People of the Hopelands Estate

The Narragansett Tribe-Thousands of Years

The story of Potowomut is long and rich. It is filled with the names of many significant families instrumental in forming the state of Rhode Island. Taccomanan, whose position as the Chief Sachem of Potowomut is a topic for debate, represents the thousands of years the peninsula was inhabited by the Narragansett Tribe. The Narragansetts are believed to be the descendants of the aboriginal people of Rhode Island. Their presence in this area dates back 30,000 years.[1] A complex society, the Narragansetts were a farming and hunting people. They were known to maintain two homes, residing in long houses in the winter months and wetus/wigwams in the summer months. Potowomut, loosely translated as "land of fires," with its access to Narragansett Bay and fertile soil, was believed a favorite spot of the tribe and used as a location for farming, hunting, fishing, as well as a central location for tribal meetings.

The Greene Family-Three Generations

Thomas Greene-Of Stone Castle (1662-1699)

It was Thomas Greene of Stone Castle (1662-1699), the grandson of the John "the surgeon" Greene, an original settler of Rhode Island, who secured land through the newly incorporated city of Warwick in 1686 and "built upon the south eastern rolling meadows a small 20 x 2o dwelling."[2] John Greene was born on August 14, 1662, the son of Thomas Greene of Stone Castle (1628-1717) and Elizabeth Barton Greene 91637-1693). Thomas married his cousin, Anne Greene (1663 - abt. 1713). He was the nephew of James Greene, who built the house and forge now called the Nathanael Greene Homestead. Thomas served as the Deputy to the General Assembly of Warwick from 1696 to 1698. Tragically he drowned in a boating accident in the winter of 1698-99 while returning from Newport. Upon his death in Narragansett Bay, the land and home passed to his eldest son John Greene (1691-1757), at just 8 years old.

John Greene of Potowomut(1685-1757)

John was born on April 16, 1691, just eight years before the drowning death of his father in 1699. John married twice and fathered 11 children: Eight with his first wife, Deborah Carr Greene (1692-1729- the great-granddaughter of Roger Williams), and three with his second wife, Mary Almy Greene (1722-1777-the daughter of Richard Greene of Occupasuetuxet, and John's second cousin). She was just 16 years old when she married. John and his family "resided on the eastern part of Potowomut on the farm inherited from his father"[3] until his passing in 1757. John's Potowomut farm was well over 1,000 acres, and during his time, and subsequently that of his son, Richard, the farm maintained livestock, including cows and sheep that numbered in the hundreds. John was a very successful man who owned land not just in Potowomut, but also in Newport and Coventry. It was during John Green's residency that Potowomut became a working farm raising cattle, sheep and horses to import. In the later stages of his life, John became quite ill, and spent the majority of his time in the mansion he had inherited from his father. His nephew by marriage to Deborah Greene, recorded his visits to his "Uncle John," writing on three separate dates, “Nov. 9 1757-Watched with Uncle John Greene at Potowomut,” “Dec. 8,1757-Uncle John Greene died at Potowomut,” and "Dec. 10, 1757-Went to Burying of Uncle John Greene at Potowomut." [4] At the reading of his will, the land and mansion at Potowomut were bequeathed to his son, Richard Greene.

Richard Greene (1725-1779)

Known as "King" Richard by friends and foes alike for his generosity and hospitality, inherited the property in 1757. He was well known for his sophisticated taste as well as for his well attended social affairs and fox hunts that included attendees such as the British naval officers and members of Rhode Island's elite, including the Brown Brothers of Providence prior to the revolution. Richard served as a Deputy of Warwick,1765 and was a man of means. In addition to his inherited Potowomut property, he also owned a farm in Coventry "which was large and valuable,"[5] and another in West Greenwich. Wilkins Updike's 1847 book, A History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, provides quite possibly the most detailed description of Richard Greene.

There was much splendor in his housekeeping for the times in which he lived. Always employing an overseer who was regularly attached to the family accounts for his having leisure to entertain more company perhaps than any other private gentleman in Rhode Island and he was remarkable for very great hospitality A large proportion of his visitors were some of the most distinguished personages of the day. [6]

Updike continues with a physical description of Richard Greene while also addressing the allegation that he was a loyalist during the time of the American Revolution.

