- [Announcer] ""Our Town" South Kingstown is made possible by the following premier sponsor.

Belmont Market, celebrating serving our community for 75 years proud supporter of ""Our Town" South Kingstown and Rhode Island PBS.

(gentle jazz music) And the following benefactor sponsors.

Family-owned for over 20 years, Clean Rite Cleaning and Restoration provides a full range of remediation services and is a proud supporter of "Our Town" South Kingstown.

Pier Cleaners, providing professional, eco-friendly dry cleaning, laundry services, and more, proud supporter of "Our Town" South Kingstown.

And the following, patron sponsors.

Davitt Design and Build, Inc., Eclectic Energy.

James P. Howe Law, Ocean State Aquatics, Omnimedia, Print Source Group, Rawlings Floor Covering, Sights & Sounds, South Kingstown 300th Committee, Sweeney's Wine and Spirits, and the University of Rhode Island.

- [Presenter] 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.

South Kingstown is nestled in Washington County, Rhode Island, on land originally occupied by the ancestors of the Narragansetts.

The tribe and the town have a rich history.

2023 marks South Kingstown's 300th anniversary.

Nowadays, despite its age, South Kingstown continues to be a beautiful coastal attraction, renowned for summer tourism, unique villages, a vibrant arts community, and the University of Rhode Island.

Folks here love the diverse offerings this seaside town provides, from its pristine beaches, nature preserves, woodlands and farms, to its local seafood restaurants, businesses, and shops.

It's no wonder this is one of the fastest-growing areas in Rhode Island.

There is something here for everyone.

These are their stories.

This is "Our Town" South Kingstown.

(gentle music) - My name is Elise Torello.

I've lived in South Kingstown for about 28 years, and love living up in the woods with all of the wild animals.

(gentle jazz music) Well, I've always loved wildlife.

I was actually a wildlife biology and management major at URI, and the way I got into setting up trail cameras was, I would see signs of animals around my house, piles of scat, and all of the usual things that animals leave around houses, and I just wanted to get a better idea of what was out there.

I have about five trail cameras out all the time to see what the local animals are up to.

I've managed to capture just about every local mammal, except a bear.

And I'm hopeful I'll get one of those at some point too.

I also see many different ducks, birds of prey, and herons, plus many songbirds.

Even reptiles and amphibians trigger the hammers from time to time.

I think my favorites are the northern river otters and the bobcats.

The river otters are very lively and curious, and totally entertaining to watch.

The bobcats are gorgeous and rarely in a hurry.

Unlike the red foxes, which are always in a hurry.

The coyotes are really gorgeous too.

I've recorded predators catching prey a few times, including a great horned owl and a great blue heron with really good-sized large-mouth bass and pickerel.

It's also fun to capture the animal's courtship behavior, even when it's as dramatic to watch as a raccoon love triangle.

The river otters are amazing.

I think that was probably the most surprising species I've seen.

I wasn't really expecting it because we don't have a river, we have a pond, but really, they're in the salt ponds, they're in freshwater lakes, and they're just joyful.

They're just so much fun to watch, the way they romp and roll and mutter to each other.

And the way they move, they kind of flow and they're beautiful.

I share my captures on YouTube and social media for a number of reasons.

First of all, it's a lot of fun and it makes people really happy.

I hear all the time from my family and friends how much they appreciate these videos.

I think my main reason, though, is to help people reconnect with our amazing local wildlife.

Most folks have no idea how many different species are out there, and may have misconceptions about some species.

Fishers in particular get a really bad rap.

They are successful predators, but they're not vicious or evil.

I hope people will see my videos of them and maybe start to appreciate their beauty and gracefulness, and not fear them so much.

So this is what I love the most about South Kingstown, and I hope that sharing these videos and getting people to see what our animals are up to will get them back in touch with the beautiful natural areas around us.

(gentle jazz music) (bright music) - Having my son's wedding here was just magical.

I mean, they were in the moon gate, and it's gonna bring tears to my eyes just talking about it, but when they first came to us and said they wanted to do it, it was just so special.

So my name is Hellen Faella-Northup.

Most people in town know me as Hellen Faella because the Faella is our...

There's a lot of us, so people know the name.

My grandfather, Lorenzo Kinney Jr., started the gardens.

He was the head of 4-H for the state of Rhode Island, and he retired in 1955 and started really concentrating on his love, which was the azaleas and developing his own cultivars.

(bright music) As my parents are getting older, my dad turned 100 last September and my mom turned 94 yesterday.

So we are starting to look forward.

Forward thinking, we don't want it to be developed, we wanna keep it open to the public.

So we have started a nonprofit, it's called Friends of the Kinney Faella Gardens, and this allows us to apply for grants, get donations, and we're trying to set it up so that it will stay open for everyone to enjoy.

