Calendar of Upcoming Events

Trunk or Treat
Date and time TBD
Foster Fairgrounds

The Foster Preservation Society will participate in the Trunk or Treat event at the Foster Fairgrounds.  Come in costume and visit our table where we will be passing out treats and cider.

Bright Night 2025

Date and time TBD

Foster Fairgrounds

The Foster Preservation Society will be participating in the Town-wide Bright Night and Tree lighting celebration.  Santa will be lighting the tree at 6:00 pm, followed by pictures, crafts, and treats.

PAST EVENTS with pictures

There is a charge of $10 per person for non-members, children under 12 free.  Members are free and people who join at the event will have their membership extended through September 2026.

See below for EVEN MORE of our PAST EVENTS.

September Membership meeting

From One Room School House to Victorian Fantasies: RI Schools through the 1890's.

Monday, September 8, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Benjamin Eddy Building

6 South Killingly Road, Foster, Rhode Island

Anne Holst from Warwick's Clouds Hills Museum will be presenting

From One Room School House to Victorian Fantasies: Rhode Island Schools through the 1890's.

June Membership meeting

Monday, June 9, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House

Howard Hill Road, Foster, RI 

Our guest speaker on this evening was Gail Lawson who addressed the process she undertook when restoring her antique home on Mill Road. 

Tag Sale

Saturday, May 17, 2025 from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm

Johnston Historical Society

101 Putnam Pike, Johnston, Rhode Island

The Foster Preservation Society will be setting up a table at the Tag Sale being held at the Johnston Historical Society this coming Saturday.  Stop by and see what treasures you might find.

Bright Night 2024

Friday, December 6, 2024 @ 5:30 pm

Foster Fairgrounds

The Foster Preservation Society will be participating in the Town-wide Bright Night and Tree lighting celebration.  Santa will be lighting the tree at 6:00 pm, followed by pictures, crafts, and treats

Christmas Sale

Saturday, November 16, 2024 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm

Foster Town House

The Foster Preservation Society will be hosting a Christmas Sale on November 16th where we will be offering many holiday items on sale.  In addition, there will be a number of craft vendors present as well as the author Ray Wolf who will be there to sign books and offer his collection of Christmas gifts.

Foster Old Home Days

July 26, 27, and 28, 2024

Foster Fairgrounds

Click here for more information on Old Home Days.

Clayville Cemetery Cleanup with Monument Maintenance and Repair Demonstrations

Saturday, May 18, 2024 10:00 to 1:00 pm

Tree Lighting
Friday, December 3, 2021 at 6:00 pm

Foster Town House/Fairgrounds
Tree lighting ceremony will be held at 6:00 pm.

The Foster Preservation Society will be participating in this holiday event.  Enjoy a visit from Santa, hot chocolate, warm cider, holiday treats, music, and arts & crafts.  Hang a hat gloves or mittens on the Holiday Giving Tree.  See you there.

Genealogy Presentation

Tuesday, September 24, 2019 at 6:00 pm

Glocester Library

By Kathleen Lambert, President of the Roger Williams Association.

Salem Witch Tour

Preservation Society day trip to Salem, Massachusetts

Thursday October 19, 2017

 Come join in the fun in Salem, MA as the city celebrates its most festive time of the year, HALLOWEEN!  The cost is $100 per person and includes: round-trip charter bus transportation to Salem, admission to the House of Seven Gables, admission to the Salem Witch Museum, and lunch at Red's Sandwich Shop is included as well.  The bus will LEAVE Foster at 8:00 am from the Foster Preservation Society Office parking lot abutting the Old Town House at 180 Howard Hill Road Foster, RI.  We expect to arrive back in Foster by 5:00 pm.

November Membership meeting

Showing of the film: "Stories In Stones"

Monday, November 14, 2016 at 7:00 pm

Hemlock Village Community Room

Foster Center Road, Foster, RI 

Stories in Stones a film by Marc Levitt (Storyteller, Educator, Radio Host, Filmmaker) is the first film that looks at the Narragansett wall building tradition from multiple perspectives, artistic, spiritual, multi-generational and as a story of tribal affirmation.  This is a joint presentation sponsored by the Foster Preservation Society and the Libraries of Foster.

Preservation Society day trip to NEW YORK CITY

Thursday October 20, 2016

We will be visiting the National September 11th Memorial and Museum for a self guided tour.  The cost is $115 per person and includes: round-trip charter bus transportation to New York City and admission to 9/11 Museum.  The bus will LEAVE Foster at 7:00 am from the Foster Preservation Society Office parking lot abutting the Old Town House at 180 Howard Hill Road Foster, RI.  We expect to arrive back in Foster by 10:00 pm.

