Joseph Fry Farm Landscape, 2153 South County Trail Road (U.S. Route 2), East Greenwich, Kent County, RI

Significance: Fry's Hamlet Historic District is an important collection of three farmsteads, the Joseph Fry Farm, the Spencer-Fry Farm, and the Spencer-Bailey Farm. The buildings and lands which comprise the Joseph Fry Farm and the district document the settlement and development of the farm from the late seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century. The house, barns, and outbuildings illustrate the nature of rural vernacular design in an agricultural setting. Alterations to the buildings have been the result of changing social and economic conditions, and reflect the history of the farm. The fields, meadows, orchards, paths, and stone walls represent the patterns of land use that have characterized farming in East Greenwich and Rhode Island for over 200 years. The Joseph Fry Farm and Fry's Hamlet are an important cultural resource that preserve a wealth of information about agrarian life. Their importance is increased by the loss of similar elements of the town's and state's agricultural landscape to suburban development.

Survey number: HABS RI-399

Building/structure dates: 1677 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1793 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1795 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1930 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: ca. 1940 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: ca. 1950 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1968 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1978 Demolished

National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 85003161

farms farmland livestock agriculture slavery people associated with politics and government dairy farms cooperatives east greenwich farm landscape farm landscape trail south county trail road greenwich kent county virginia h adams francis bailey william bailey robert brewster maureen a cavanaugh dorothy fry joseph fry louis fry lydia fry marion fry nicholas fry thomas fry thomas g fry william g fry richard e greenwood historic american buildings survey incorporated public archaeology laboratory rhode island society for the encouragement of domestic industry benjamin spencer john spencer joseph spencer michael spencer robert spencer william a vaughn photo ultra high resolution high resolution historic american landscapes survey historic american engineering record rhode island library of congress national register of historic places

1950

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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