Some people have a guardian angel.

We have a garden angel and it's Sue.

Dr. Susan Gordon is our horticulturist.

She's been here since 1976.

This is Sue's cultivar.

She hybridized it from two other azaleas that we have on the property and she was trying to get an orange that was also fragrant, because most of the orange-colored azaleas are not fragrant.

And then this has been named after my dad, so it's called Antonio's Smile.

We get so many questions about when is the peak bloom, and mid-May to end of May, and then we have rhododendrons after that in the beginning of June, but I always say the gardens are always gorgeous.

(gentle jazz music) - I have come here ever since I can really remember.

I remember coming here before kindergarten, and we would take friends with us and we would all take photos together, and it was just a really fun time and we kind of just grew up here every summer.

'Cause you leave here and you feel relaxed, but you feel you've been in nature and it's just cleansed the system, it's special.

The azalea gardens is just flourishing with life.

You hear the buzz of the bumblebees everywhere and you can just hear laughter of kids, if there are kids there, and you can hear the footsteps and you can hear the running waters of the streams and the creeks, and you can just feel the air and hear it too, brushing through all the leaves, and it creates this really unique sort of heartbeat to the venue.

It's really kind of interesting and it's only at the azaleas you get this sort of living, breathing place and this monument, in a way, to this town.

(gentle jazz music) (ambient music) - The South Kingstown Land Trust was founded in 1983 by a group of passionate and concerned residents, some who worked closely with the town council, others were landowners.

Really just a divert mix of people who were passionate about this community and about protecting its sense of place thoughtfully and intentionally.

At that point, the town was undergoing series of growth, and they made a commitment to protect the land that needed to be protected.

The first thing the organization did was hire someone to focus on land protection, and that is where the organization's passions and energies have gone.

- It's important on a whole bunch of different levels.

I mean, one, this is a beautiful area, the geography and geology, the rivers, streams, the salt ponds, all of these things are of incredible natural value.

And also the town of South Kingstown is solely developed, is solely dependent on its own groundwater sources.

- One of our great partnership opportunities was with URI, Rhode Island Natural History Survey, U.S.

Fish and Wildlife, Department of Environmental Management, and even Audubon.

And it was to install nesting habitat for the endangered Eastern spadefoot toad.

(gentle music) And we also did a really great job of opening up a number of the properties with public trails.

And so we have over 14 miles of trails, we've protected over 1500 acres of farmland with conservation easements.

It remains in private hands, but it gives the community a real opportunity to have access to local food and to know that that'll be available for generations to come.

In addition to the land that we protect, we have two historic cultural landscape properties.

One is the Samuel E. Perry Grist Mill on Moonstone Beach Road, that's been in operation since the 17th century.

Just beautiful.

In addition, we own the Hale House, which was built for Edward Everett Hale and his family, and they summered here.

(gentle piano music) There's a lot of volunteers.

They help us with the stewardship, clearing trails, maintaining trails, picking up trash, removing invasive, exotic plants, all the work that it takes to keep the land open and safe for generations.

Our one main fundraising event for the year is the Great Outdoor Celebration and Auction.

Happens every year the first Sunday in August.

It's very relaxed, outside, super fun, a real mix of our membership.

It's great to see everybody, and it raises the critical funds that we need.

We're a private 501c3 organization, so we need to raise every budget every year, and our membership and the donors in the community are so generous and really make it possible.

The Land Trust really exists for the community.

It's a very local and focused group, and people are just passionate about taking care of it and stewarding the lands.

(gentle piano music) (bright music) - My name is Todd Kenney and I'm the pottery studio manager at South County Art Association.

South County Art Association has been a establishment all for almost 95 years in South County and South Kingstown.

(bright music) It provides a community-based art program for everybody and also for the professional artists to display and learn and teach their art.

- I must say that I think one of the greatest values that I as a beginner coming through all of the great classes that we're offered here is the intergenerational experience of sitting next to, throwing a boll next to somebody who has been doing this for 15 or 20 years, where I was able to learn from them.

And then as time went on, I in turn took on that role, where I was the more experienced person and somebody who was perhaps 90 years old, having much more life experience than me, was sitting next to me asking me questions.

And you're a 35 or 40 year old, what I know about this particular pushy material that is so lovely to work with.

- I do think that's kind of the magic of the studio space, that that's where that kind of alchemy can happen.

- [Todd] In South County there's ranges of art, from painting, there's caustic wax artists, there's sculptors with metal and stone to potters, and there's also glass artists, especially in downtown Wakefield.

- Any classes that you remember in particular and what you learned and what you took from them?

- Oh, they've been so numerous.

We are now sitting in a gallery that is featuring work from earthworks, which is our solo clay.

It's a singular in that we're showing only pottery here.