November Membership meeting

Slide Presentation of Society Images

Monday, November 9, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Hemlock Village Community Room

Foster Center Road, Foster, RI

 Some of the images to be shown on this evening are unidentified, so why not come by and see if you can assist …

Discover Foster – GPS Scavenger Hunt

Saturday - October 3, 2015 - 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Starts at the Foster Town House 181 Howard Hill Road

The Foster Preservation Society is sponsoring a "Discover Foster - GPS scavenger hunt to locate historical sites throughout Town using GPS coordinates.  A reward will go to those who find all of the locations.

We are not sending anyone into the forest or down a cart path.  You can use the GPS in your auto, a hand held unit, or a smart phone with GPS capability.  While all locations are along a road, you may have to look around for the clue.  Everything will be spelled out on the entry form.  The idea is to see Foster.  There will be ten selected locations, with nine being given out at the beginning of your tour and the tenth being dependent on clues gathered at the first nine locations.  Upon completion, return your entry to the designated location and it will be entered in a drawing for a $100 cash prize.

Entry is simple, stop at the Town House at the start of the event, between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. on October 3, 2015, entry fee is $25 (individual or team).  You will receive a Jerimoth Hill Tee Shirt and a list of nine GPS coordinates.  Follow the provided GPS coordinates in any order you wish, picking up the clue for the final destination and taking a photo of a member of the team/individual wearing the tee shirt, or with the shirt staged for the photo, with the site as background.  Return the entry form before 4:00 p.m. to the designated location.  The course should be easily completed in two hours but we hope you take your time and explore a little.  Pack a lunch and have a picnic or stop at one of Foster’s restaurants for lunch, enjoy the fall air and travel at a leisurely pace.  This is not a race…

September Membership Meeting

Breakfast With The Board

Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 9:00 am

Saturday, October 20, 2018 at 9:00 am

Saturday, September 16, 2017 at 8:30 am

Saturday, September 17, 2016 at 8:30 am

Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 8:30 am

Saturday, September 20, 2014 at 8:30 am

Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 8:30 am

 Foster Center Baptist Church Hall

Breakfast is free to all members whose dues are paid current.  Guests are welcome for a small fee.  Children under 8 free.

The FPS Office/Museum (located in the basement of the Town House) will be open for visitors following breakfast.  This was also the date for the "All Town Yard Sale" (2014-2017) at the Town House Grounds. So plan to stick around!  Members of the Board will be available throughout the morning to make it easier to ask questions about current and planned programs and to make suggestions to assist us in meeting the needs of our members.  We need to get your assessment of how we’re doing and what you think we could do to improve the Society.

June Membership meeting

"Restoration and Care of Grave Stones"

with Betty Mencucci, President of Burrillville Historical Society

Monday, June 15, 2015 at 7:00 pm

Hemlock Village Community Room

Foster Center Road, Foster, RI

 On this evening we will also host our biennial election of Officers.

Clayville Cemetery Clean-up

Tuesday, May 26, 2015 AND Thursday, October 8, 2015

Friday, October 9, 2015 AND Friday, October 16, 2015 AND Thursday, November 5, 2015

 All days starting at 10:00 am

    Students from the Met School in Providence will be visiting Foster to assist in our clean up the Clayville Cemetery.

We can use all of the support we can arrange as the students, while enthusiastic, are not allowed to use some types of equipment (i.e., chainsaws), so some adult assistance is required.  We could also use a truck or shredder to deal with the brush that will be cut down, as there is no good place to build a brush pile at the cemetery.  This is a big project.  Any help will be welcome.

30th Annual Rhode Island Statewide Historic Preservation Conference

Saturday, April 25, 2015 in Chepachet Village

Please note that there will be a specific tour of Foster as described below:

      Tour B9 - Country Life and Community Life in Foster BUS TOUR*

Saturday April 25, 2015  2:00 – 3:15 pm

Jess Pykosz, Farm Manager, Borders Farm Preservation, Inc. and Ed Robinson, President, Foster Preservation Society

This tour connects the story of individual families whose farms were scattered across the countryside to the villages where they gathered to eat and to drink, to worship, to learn, to shop, and to govern.  We start with a visit to a 200-acre, 19th-century farmstead donated by the Borders family to a non-profit that works the land, hosts public programs, and preserves the property in perpetuity.  Then we visit the village hamlet of Foster Center which developed in the late 18th century and continues to serve as the focus of community and civic life.

