Lincoln Woods was such a mecca for it, growing up five minutes down the road.

- [Supporter] Come on!

- [Climber] I missed this part.

- [Kristin] It's one of the very few places to climb in Rhode Island.

There's a couple other places down in South County, but none of them are as concentrated with boulders as Lincoln Woods.

Lincoln Woods boulders are glacial erratics.

They are big pieces of granite that were dropped there by glaciers.

- [Instructor] Biceps.

Biceps!

- [Bystander] Nice and hard.

Drop it.

Yeah, there it is.

- [Kristin] When you're bouldering, which is what we're doing in Lincoln Woods.

- [Bystander] Flag.

Yes!

Come on, come on!

(Climber grunts) - [Bystander] Okay, come on!

- [Kristin] You place them underneath you while you're climbing.

And the goal is that if you fall, which you do.

- No!

- You're gonna fall onto the crash pad and it's the job of the people around you to spot you and make sure that you land on that pad.

It's not a competitive thing, even though I know I'm hosting a competition, but it's like you and yourself and the rock.

And so whatever level you come in at, you can always grow and get better.

- Oh!

Excellent!

- [Camera Operator] Woo!

- My daughter, who is now 11, began climbing in the woods when she was four.

Go get it.

Yeah, there you go.

Being able to have access to Lincoln Woods, it's just a very special little place where I may run into 20 people I know on a busy Saturday in the woods because it's like the place to go for climbers.

It's such a great sport, hobby, lifestyle.

It's changed my life and I just think it's really special.

(no audio) (enchanted music) - You walk to about here and you look around.

(playful mysterious music) You have almost a 360 view.

It feels very cinematic.

As soon as people started to see the village and they realized that "Hocus Pocus 2" was happening, it was happening here in Rhode Island, in Lincoln at Chase Farm.

(enchanted eerie music) (upbeat mysterious music) My name's Alex Berard.

I am Rhode Island based location scout and manager.

I was the location manager on "Hocus Pocus 2."

How do we end up in Lincoln?

How do we end up at Chase Farm?

Usually, I blame my dog, Daphne.

(Daphne sniffing) She's the one who helped me find it to begin with.

I had been through here a few times with her and prior to ever hearing about "Hocus Pocus," and I was like, "This could be cool for something."

I just didn't know what at the time.

And we stopped by the farm and just walked out into the field and the designer right away said, "This place is perfect."

Once everybody saw Chase Farm, there was no changing their mind.

So at that point it was a matter of just making it work.

- Having Disney come to Chase Farm to film "Hocus Pocus" was an unbelievable experience.

Chase Farm was my ancestors' farm and my grandfather loved Disney.

I know that he was tickled pink to have "Hocus Pocus" film there.

- "Hocus Pocus" was filmed right in the backyard of Butterfly Farm.

So it was really neat to be able to really firsthand see the construction of the village.

- I'm gonna admit something.

The McQuaids and the O'Flahertys are our neighbors and us wives were figuring out like straight up audition plans.

You know, the Lucy episodes where she tries to get in the show?

(audience laughs) (audience laughs) Well, I think that we were trying, but it was like a fortress.

I feel like Farmer Dan's dog got closest because God bless the dog, she escaped.

- [Dan] And yes, the morning of the filming, of course one of my dogs, one of my oldest dogs, she wandered over there and it was so embarrassing and I made myself all the way through the set until I got back to my property and saw her trotting off to the back of the house.

So yeah, it was quite embarrassing.

- Disney wanted to do it in Rhode Island and take advantage of our beautiful fall foliage.

Obviously, the state of Rhode Island can double for any New England town, whether it's Salem, which we did.

The folks here at the farm were so kind and friendly.

And this became a national story, filming, creating a Salem village here in Lincoln.

It was a very soggy day.

There was a mist in the air, there was mud on the ground, but it was so appropriate for the tone of the movie and especially at that part of the movie.

And to have the facade so well crafted.

We have top-notch professionals who do art direction and production design, so everything looked authentic.

- [Alex] The final result was pretty spectacular.

We've done a lot of big location stuff and a lot of builds, but for me this was one of the coolest, most unique things I've done just because we created an entire village and it was all period, and, I mean, it looked perfect.

And to see it all for me, I was like, "This is an awesome location."

Come on, Daph, a little more walking.

All right, Daph, didn't know it was all gonna be about you today, huh?

(upbeat jazz music) - All right.

Okay.

Oh, check that!

An MGA going by.

That's part of the story here.

How about that?

(relaxing upbeat music) (relaxing upbeat music continues) My name is Paul Zangari and this is my hometown, Lincoln.