Coupled with the earthworks show, it's preceded by a jurying and we've had the opportunity over the years to bring in so many internationally-known clay artists to jury the show.

And while they're during the show, I also set aside a full day to teach a workshop, and I think that the earthworks workshops were really formative for me.

- I am a potter.

I've been doing pottery since 2007, and continue to do it, and will be probably...

I do a lot more home-base now.

So I do pretty much functional ware.

I do a few art pieces that are non-functional across the year, but I want my pottery to be used every day, so I try to do it that way.

There's a ton of artists actually within the South County region, and you can be able to tour their studios.

They're wide open.

They'll invite you in all the time.

(uplifting music) (gentle music) - [Speaker] In the mid 1970s, in the small village of Wakefield, a group of women artists were carrying on an art revolution when they created Hera Gallery.

Hera became and still is a cultural force in the New England area.

- [Speaker] The motto was, "Do it," and everyone showed up and participated.

Choosing a name for the gallery was difficult, but they agreed on Hera because as Richmond points out, she was a Greek goddess who had very assertively carved out a reputation of strength and strong will for herself.

- [Speaker] We were one of five women's co-op galleries across the country, two in New York, two in Chicago, and us.

And we were the anomaly obviously in this tiny little town.

What were we thinking?

But we were recognized because of the uniqueness of these women's co-ops, and this was when women were, really, women artists were really jumping up and down and screaming about, "We deserve to have shows and we need to be in museums and galleries."

- [Speaker] The gallery was incorporated as a nonprofit business and the Hera Educational Foundation established.

- I think it's really nice to have the community to enjoy thinking about art, looking at at art, and to just enjoy each other's company.

And for me, I will never take it for granted, after the years of COVID, that we can get together and we can celebrate what we are standing for together.

Those feisty women in 1974, were open to do something new and unusual and powerful, and they are still here creating together.

- [Speaker] Today, Hera's artist membership welcomes artists of all genders, at all stages of their career.

Hera installed its first male-identifying president in 2022.

- [Speaker] From the beginning, Hera has shown, through individual and curated shows, socially-conscious and political work, encouraging ethnic and cultural diversity in both audience and program development.

- [Speaker] Now, with 11 on-the-ground exhibitions per year, virtual exhibitions, and a growing social media presence, Hera Gallery not only reaches beyond Wakefield Forest, but beyond state lines as well.

- We have made a thriving community here.

It's just really special and beautiful, and we'll keep doing it for another 50 years.

(gentle music) - Hello, I'm Claremary Sweeney, author of the South County Mystery Series, a modern mystery series set here, in the villages and towns of Southern Rhode Island.

I've lived in South Kingstown most of my life.

I went to the University of Rhode Island and then moved down here right after.

Now, South County is a very safe community, and most of the crimes inside the pages of my books are mere figments of my overactive imagination.

However, some of my plot lines do have a basis in reality, but if I give away all my secrets, I'd have to... Well, you get the idea.

(suspenseful music) The South County Mystery series all began with "Last Train to Kingston," which opens late on a fall night at the Kingston train station.

The second book of the series, "Last Rose on the Vine," is set on campus during the summer session at URI.

(indistinct) with resources from the Forensics Lab, the History Center, town librarians, and interviews with longtime residents, I'm able to find wealth background information for my books.

This is Dennis Hilliard, Professor Hilliard, and he is a major character in my books at the URI Forensics Lab.

He's Professor Hill in my book, but he's one of my resources and I depend on him a lot.

- They would be used for (indistinct) stations to take fingerprints and palm prints of the victim's, suspects, so they go into the database.

- John Sheldon III runs Sheldon's Furniture Store, and his family has had that furniture store from the very beginnings, 1800s.

His store is a museum.

It's full of pictures and he's full of stories.

- This is an ad from the Narraganset Times.

October 5th, 1894, so that's before the store was moved.

The top one is the local Civil War veterans having a (indistinct) picnic down on South Pond.

Just a little north of Camp Fuller.

The picture was taken in 1920.

- [Claremary] Thank you so much for all of the background you've given me for my books too.

- Oh, you're welcome.

- At the moment I'm writing the seventh book of my South County Mystery Series.

Set right here, back again in Wakefield, and I'll be using Block Island and a few other places in South County.

I'll continue to make use of many of the familiar places I've come to love in the years I've called this lovely part of Rhode Island my home.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - My name is Johnette Rodriguez.

I've lived in Wakefield for over 40 years.

(gentle music) Locals consider the village of Wakefield that portion of Main Street that goes down the hill from the bend at the Wakefield Baptist Church with its iconic white spire and Green Line pharmacy with an old-fashioned ice cream parlor to the bridge over the Saugatucket, with its accompanying dam and fish ladder, plus a short block of Robinson Street midway through that stretch.