He was a handsome man of the middle size his complexion light, eyes blue, his hair a rich brown, his head being set forward a little more common gave him the appearance of a slight stoop He like myself was not a ready writer but he possessed great conversational and had that most happy faculty of always selecting the words most proper for expressing his ideas pleasingly He dressed with taste and was scrupulously neat in his person. At the commencement of the revolution he viewed it as a rebellion against lawful authority but I firmly believe he ever remained strictly neutral although he was accused of aiding and assisting the British when he refused to sell the produce of his farms in large quantities to be sold again at an exorbitant price, but kept it and had it dealt out to the poor as they needed it and for what it was in reality worth and those who had no money were furnished without price . [7]

He was called by the common people "King Richard " to distinguish him from others of the same name not because of his loyalty to the crown but for his charity to the poor and his magnificent manner of living. He was fond of cards, which displeased his father, a zealous Quaker and on that account I think he discontinued playing. His outer doors were never fastened. He never had what we call watchers when a death occurred in his family, but always slept in the room with the corpse himself .[8]

After a 23 year residency at Potowomut, Richard's perceived loyalty to the crown and his rich tastes resulted in a standoff with the Rhode Island General Assembly. Richard was forced to sell the goods and supplies his large farm yielded to the colony to support the revolutionary cause. Suffering from cancer, Richard retreated to the British controlled Newport in 1777 in search of treatment from British surgeons. After having inadvertently taking a large dose of Cicuta, a prescribed remedy of the time, made from a species of highly poisonous plants which can cause seizures and death. He "calmly on the 19th of July 1779 died this noble gentleman and poor man's friend."[9]. After his death, the Rhode Island General Assembly authorized four creditors of Richard Greene to sell all of the assets of the estate to pay off the late Greene's outstanding debts. This would open the door for the Browns, Moses and Nicholas Jr., to purchase the property at auction for a mere $11,575 in 1793, an estimated $330,000 in today's market.

Thomas Poynton IvesArtistJames Sullivan Lincoln, 1811 - 1888

The Browns/Ives/Goddard-Five Generations

Thomas Poynton Ives (1769-1835)

Having visited the property and enjoyed Richard's hospitality, Moses Brown, Hope's uncle, and Nicholas Brown Jr., Hope's brother, serving as legal guardians, were quite familiar with the estate and its beauty. In keeping with the wishes of Nicholas Brown Sr. who felt it would make a fine wedding gift for his daughter, Hope Brown Ives (1773-1855) and her new husband, Thomas Poynton Ives (1769-1835), the pair purchased the property. Thomas was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was the son of Captain Robert Hale Ives, a master-mariner. Thomas' father died when he was just four years old in 1773, forcing him to be raised by family in Boston. Thomas was hired, at the age of thirteen, as a clerk for the mercantile trade firm of Nicholas Brown, eldest of the four famous "Brown Brothers of Providence," and it is here that he met Hope, the daughter of Nicholas Brown Sr. Nicholas Brown Sr. passed away before Hope was married, but in an earlier correspondence with his daughter regarding her relationship, Nicholas wrote that his requirements for a suitable husband included, "Money, wit and manners," to which Hope responded, "I've the money and Mr. Ives has the wit and manners. Isn't that sufficient?"[10] Ives proved to be a wise addition the firm, "His executive talent was remarkable and contributed largely to the success of the firm" [11]Ives joined in partnership with Brown's son (Hope's brother), Nicholas Jr., thereby founding the famous Providence firm Brown & Ives. Additionally, Ives served as President of the Providence Bank for 24 years as well as the Providence Institution for Savings. He was also a Brown University trustee for 43 years. Hope and Thomas spent very little time idle. By 1801, Hope and Thomas had purchased most of the remaining meadows surrounding the estate from Elihu, Christopher and Perry Greene and owned over 200 acres of the south eastern part of the peninsula. They also added a large Federal Block style addition to the existing colonial home, doubling the size of the residence and named the property, "Hopelands." For several years Hope and Thomas would spend summers at the fine estate while also maintaining a beautiful home on the east side of Providence designed by the famous architect, Caleb Ormsby, which was constructed ca, 1806. Eventually, Hope took up full time residence in Potowomut. Upon the death of her young 36 year old husband in 1835, Hope spent the next 20 years at Hopelands actively managing the estate while raising her three children and watching her grandchildren grow up there.

