Jamestown Historical Society News
By Rosemary Enright
The Jamestown Historical Society museum closed for the winter on Sept. 2 and work began on Phase Two of the museum renovation the following week. During Phase One, completed in the spring, the interior of the building was refurbished and environmental controls installed. During Phase Two, the work will be primarily on the grounds around the building.

The first task was to remove the tree stumps to the east of the building to make room for the handicap access walkway and also to clear the sewer line. This turned out to be a bigger job than had been expected. Since the trees had compromised the stone wall, the stone wall between the museum and the house to the east also came down. The next step is to install new sewer and water lines and to re-grade the area so that a gradually sloping walkway can be built.

New Vault

With the opening of the Town Hall, the JHS vault is now available for our use. The installation of special archival shelving is scheduled for the first week in November. Then begins the awesome task of moving the archives from the museum and from remote storage to their new home. As each box is moved, its new location will be updated in the JHS catalog. When everything is in place, the catalog will be updated online at jamestownhistoricalsociety. org as well as in the computers in the museum and the vault.

Capital Campaign

The Capital Campaign to pay for these improvements is ongoing. We have raised about 80 percent of our goal. We are now reaching out to everybody in the community to help us raise that final $100,000.

One way you can help us is to send a "Message to the Future." We're putting together a Time Capsule to be opened in 50 years. You can put your message to the Jamestowners of 2057 in the Time Capsule on a special Memory Card.

If you're a student at the Jamestown schools, your card has been paid for by a generous benefactor who wants to make sure that each of you gets a chance to put your thoughts into the Time Capsule. You'll be getting the cards at school. For non-students, a donation of $25 to the JHS Capital Campaign- $10 if you are under 16 - buys a card. The cards and a return envelope will be included as an insert in the Jamestown Press in early November.

You may say anything you want on your card. You may draw a picture or write a poem. You may tell a story - fact or fiction. You may record what you think the future will be like. The Time Capsule will be placed under the floor of the museum. A small brass plaque will remind Jamestowners to open it in 2057.

Please help the JHS preserve our past by contributing your thoughts from the present for the future.

The Jamestown Bridge, 1940-

2007: Concept to Demolition

Sue Maden has rewritten her history of the Jamestown Bridge, originally published by the JHS in 1990, to include the story of its demolition. The new book, published for the JHS by the Jamestown Press, will hit the stands on Oct. 20 with a book signing at the Newport Public Library on Spring Street. A program based on the book will be presented at the Jamestown Philomenian Library in early November. Watch for announcements in the Press and at the library.

Summer Finale

The windmill closed officially on Sept. 16, but stayed open for some special guests on September 28. Sixteen 7th and 8th graders from Mrs. Stephanie Pamula's Robotics enrichment class at the Lawn Avenue School took a field trip to the windmill to study an early example of alternative energy sources. The students are preparing to represent the school at the "First Lego League" competition in January. The theme of the competition this year is Energy Resources - Meeting the Global Demand.

The two 19th-century homes visited during the annual House Tour on Saturday, Sept. 8, gave contrasting and complementary pictures of Jamestown at the height of its popularity as a summer resort. The more compact and urban Admiral David Dixon Porter house at 36 Walcott Ave. conveyed the relaxed graciousness associated with flowing summer dresses and sun-blocking parasols. The Lippincott house, surrounded by verandas and spreading lawns, brought to mind swarms of energetic children in bathing costumes. The event was an overwhelming success with more than 300 visitors and volunteers enjoying the wonderful houses and the hospitality of the Antine and O'Neill families.