What keeps a historic village like Wakefield alive and thriving in an era of big box doors and shopping malls?

It stands as a prime example of what a respect for traditions, a welcome for new enterprises, a talent for reinvention, and perhaps most important of all, a solid sense of community can accomplish.

- Hello, I'm Tammy Brown, I'm the artistic director of the Contemporary Theater Company on Main Street.

- I'm Steve Brophy, my wife Chris and I own Brickley's Ice Cream, just across the street from the theater here on Main Street.

- We just thought kind of being centrally located right in the heart of Wakefield right on Main Street is a great way to let this be kind of a community space, a community hub.

Then we work with all the local businesses as well to kind of keep Main Street as bustling and alive as possible.

- Sometimes when I would come to the theater, if I thought the intermission was long enough, I would run across the street and get ice cream.

- We encourage people to do that.

We absolutely do.

Especially for Shakespeare on the Saugatucket, 'cause that starts right in the heart of the summertime.

We say, "Hey, you got about 15 minutes or so.

Go ahead, run over to Brickley's, come back, and then finish the show."

And then people do that all the time.

- It could not be a better spot than to be in literally the epicenter of Wakefield.

It's such an amazing feeling that almost 90% of the people that come in here, we know, the staff knows, or you just know from being customers.

It's become less about the product and more about-- - [Johnette] Community?

- [Jeff] This is literally for the community.

- In the late spring of 2021, many Wakefield businesses were still struggling to accommodate COVID-related regulations for the summer months.

But there was also a spirit of gratitude and revitalization in the air, with several new kids on the block.

And the much anticipated revival of popular outdoor events, such as theater and music at Contemporary Theater and river fire events on the Saugatucket River.

Working on this project was a way of me showing my appreciation for the village, and making sure that it got into the realm of the story of South Kingstown, because although the beaches are beautiful, the town itself is as well, especially the village.

(gentle music) - My wife Christina and I founded Green Line Apothecary, at 203 Main Street here in Wakefield, Rhode Island in 2016.

We were inspired by hometown Main Street mom and pop pharmacies.

So this building also has an interesting and longstanding history on this Main Street, 245 Main Street for many years, I guess for the bulk of its history has had a transportation or automotive use to it.

In the early, mid, and late 1800s operated as Armstrong Carriages.

It took a lot of vision, creativity, resources, and hard work to convert what was essentially a mechanics shop or auto repair shop into what you see today, which is our unique brand of the classic American drugstore.

And one of the fun surprises when you visit Green Line here in Wakefield is to put some quarters into the vintage cast pump vending machine and watch what happens.

(gentle jazz music) (gentle music) - My grandfather and my father first started with a little open-air fruit stand in Narragansett that opened only in the summers.

And so they were trying to think of a name that would denote quality because my father and my grandfather were very concerned with giving people the best quality and freshest fruits and vegetables.

So my grandfather was quite an aficionado, aficionado of ponies, you might say.

And he lived his whole life thinking about the racetrack.

So he pulled the stubby out of the side of his mouth and said, "I got the perfect name.

Belmont Park is the classiest racetrack in the country and everybody knows it, let's call it Belmont Fruit."

And that's how we got our name, and it's stayed with us.

That was 75 years ago.

(gentle music) I wanted to build a supermarket.

That had been my life's dream, was to take my produce market and put it in a supermarket so it would be busy all year round.

"When pigs fly" became my motto and I said, "Well, if I can make it and build a supermarket that people like, that's about as likely as pigs flying."

And I carried on my father's tradition of supporting South County and being an active member in the community.

(gentle music) We have people that worked for us 20 years ago and their children are working at Belmont's, and then those children are getting married and having children.

We have had three romances that blossomed in Belmont's and resulted in marriages and children in the past two years.

I'm very proud of that, to have people that are happy to work in the business and happy to serve people in the community.

That's the thing I'm most proud of.

(gentle music) - So my name is Rick Dyer.

I am the founder, builder, winemaker, bricklayer, stonemason, chemist, rock blaster for WinterHawk Vineyards/Quarries.

'Cause if you're putting a vineyard in in Rhode Island, you're gonna run into a few rocks.

I wanted to get that story out because I've got people coming from New York and Napa Valley, and people in Narragansett say, "There's a winery out there?"

So I thought it'd be a way to get the locals to know, yeah, we have a really nice little boutique winery here in South Kingstown.

(gentle music) The question I most often get asked is, "Why are you building a winery?"

Well, that goes back a few years.

I've always been a home winemaker, and while at a fundraising tasting, I met my future wife and we like to travel to different wineries, we did a lot of that.

We enjoyed the ambiance of it and we thought, "Hey, could we do this?"

Well, I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself.

Fortunately for us, the state of Rhode Island came up with a farmstead winery license.