Hope Brown Ives (1773-1855)

As the daughter to Nicholas Brown, one of the well-known "four brothers," (Nicholas, Joseph, John, and Moses of Providence) also known as, " John and Josie, Nick and Mosie," The Brown Brothers' owned a "business conglomerate that included maritime trade along the Eastern Seaboard, with the Caribbean and with England; a rum distillery; spermaceti candle manufacturing; an iron foundry (the Hope Furnace); and a network of shops."[12]was renamed Nicholas Brown & Co. Until 1771. Hope was affluent and surrounded by the important people of her time. It was her brother, Nicholas who built Hope College at Brown University in 1823 "as dormitory space to house the growing student body."[13] At the time of its construction, Nicholas Brown requested "that it be named after his sister and spouse of his business partner, Hope Brown Ives. The college’s first exclusively residential building continues to serve that function today." [14] Hope's uncle, Moses Brown, who never had children of his own, treated his niece, Hope, as his daughter. It was Moses and Hope's brother, Nicholas II, who carried out Hope's father's wishes that the Potowomut estate be purchased as a wedding gift for his newly wedded daughter. By all accounts, Hope was kind and caring woman, using her wealth and position within society to help those in need. In the 1856 American Journal of Education, by Henry Barnard, LL.D., Hope Brown is described in the most glowing of terms,

To the tenderest sympathy for every form of suffering, and a humility which none but those who knew her well would have conceived possible ; she united that fearlessness of danger, which is hereditary in her family. During the long years of her widowhood, the labor of her life was beneficence. She seemed to place no other value on money than as it was the means of increasing the happiness of her friends, or of relieving the sorrows of the destitute. Venerated by the public, beloved by the good, and mourned by the widow and the orphan; at the age of eighty-two, on the 21st of August, 1855, an entrance was ministered to her into the everlasting kingdom of her Saviour and her God. [15]

Hope Brown Ives

Meeting House Waterford Crystal Chandelier

Hope's generosity extended into her religious life. A member of the First Baptist Church in Providence, it was Hope who purchased and donated the beautiful crystal chandelier that hangs in the historic Meeting House today. Designed and created by Waterford, it was imported and installed in 1792, a year after the passing of Hope's father, Nicholas. The chandelier, dedicated to Hope's father, was lit for the first time by Hope and Thomas on evening of their wedding. Additionally, "she and her husband, Thomas Poynton Ives, owned a pew in the church for sixty years. But it was not until 1840, when she was sixty-seven years old, that she was baptized. The church had installed a baptistry in the meetinghouse in 1837, but she insisted on an outdoor baptism in the Seekonk River." [16] Hope Brown Ives' medical records create a picture of a woman who struggled with serious health problems throughout the second half of her life. She was believed to have epilepsy, stricken by "attacks" and "seizures." [17] She also suffered from fevers, cardio and spinal pain that often required the potent, opium based medication, laudanum. Despite her many health challenges, Hope lived to see her children and her grandchildren play and grow on her estate. In her will, Hope divided her 800 acres estate and bequeath plats of the property to her children. This included her daughter Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard (1792-1881) who would become the next owner of the Hopelands Estate in 1855.

William Giles Goddard

William Giles Goddard (1794-1846) & Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard (1792-1881)

Upon her passing in 1855, Hope Brown Ives willed that her property be divided among her three children. Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard, Hope's daughter and wife of William Giles Goddard (1794-1846) inherited the property on which the Hopelands homestead stood. In his youth Mr. Goddard was a newspaper editor/owner and in later life a Brown University professor of moral philosophy and belles-lettres. William was a well respected member of the Brown faculty. Upon his passing in 1846, Brown University's president at the time, Francis Wayland expressed that Mr. Goddard's "conversation, sometimes playful, never frivolous, was always instructive, and at time singularly forcible, captivating and eloquent. His tastes were simple and easily gratified; and I think that he preferred a book in his study, or a conversation at the fireside with a friend, to any form of more exciting and outdoor enjoyment."[19] Charlotte raised her five sons and two daughters, travelling between their Providence home on the east side, and the Hopelands Estate. She was active in her community and served on various committees during her life. Upon her death in 1881, the estate was divided among them with son Moses Brown Ives Goddard(1831-1907) receiving Hopelands, the very place his mother, Charlotte, and Grandmother, Hope had spent their lives.

