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