It was just perfect for the small petite winery that we wanted to do.

We were the one of the first farmstead wineries in the state of Rhode Island, and the first commercial winery in the town of South Kingstown.

With all of that out of the way, it was time to start the site preparation for the building.

The idea I had for the building was rather unique, and if you come out and visit, you'll see the angles and such, and basically I'm trying to come up with a feel of a 17th-century (indistinct) farmhouse winery.

One element of the pandemic that we didn't quite figure out on our own was how to do contactless sales.

Fortunately Osmond, the winery (indistinct) dog, came to our rescue and came up with a testing.

- That concludes your wine tasting for today.

Is there anything that you'd like to take home?

A bottle or two?

I love the last white wine I tried.

(indistinct) - [Kurt] Yes.

May I have a bottle of that, please?

- You may.

That's $23.

- [Kurt] $23?

Yes.

- And our (indistinct) dog will collect the money.

- [Kurt] Your dog?

- [Andrea] His name is Osmond.

- [Kurt] Osmond.

Osmond.

- [Andrea] Come on.

Good boy.

Hold on a second while I get your change.

- You can keep the change.

(gentle jazz music) - [Rick] One of the things I noticed when we set the tables out on the patio, I set them all at an angle so nobody has their back to anybody else, and it really stimulates conversation.

From the very beginning, I was trying to create a community out there, and one of the things we're finding is that so many people will come out, not know anybody, and look around, and all of a sudden they've got new friends.

(gentle guitar music) (gentle music) - Well, the reason I wanted to share the story is, first of all, it's our 300th year anniversary of South Kingstown, and my family on both my grandmother and grandfather's side go back at least those 300 years.

And my mother was such a good record-keeper of things.

We have pictures and stories and newspaper articles, and I say the family is older than dirt.

And the town has grown, so it's nice to share where we grew up, where I grew up, and the changes that have happened are incredible.

- We are the Hosley sisters, Cynthia, Priscilla, and Wendy, and our story is about the Holley Family.

Dale Carlia House, also known as Twin Chimneys, Dale Carlia Corner, and our history behind it.

In the late 1800s, George Holley, our great-grandfather, his wife, Lillian, and their sons lived at the Broad Rock Farm, which was owned by the Hazard family.

George managed the farm and its ice plant.

The property is currently occupied by Broad Rock Middle School, as well as the YMCA.

In 1913, George purchased piece of property, which included the Dale Carlia House, also known as Twin Chimneys, and its surrounding acreage.

And that had been owned by the Hazard family.

He moved his family there.

That house dated back to the late 1600s and was possibly the oldest house in South Kingstown-Narraganset section of the (indistinct) purchase.

Twin Chimneys overlooked what's now the busiest intersection in Wakefield, Dale Carlia Corner.

It stood on a hill where job lot is located now.

It was restored by the Holleys and they started Dale Carlia Farm, which was one of the last places in South Kingstown where milk and cream could be purchased.

Great-grandfather George started Holley Milk and Ice Delivery Business in 1917, and then in 1920 he started Holley Incorporated Transportation Company.

When the trolley line to Providence ceased operation, then he and his sons could transport milk from the local farmers to the metropolitan markets.

- And in 1937, the Holley boys took over the family business, establishing Holley Incorporated as a moving storage bus and general trucking firm.

Their primary location, it covers the entire Dale Carlia Corner, which is currently the Belmont Shopping Center.

They started with three trucks and became one of the oldest interstate commerce commission certified Rhode Island carriers.

And this made it possible for them to ship goods nationwide, including a regular 50-pound shipment of locally-made Kingston sausage to the President Truman in the White House.

Our mom married Roscoe Hosley after the war in 1946, and they moved to Twin Chimneys shortly thereafter to care for her grandfather, George.

Three of us Hosleys, Cynthia, myself, and Christine, who has passed, spent our earliest childhood years there.

Wendy and our brother David, they came later.

I'd like to share some of those sweet memories with you of our days at Twin Chimneys.

We would spend time in our dad's garden.

We would visit the cow barn where the bowling alleys and Washington Trust are presently located.

We'd slide down the, we thought was a big hill, on cardboard for fun.

- Arthur and Leonard, the Holley brothers, also owned land on Warden Pond, where they operated the Great Pond Ice House.

And in later years, they built two summer cottages.

And in 1954 they sold a piece of property on the pond to the state of Rhode Island for a mere $10, with the stipulation that the public could use it in perpetuity because it provided the only public access to the pond.

And last year the access area was renamed Holley Landing at Warden Pond by the state of Rhode Island, in honor of the family's contribution.

Twin Chimneys was torn down in 1957 to make way for a new bank building, and Holley's Inc. was sold in 1965.

We are forever proud and thankful to be part of the Holley family heritage, and so grateful that our family preserved the story over all these years.