Moses Brown Ives Goddard(1831-1907)

The estate named after his grandmother saw quite a few changes during Moses B.I. Goddard's stewardship. Moses and his wife, Elizabeth Amory Swann Goddard(1843-1918), as was the case with many of the residents of Hopelands, maintained a home in Providence and would often split their time between the estate and the city. Moses was "a lover of the best literature and made a collection of the works of the early English writers."[20] Moses was also an art and music aficionado, and would often travel abroad to enjoy the works of the great composers of the time, and especially enjoyed his annual trips to Bayreuth to attend the music festival developed by the German composer, Richard Wagner, who in 1872 chose Bayreuth and its Margravial Opera House as a festival location. For forty years Moses served as the Treasurer for the Butler Hospital and was also the president of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company. An interesting anecdote shared by descendant, Katherine Goddard during her visit to Hopelands in 1998. Ms. Goddard shared, "Moses Brown Ives Goddard arrived at Hopelands from Providence every Friday. He would always, whether he had guests or not, have one particular meal, 'Fish Dinner' which had become a family tradition. Prepared a bit like a boiled dinner: fish, carrots, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, beets and cream sauce. The idea is to mush it all together!" Mr. Ives Goddard clearly enjoyed his Friday suppers at the Hopelands estate. Moses was also a philanthropist who is probably best known for his support of Butler Hospital and Brown University. It was Mr. Goddard who donated the bronze replica statue of Caesar Augustus to the university, which is still on the campus today. An avid horticulturalist, Moses used his estate to grow "choice fruits and flowers."[21] His deep interest in Rome and Italian life paired with his love for the arts helped reshape the Hopelands Estate. It was Moses who added the north ell, with its modern elevator and hand painted parlor mural. and the grand veranda with its tall Tuscan columns, to the structure c. 1885. He was also responsible for "redecorating the Federal portion of the house in the Colonial Revival Style." [22] Additionally, Moses added several out buildings including a brick kitchen, green houses, barns for livestock and the grand carriage house complete with a weathervane and clock tower. Moses died in 1907 with his wife, Elizabeth, "Lizzie," daughter of Robert Paige & Sarah Corliss (Whipple) Swann., passing eleven years later in 1918.

Elizabeth Amory "Lizzie" Swann Goddard(1843-1918)

Elizabeth served as the Warden of The Masonic Malbone Lodge [23] in Newport. Having no children of their own, the estate remained in the name of Moses' mother, Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard until 1924. "A 1919 a survey of the Hopelands property was recorded at town hall showing the property along Ives Road having been inherited by several of Charlotte’s children and grandchildren. The large expanse of 71 acres of land along the river and bay, including the Hopelands mansion, remained as part of the Charlotte R. Goddard Estate for 38 years after her death."[24]In 1924, the property was passed to Charlotte Ives Goddard Danielson Shaw (1863-1942) Moses B.I. Goddard's niece, (the daughter of his brother, Francis W. Goddard), Charlotte Rhoda Ives Goddard's grand daughter and Hope Brown Ives and Thomas Poynton Ives' great granddaughter.

Moses Brown Ives Goddard

Elizabeth Amory Swann Goddard

Robert Newton Shaw

Charlotte Ives Goddard Danielson Shaw (1863-1942) & Amos Lockwood Danielson (1864-1918) & Robert Newton Shaw (1873-1940)