Moved here when I was one, but the fact of the matter is, if you can use the term, "Grew up," this is where I did.

We're right across the street where some very good friends lived.

Hearthside, the old mansion.

But the amazing thing is the way they encouraged a bunch of us kids from the neighborhood to get involved in certain pastimes that we loved, specifically for I think almost all of us old cars.

(cheerful jazz music) And it was great because Andy Mowbray, the master of the manor, if you will, collected some really beautiful cars, mostly English, including Rolls Royces.

And you can see him in "The Great Gatsby" chauffeuring Mia Farrow and Bruce Dern.

That was his car and he wasn't gonna let anybody else drive it.

(cheerful jazz music continues) (cheerful jazz music continues) My friends and how we got named The Hearthside Gang, I guess it's just sort of by default because there were a number of us that were there all the time.

And when we say, "The Hearthside Gang," of course it's nothing like Sharks and Jets, it's more like Spanky and Alfalfa.

The primary members of it would be Joe Paleo, of course, who actually to this very day still works with Stuart Mowbray.

My brother John, myself, naturally, David Houghton, who doesn't live around here anymore, Billy Trusdale, and there were a few others who were kind of associates, but I guess we were the gang.

We didn't call ourselves that at the time, but you know, retrospectively that's what we call ourselves now.

- John bought a 1926 Chrysler Imperial.

- [John] That would've been like probably '71 or '72.

- [Gang Member] Yeah, right around that.

- [Gang Member] But I first started coming here in the '60s.

- [Gang Member] You did?

- [Gang Member] Yeah.

Well, we were in high school in the '60s.

- We all sort of had an interest.

My father bought a '34 Chevy for my brother and me to fix up and this was before we were old enough to drive because we seemed to be very interested in cars and he figured this was a way to try it out and it worked.

But we all worked of course on Andy Mowbray's cars.

One that was really striking in retrospect, he didn't have it for very long, but it was a 19 seven-ish, we don't know for sure the year, we can't recall, a Lorraine-Dietrich, which is a big French touring car.

So here we are with the Lorraine now has fresh gas in it.

We're cranking like mad.

It finally starts, what do we do?

- [Gang Member] No, we didn't.

It didn't start.

We pushed it down the driveway.

- [Paul] That's right!

Okay.

- [Gang Member] We got it started by pushing away, all of us getting out, Andy behind the wheel, and we pushed it down the driveway.

As soon as it started- - [Paul] That's right!

- We all jumped in and we went around the block.

We had a very long block.

- It was a very long block.

Yeah.

(laughs) - That was our regular testing.

- Probably about a six or seven mile, quote, unquote, "Block."

I still have a car that you and Andy found at a car show.

That's the '31 Chrysler.

- [Gang Member] Absolutely!

Your '31 Chrysler.

- [Paul] Yeah.

- Andy and I went to, what was it?

Foxborough!

And you had mentioned any number of times that the perfect car for you would've been a Chrysler CM6 Roadster.

- [Paul] Yep.

- Well, we're walking around and there's a Chrysler CM6 Roadster unrestored.

When we got back here, I called you up and said, "You've got to go to Foxborough tomorrow."

- Yeah.

You didn't tell me why.

- I didn't tell him.

- Just, "Get your butt over there."

- Go to Foxborough tomorrow.

You will not regret it.

- Yeah.

- So he went to Foxborough and bought the car.

- Yep.

So yeah, I guess you guys were right.

We're in regular touch.

I mean, my brother and I obviously, and we're in regular touch with Joe about stuff that we're working on.

We're all do-it-yourselfers from hell, first of all.

And Joe, you could class as a professional with what he does in his shop over there.

- Hi, I am Stuart Mowbray.

I grew up in this house and lived here for 25 years.

- Stuart, I have to take issue with something.

None of the rest of us grew up.

Are you sure you did?

- Hmm!

No, I didn't.

- Okay.

(relaxing upbeat music) - I'm Joe Paleo.

And I would like to say I'm probably the original member of the Hearthside Gang.

- I would say that's accurate.

Yeah.

(relaxing upbeat music) I'm Paul Zangari.

I used to hang out here.

(relaxing upbeat music) (engine roars) - John Zangari.

I used to hang out here as well.

(relaxing upbeat music) - All right, that's more than enough.

See ya.

- All right.

- Okay.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Announcer] At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island, we believe a better tomorrow starts with a healthier community today.

Rhode Island Rising.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island is a proud sponsor of Rhode Island PBS.

- [Announcer] Pare Corporation.