South Kingstown was a great place for us to grow up.

(gentle jazz music) (gentle music) - [Joanna] It seems so hard to imagine that one tiny seaside village, this place we call Snug Harbor, could have the power to reach across four generations and call all of us home to reconnect and regenerate.

It all began with a 1932 doctor's order for vitamin sea, S-E-A, to cure my uncle Doug's weak legs.

So my grandparents, Ruth and Reverend Paul Burhoe, moved from Providence to Snug Harbor every summer.

Doctor's orders.

When the four Burhoe children, Nancy, Doug, Alden, and Paula became adults, they shared the treasures of Snug Harbor with their kids.

There were 12 cousins always around in the sixties.

The magic of Snug Harbor weaved its way into all of our hearts and souls.

There were years, of course, that some of us could not venture back, whether because of work or school, family or military obligations, but we always came back eventually because there was a certain comfort in knowing that in an often crazy world, our family's home base of Snug Harbor would always be here for us.

Life slows down in Snug Harbor, and the stresses of the outside melt away.

Some stresses take longer to melt than others, but it does happen.

It happens while swimming, fishing, quahogging.

It happens while we gather for quirky Snug Harbor 4th of July parades.

We've marched in the parade for decades now.

One of the family's greatest floats was a 30-foot-long old cardboard sides.

It was a cardboard boat placed on a platform over a truck, but through the years we've waved flags and toss beads and candy to the small crowd.

Our true purpose for marching in our old lady dresses, neon wings and army boots behind other silly Snug Harbor Parade attendees, was really to fill the grocery carts we pushed with collected non-perishables for the local food bank, the Jonnycake Center.

And like all families, we've had our share of profound sorrow.

Family members lost, but it's been this tiny village called Snug Harbor that has, with each sunrise and each stunning sunset, with the salty breeze that caresses us, called us together to carry on.

(gentle music) - It's a place where if you just spend a little time by the water, it's almost like a mini vacation.

- Oh, there's so many things, but my probably favorite memory is playing in the mud.

Oh, yeah.

- So we had to wear water shoes and I remember stepping down and my shoe getting sucked off by the mud.

- The mud.

- [Joanna] As our family has grown, so has our desire to maintain the family legacy.

We were fortunate to have had the opportunity to add to the first family cottage by purchasing our dear friend's cottage next door.

Then we added two tiny ones across the street.

Now there are four, the Four Winds.

They're very simple, just like the village.

Doing our part to keep Snug Harbor that way was part of our plan.

It reminds the future generations to focus on the outdoors, breathe in the salt air, swim, fish, and reconnect with earth's gifts, and to remain anchored in the love of the legacy that is Snug Harbor.

All made possible by a 1932 doctor's order to my grandparents for my uncle Doug, "Take him to the sea."

Thanks, doc.

(gentle music) - My name is Mike Marran.

I've been a resident, depending on how you count it, my whole life.

(gentle music) When I was a kid in the 1960s, our cottage at Roy Carpenter's Beach was in the second row of houses on the east side.

Going swimming meant jumping off the deck, running across our lawn between the houses in front of us, over their lawn across the road, by the cars parked for the day, then up the dune and through the dune grass and down the other side.

Then about a hundred yards to the water.

Over the years, erosion took more and more of the beach until the grass, the dunes, the parking area, and even the road disappeared.

By the time of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, even the lawns of the first row of houses was gone, and the beach sand was under the houses.

Hurricane Sandy was a huge storm at the end of October that year, and it wasn't a direct hit on Rhode Island.

The eye of a storm actually hit in New Jersey and New York, but the damage here was devastating.

Most of the first row cottages on the east side at Roy's were damaged or destroyed.

In the aftermath, all of the houses in row one and two that survived the storm had to be moved to the cornfields near Cards Pond Road.

(uplifting music) In Roy Carpenter's Beach in Matunuck, the houses are very close together.

You are only there for a few months.

And back in the sixties when I was growing up, it was a very, very tight-knit community.

It just changed a huge part of our lives.

The house, it wasn't just a place to go in the summer.

Like I said, the neighborhood, those close-knit houses around us, were all like one big family, to begin with.

We had singalongs on the deck, we had fires, we had cookouts together, and that went on for half a century.

Our house, which had been such a focal point of so many decades of happy summers, wonderful neighbors, and great family get-togethers, now had to be moved.

When the day came, the whole family walked behind the house as it was relocated to the cornfield.

It was like a funeral procession for a member of the family.

Eventually, mom and dad decided it was time to sell the house.

In the years since 2012, erosion and sea level rise has continued to eat away at the Matunuck shore, and more houses will have to be moved in the future.

After Hurricane Sandy and having to move the house, I started to educate myself a lot more on climate change and sea level rises, specifically how it's affecting and going to impact South Kingstown.