In 1924, Charlotte Ives Goddard Danielson Shaw, the daughter of Francis Wayland & Elizabeth Cass (Ledyard) inherited the Hopelands Estate. Charlotte married twice, first to Amos Lockwood Danielson with whom she had a son, Henry Ledyard Danielson. Henry, born in 1888 was described as "an invalid and in his mother's care."[25] Charlotte was described as "the belle of society in Newport," in her early years. She was listed in the Third Record Book of the National Society of Colonial Dames, Rhode Island, 1898 - 1907. Her marriage to the wealthy Providence mill owner did not last, and 1898 Charlotte divorced her husband claiming, "on the ground of non support."[26] A year after her divorce From Mr. Lockwood, Charlotte married Robert Newton Shaw of New York. Her son, Henry, passed away soon after in 1902 at the tender age of 11. Charlotte and Robert were living on 7th Street in Manhattan. At that time, Robert is a New York City Banker. While in possession of the Hopelands Estate/Farm, Goddard purchased most of the 71 acres on which Hopelands sat by buying out many of her heirs. Records indicate that throughout her time at Potowomut, Hopelands remained a working farm. Records indicate that as late as 1934-1937, cattle was being sold to Charlotte and Robert. An article in The Providence Journal dated April 21, 1938, "Spungin Case Begins," states that a cattle farmer named Abraham Spungin filed a lawsuit in which he "testified that a balance of $2118.68 was due from the defendant (Robert N. Shaw) who operates the Hopelands Farm in Potowomut. Mr. Spungin won that case and was awarded the full damages.[27] In the 1940 Rhode Island Census, Robert is listed as the "manager" of the Potowomut Farm. [28] and lists the value of the home as $30,000. Interestingly, the census has no record for his wife, Charlotte, and only lists the other resident in the home, Robert's niece, 47 year old Agnes Newman. It can be assumed that Charlotte was residing at their home in New York City. In 1940, upon the death of her second husband, Robert N. Shaw, Charlotte Ives Goddard Danielson Shaw formed the "Ledshaw Corporation." Ledshaw was a combination of her mother's maiden name, Ledyard, and her second husband's surname, Shaw. This corporation managed the property until it was purchased by Old Colony Homes in 1946. It was in 1941 that Potowomut property began its transformation from a farm to a school when Mrs. Joann (Jo) King Walpole and her husband, Benjamin "Daddy" Walpole, founders and director of The Narragansett School, were in search for a new location for their school in nearby Apponaug, discovered Hopelands.

Brown Family Tree Indicating Hopelands Estate (incl. Annandale)

BrownTree.pdf

Mrs. Joann "Jo" King Walpole

The Walpoles and The Narragansett School-End of an Era

Jo(ann) King Walpole (1876-1955) & Benjamin Monroe Walpole (1876-ca.1950)

Mrs. Jo King Walpole and Benjamin Walpole were married in March of 1905. They had five children; Benjamin, Kenlowgh, Beverly, Elizabeth and Robert. Mr. Walpole was born in South Carolina and became an electrician. By 1940 he was the Proprietor and President of the National Gas Furnace Co. in Providence, and once the The Narragansett School for Maladjusted Children, founded by his wife in 1924, relocated to the Hopelands Estate, he became the treasurer for the school.[29] It was located on 1115 Greenwich Avenue in Apponaug, and after a fire damaged a large portion of the structure ca. 1940, Walpole petitioned the Town of Warwick for, and was granted, an "unlimited variation under the zoning ordinance to conduct the private school." Mrs. Walpole was interested in growing her school of eight boarding students to twenty, and leasing the Hopelands property month-to-month offered her the opportunity to do just that. It was at this time that Mrs. Walpole "Mrs. Walpole moved her little group of boys and girls, to whom she gives close personal oversight and instruction, to this beautiful and well equipped home." [30] According to a school brochure ca. 1942, "The Narragansett School was established to give children who have emotional or physical handicaps, an opportunity to develop to the fullest extent of their abilities under conditions best adapted to them." The school is also described as a "school farm, a beautiful private estate bordering on Narragansett Bay, boys and girls have opportunity for Horticulture, Nature Study, Water Sports, Golf, Tennis and Horse-back Riding." [31]

The school appeared to flourish during the years 1941-1948 while the Walpoles leased the Hopelands property from Old Colony Homes Inc./Nazzareno Meloccaro(developer of Garden City in Cranston) which had purchased it from the Ledshaw Corporation in 1941. With the sale of the property to Nathan Hale and Rocky Hill Country Day School, the month-to-month lease that the Walpoles were able to maintain for 7 years came to an end. The Walpoles moved their small school to South County. With the death of Mr. Walpole in the early 1950's, and Jo's health issues, the school was closed and in September of 1955.

Nathan and Lillian Hale ca. 1953

The Hales and Rocky Hill Country Day-A New Beginning

In 1947, Mr. Nathan Hale, owner and director of a quickly growing independent school located on Division Street named Rocky Hill Country Day School by its founder Dorothy Marshall in 1934, was searching for a new campus for his school. He was brought to the Hopelands Estate by Kirkland Gibson, and on August 12, 1948, Mr. Hale purchased the Hopelands property for $35,000. He also leased the adjoining home known as Annandale, a summer home to Mrs. Samuel P0well. The home was constructed ca. 1860 by descendants of the Ives, Goddard and Binney Families. In the decades that followed, the property would continue to change and evolve. New buildings were added to support the growing school and old buildings were razed to make space for change. When colonists first arrived at the peninsula and negotiated with Taccomanan, it had been stewarded by the Narragansett tribe for thousands of years. The new white settlers changed the landscape over a 250 year history period. The Hopelands country estate and farm, owned by wealthy members of the Greene and Ives Families for generations, would metamorphize into a school in 1948.

Nathan Hale (1899-1996)

Nathan Hale was born in Schenectady, New York in 1899. He was the son of Union College English Professor, Edward Everett Hale, a prolific and well-known writer. Nathan's mother, Rose Perkins Hale, was actively involved in the women's suffrage movement. Her election as president of The Votes for Women of Schenectady organization is believed to have made her the first elected official in the state of New York.[32] It is no wonder that her son felt it fitting to name his first new building at his young school after her. Nathan Hale's grandfather was none other than the famous 19th century author and Boston Brahmin, Edward Everett Hale, one of the most popular authors of his time, most noted for his work, "The Man Without a Country" Nathan Hale grew up amongst writers, scholars, artists and social reformers, so there is no wonder that he followed a similar path.

Nathan was a veteran of World War 1 as well as an air raid warden in World War 2. He was a graduate of Union College (1922) and attended Harvard University as well as the Alison K. Cross Art School in Maine. After marrying his wife, Lillian Boynton, the couple moved to England and subsequently to France. Nathan was fluent in French and used his language and writing skills to author two French children's books. The Blue Horse ( Le Cheval Bleu) and The Orange Cow (La Vache Orange), illustrated by Lucile Butel and published in 1963. After three years in England and France, Nathan and Lillian returned to the U.S. in 1939 in order to be closer to family. It was in this year that Nathan accepted the position of Assistant Head of the Rocky Hill School.

Nathan had a vision for the fledgling school and wasted little time in implementing it. Just two years after taking the assistant head position, he purchased the school as a "growing concern" from founder and head, Dorothy Marshall in 1940. By 1942, Nathan had created a successful Camp Rocky Hill summer camp, and by 1948, Rocky Hill Country Day School was a nonprofit institution located on the Hopelands estate. Nathan spent 22 years growing his small school by Narragansett Bay, and by 1962, the school was becoming one of small handful of well respected Rhode Island Independent schools.

As a young boy Nathan experienced speech impediments that made being a young student difficult. Nathan recalls, "I stuttered, you remember. I had my tongue cut when I was ten (frenectomy). I spent three years doing lip and tongue exercises."[33] These experiences helped Nathan to better understand the needs of his students. He spent the entirety of his teaching career exploring new and innovative teaching practices always with an eye to supporting each and every student with whom he worked. He was also firm believer in the progressive Country Day movement of his day, and the Potowomut campus provided the outdoor learning and exploring environment that he felt was so critical to a child's intellectual and social emotional growth. In an interview, Nathan shares his philosophy for life, "You can't be bothered with things you cannot do anything about (sic)."[33] There was nothing Nathan wasn't willing to do in the name of improving and growing his school.

In his time at Rocky Hill, Nathan was a bus driver, a handyman, a fund raiser, a teacher, and an administrator, just to name a few. He showed himself willing to take investment risks to support his school. Going so far as to borrow money from his extended family and friends in order to secure the purchase of the Potowomut property. In his own words Nathan relates, "I got $2,000.00 from parents. I got $1,000.00 from my brother out in Wyoming. I got $6,500.00 with a week to go but no one would give me the extra $500.00. In New London I had an old aunt who was in her eighties She said, 'Nathan, I cannot do very much, but if you are in a corner, come and see me.' She made me out a check to the school for $500.00."[34] It would be this $500.00 from an "old aunt" from New London that helped Nathan cover the initial $7,000.00 down payment for the Hopelands estate much t0 the surprise of many in the community.