And I've started to talk to people, particularly now as a member of the Town Council, about planning for the future and how we're gonna need to adapt because of climate change.

(gentle music) - My name is Laurel Clark and I'm the library director of the South Kingstown Public Libraries.

(gentle music) Libraries are important for connection to community.

They're important for education, entertainment.

There's so many to list.

In South Kingstown, there's also that history.

So our buildings are uniquely historic.

We have three buildings and each is different, and that's why I wanted to share that with people.

The Peace Dale Library, built in 1891, has been the center of activity for children, adults, and families from the very beginning.

Though the front of the building was always a library, the building also served in different capacities throughout the years.

A large room at the back of the building was once a 600-seat auditorium that hosted plays, concerts, graduations, and public meetings.

The front of the building shows in stone its original name, the Hazard Memorial.

At the 1891 dedication, the donors explained that the philosophy of Rowland Gibson Hazard was that he would not have wanted a lifeless granite monument, but something living and vital to provide enjoyment and education to the community he loved.

We think he'd approve of how things are going 130 years later.

- [Wendy] On the grounds of the Peace Dale Library in South Kingstown, Rhode Island stands The Weaver, a bronze sculpture by Daniel Chester French, creator of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

This is his only work in Rhode Island.

It was commissioned by Caroline Hazard in memory of her father and her two brothers.

Seven feet high and nine feet wide, the sculpture depicts three slightly larger than life sized figures, two standing and one seated.

A youthful muscular male weaver focuses on his work, fingers poised in action.

The fabric he's working on shows a pattern of scallop shells and doves.

A tall female figure holds a tool called a distaff, containing a supply of fibers.

With her other hand, she passes a newly-spun thread to the weaver.

Behind her, an elderly female figure holding an hourglass watches attentively.

Two lines of poetry by Caroline Hazard are carved above the monument.

Below are the names and dates of the men to whom it is dedicated.

- The Kingston Library Building has been the focal point of community activity since long before 1896, when it opened as the Kingston Free Library and Reading Room.

Originally built as a county courthouse in 1775, it also served as one of the five original state houses when the Rhode Island General Assembly rotated its meetings between 1776 and 1791.

In 1974, the building was put on the National Historic Register.

Next to the library is a small one-story granite building, known respectively as Old King County's Courthouse, Little Rest Museum, and the Little Rest Archives.

Built in 1857 to store court records, it is purportedly the first totally fireproof building in the United States.

Serving various functions over the years, it is now used for storage.

And of course, don't miss the statues of Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Daniel Webster, looking down on Kingston Village from way up in the library's highest windows.

Robert Beverly Hale, who lived from 1869 to 1895, was the beloved son of writer Edward Everett Hale and a promising writer himself.

He died unexpectedly of typhoid fever at age 26.

His family and many of friends raised money and collected books to establish a library in his memory, and dedicated it on June 26th, 1896.

There is a central entry with a semi-elliptical (indistinct) and side lights.

The main reading room has a fireplace and a handsome bay window with a view of the surrounding woods.

Today, the South Kingstown Public Library offers a vast array of programming and resources at all its locations and beyond.

Our vibrant scheduled programming offers something for all ages.

For the little ones, we have activities such as story walks, children's yoga, bilingual story times, sensory story times, and take-and-make crafts.

For adults, there are several book discussions, a monthly French conversation hour, and a very popular readable feast, where participants prepare a potluck featuring a dish from a cookbook they've all read that month.

South Kingstown is a wonderful juxtaposition of history, but also forward thinking.

I think the community is really caring.

I think they preserve the past well, they recognize history, but they also are looking to what the future's gonna bring.

(gentle music) (soft dramatic music) - Yeah, the reason this is so important for us is our town has a rich military history.

Welcome to our video tour of the historic memorials and monuments in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, dedicated to the brave citizens who played a vital role in defending our nation.

Let's embark on a journey to explore these sites.

Our first off is the World War I Monument at Memorial Gateway University of Rhode Island.

This monument is dedicated to the 334 students who left to serve in World War I out of the 562 students enrolled in 1917-1918.

Our next stop is the 1932 War Memorial, located at the intersection of Columbia Street and School Street.

This monument is almost a hundred years old and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

This masterpiece honors those who lost their lives and those who served in various wars.

Our third drop is Riverside Cemetery on East High Street, where many Rhode Island military veterans are laid to rest.

It contains about 5,000 burials, 4,003 inscribed stones, and 10 field stones.

Next we visit the Saugatucket Veteran's Memorial Park, located in Olmsted Park in the village of Wakefield.

This park contains four granite tablets with the names of citizens who lost their lives and those who served in various wars.

Next is the Isaac Rodman Memorial Cemetery off Emmett Lane, next to the gravel pit.