After resigning from Rocky Hill after 22 years, Mr. Hale moved to his summer home on the Damariscotta River. For many years he was the volunteer director of the Old Maine Cemetery Association's "Sur Name Project." He was an avid golfer, and was at one time the senior champion at the Wawenoc Country Club in Walpole, Maine. He was a charter member of the former Twin Villages Yacht Club in Newcastle." Nathan and Lillian had two sons, Nathan Hale of New York City, and Christopher Hale of Concord, Mass. They also had five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.[35]

Nathan Hale, 1954

A thoughtful, handwritten note

Rose Perkins Hale, ca. 1915

Lillian Hale ca. 1954

Lillian Boynton Hale (1905-2002)

Lillian may have been known as Mrs. Nathan Hale, but she was an accomplished woman and artist in her own right, and it is impossible to imagine Rocky Hill having succeeded without her. Lillian was born and raised in Maine. She attended The Lincoln Academy where she was class valedictorian of her 1923 senior class. Lillian wasted little time after graduating high school, taking a teaching job in a small one-room school house in Edgecomb, Maine. Her teaching time lasted but a year as Lillian chose to develop her artistic ambitions by attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1924. By 1928, Lillian had graduated and was teaching at the school from which she had just graduated. In 1929, Lillian joined the faculty at The Waltham School for Girls as an art teacher. [36]

It was in the summer of 1929 that Lillian moved to a teaching position at the A.K. Cross Art School in Boothbay, Maine. It is here that she met a young Nathan Hale. A year later, in 1930, they were married. Lillian travelled with her husband to Europe and then to Rhode Island and Rocky Hill in 1939 during which time she served as the treasurer for the new school. Lillian, like her husband, enjoyed the 120 acres of pristine coastal meadowlands the Hopelands estate provided. She enjoy photographing the campus and painting the landscapes. Her and Nathan even opened their Hopelands home to a pair of owls whom they affectionately named Mr. and Mrs. Crosspatch. Guests to the home would share how the owls would swoop over their heads while they visited the couple. Their owl friends even made the local newspaper.

Although the majority of Lillian's time was spent tending to the school and her two sons, Lillian also made time for her art, in particular, her painting. Her work was exhibited throughout Rhode Island, New York and Maine as well as the Salon d'Automne of Paris. After retiring to Maine in 1962, Lillian remained active, creating a studio in Newcastle, Maine, conducting painting classes. Lillian's most notable piece, at least to members of her former Rocky Hill, is the portrait of her husband and second head of school that hangs in Hopelands. Lillian passed away on May 27, 2002 at her home in Newcastle, Maine. A sure sign of her love and commitment to the school she helped build, Mrs. Hale requested that all donations in her memory be directed to her beloved Rocky Hill Country Day School.

Interested in learning more about the 84 year history of Rocky Hill Country Day School? Please visit the student-created school archives site by clicking on the RHCD logo.

Click on the images below to enlarge

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Macgunnigle, Bruce W. “Strolling in Historic East Greenwich.” RICentral.com, 7 Jan. 2018, https://www.ricentral.com/east_greenwich_pendulum/strolling-in-historic-east-greenwich/article_39ccdb64-f233-11e7-aed6-bff762a53b35.html.
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“Nathan Hale, 97; Headmaster of Rocky Hill School for 22 Years.” THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL-BULLETIN, 11 Nov. 1996, pp. B-06-B-06.
Hale, Nathan, and Lillian Boynton Hale. “Interview with N.Hale and Lillian Hale.” Rocky Hill Country Day School Archives, East Greenwich, n.d..
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“Nathan Hale, 97; Headmaster of Rocky Hill School for 22 Years.” THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL-BULLETIN, 11 Nov. 1996, pp. B-06-B-06.
“Lillian Boynton Hale-Death Notice.” Brattleboro Reformer, 28 May 2002.

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