The historic cemetery is dedicated to the brigadier General Isaac Peace Rodman, the most decorated soldier in Rhode Island to die in battle.

Next we visit the Flagpole Memorial in front of the YMCA at 165 Broad Rock Road, where the South Kingstown class of 1942 commemorated one of their classmates who went missing in the Vietnam conflict.

Our final stop is inside the entrance of the lobby of the Veteran's Memorial Gymnasium Auditorium at South Kingstown High School at 215 Columbia Street, where bronze plaques are mounted on the wall, commemorating former students who lost their lives.

(soft dramatic music) - My grandmother was a gold-star mother in both World War I and World War II, Hulda Mary Gadrow.

I remember my grandmother and all the other gold-star mothers riding together in the Memorial Day parades, all through the years.

These mothers made the ultimate sacrifice.

- Today we are specifically honoring (indistinct) the South Kingstown Medal of (indistinct), and the five service members who remain missing in action.

But let me say, they may be missing in action, but they're not missing in the hearts of their families or in the hearts of this community.

- [Mark] South Kingstown became Rhode Island's first Medal of Honor town on March 25th, 2023.

The event's main focus was recognition of the town's three Medal of Honor recipients, Sergeant William James Babcock, Corporal David Bernard Champagne, and Sergeant William Grant Fournier.

They then also paid tribute to the five missing action service members from South Kingstown as the bagpiper, Debbie Kane played, "Going Home."

The names of Lieutenant Stewart Trumble Cooper, Colonel Curtis Abbott Eaton, Lieutenant Victor Marvin Gadrow, Lieutenant Peter Hamilton Hazard, and first Lieutenant Richard Lee McNulty were hand-carved into a black walnut plaque.

The community came together to show gratitude and respect for those brave men's sacrifices and to assure the memory lives on.

(gentle piano music) (gentle music) - [Meaghan] South Kingstown, a coastal suburban town encompassing quaint villages, the historic downtown, beautiful beaches, and home of the University of Rhode Island, celebrated its 300th anniversary of incorporation in 2023.

The colonial town of Kingstown split into North and South in 1723 with Narragansett initially being part of South Kingstown until 1888.

- We had done a little research, but we looked at the 250th and they pretty much had like a week-long section of events.

And I think maybe the competitiveness in all of us, we wanted to make it bigger and better.

So we planned a year-long celebration.

- [Elise] Commemorations included a vibrant mural rendering, some of the most iconic symbols and scenes of South Kingstown.

In addition, a public art installation was commissioned an Ostara, a 14-foot rabbit sculpted of steel, was unveiled to showcase the symbol of South Kingstown's prosperity for generations to come.

An enlightening monthly speaker series brought the rich history of South Kingstown to life through the voices of local experts on a variety of topics.

In the spring, hyacinths bloomed across our community in shades blue and white, a nod to the town colors after community volunteers lovingly planted over 4,000 bulbs in the fall of 2022.

A town-wide Earth Day cleanup was coordinated to bring the community together in support of the preservation of the natural beauty of the land, cemeteries, forests, beaches, and waterways that make South Kingstown a gem of southern Rhode Island.

(paraders playing "Yankee Doodle") A microcosm of the 300th anniversary, a celebratory parade brought all community members together to celebrate the spirit of South Kingstown.

The committee held a pre-parade march along Main Street with saxophone players, visiting businesses with URI Rhody the Ram, various professional and school marching bands, floats, elected officials, members of the school communities and numerous organizations, fire trucks, and (indistinct) cars, all festively paraded along through the heart of Wakefield, as a feeling of hometown pride hummed through the crowds.

A reviewing stand on Main Street allowed participants to stop and perform before marching on.

The parade culminated in a celebratory post-parade picnic, with musical performances at Saugatucket Park.

This year-long celebration would not have been possible without the dedicated, passionate volunteerism of the 300th anniversary committee.

The generous support of local legislators, town officials and staff, the monumental support of the community, and the generations of South Kingstown residents who over the past 300 years have made South Kingstown the home we celebrate today.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Belmont Market, celebrating serving our community for 75 years, proud supporter of "Our Town" South Kingstown and Rhode Island PBS.

(gentle jazz music) Family-owned for over 20 years, Clean Rite Cleaning and Restoration provides a full range of remediation services, and is a proud supporter of "Our Town" South Kingstown.

Pier Cleaners, providing professional, eco-friendly dry cleaning, laundry services, and more, proud supporter of "Our Town" South Kingstown.

Davitt Design and Build, Inc., Eclectic Energy, James P. Howe Law, Ocean State Aquatics, Omnimedia, Print Source Group, Rawlings Floor Covering, Sites & Sounds, South Kingstown 300th Committee, Sweeney's Wine and Spirits, and the University of Rhode Island.