Discover Foster – GPS Scavenger Hunt

Saturday - October 18, 2014 - 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Starts at the Foster Town House 181 Howard Hill Road

The Foster Preservation Society is sponsoring a Foster scavenger hunt to locate sites throughout Town using GPS coordinates.  A reward will go to those who find all of the locations.

We are not sending anyone into the forest or down a cart path.  You can use the GPS in your auto, a hand held unit or a smart phone with GPS capability.  While all locations are along a road, you may have to look around for the clue.  Everything will be spelled out on the entry form.  The idea is to see Foster.  There will be ten selected locations, with nine being given out at the beginning of your tour and the tenth being dependent on clues gathered at the first nine locations.  Upon completion, return your entry to the designated location and it will be entered in a drawing for a $100 cash prize.

Entry is simple, stop at the Town House at the start of the event, between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. on October 18, 2014, entry fee is $25 (individual or team).  You will receive a Jerimoth Hill Tee Shirt and a list of nine GPS coordinates.  Follow the provided GPS coordinates in any order you wish, picking up the clue for the final destination and taking a photo of a member of the team/individual wearing the tee shirt, or with the shirt staged for the photo, with the site as background.  Return the entry form before 4:00 p.m. to the designated location.  The course can be easily completed in two hours but we hope you take your time and explore a little.  Pack a lunch and have a picnic or stop at one of Foster’s restaurants for lunch, enjoy the fall air and travel at a leisurely pace. This is not a race…

Bus Trip to Strawbery Banke

in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Bus will leave the Foster Town House at 8:00 am and will be leaving Portsmouth at 4:00 pm.  $65.00 includes Transportation and admission to the Strawbery Banke museum grounds.  Lunch will be on your own.

April Membership meeting

Swamp Yankees and School Committees: Education in Rhode Island from the Colonial Era to the Gilded Age

with Mark Gardner

Monday, April 14, 2014 at 7:00 pm

Hemlock Village Community Room

Foster Center Road, Foster, RI

Arguments over education in Rhode Island are nothing new.  Find out what the controversies were from the arrival of Roger Williams through the end of the 19th century.

April Membership Meeting and Open House

Making Maple Syrup

with Foster Residents Bill and Susan Tabor

Monday, April 8, 2013 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House (DOWNSTAIRS)

The FPS Office and Archives will be also open to the public on this evening.

Old Burial Grounds - Foster

History and Humour

Saturday, September 29, 2012

9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Similar to our previous "Barn Tours", the Foster Preservation Society will be sponsoring a self-guided tour of approximately seven of Foster's Cemeteries which are of historic interest.  Preservation Society docents will be stationed at each stop to explain the history, recount the interesting facts, and show the highlights of each cemetery.  In addition, actors from Swamp Meadow Community Theater will be at the various cemeteries to portray individuals of historical note and perhaps share a story or two.

Tickets will be sold at the Foster Town House - 180 Howard Hill Road, on the day of the tour:  $10.00 / adult; children 12 and under are free.

September Membership Meeting

How Federal Hill Got Its Name

(or: "How Foster Influenced the Naming of Federal Hill")

Dr. Anthony Bruzzesse

Monday, September 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House

Learn how western Rhode Island, the Country Party of 1788, and the citizens of Foster in particular, affected the naming of Providence's Federal Hill during the debates surrounding the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

June Membership Meeting

Preservation Society Picnic

Sunday, June 24, 2012 starting at 1:00 pm

This year instead of our traditional indoor meeting, the Foster Preservation Society is planning to hold a Pot Luck Picnic to be held at the Woody Lowden Recreation Center on Howard Hill Road.  Both Members and Non-members are welcome.

There is no admission charge but please bring your own beverages as well as a prepared dish to serve no more than eight people.  Everyone is invited, rain or shine, we'll have use of the inside of the building.  During the day we will be hosting a Bocce tournament.  Trophies will be awarded to the winners.

 Feel free to bring a friend ... We'll see you there.

April Membership Meeting

Restoration of Historic Cemeteries

Monday, April 9, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House.

Did you know that Foster has 153 known cemeteries?  Did you know that Foster has more cemeteries than Glocester, Smithfield or Burrillville?  Who takes care of these Historic remnants of our past?

The Foster Preservation Society is pleased to have Don Burns, Lonnie Thurber, and George "Skip" Tuekten of the Friends of Smithfield Cemeteries join us at our April Membership Meeting to discuss what they are doing in their town and demonstrate some of the restoration techniques they employ.  Please join us to hear about their Adopt-a-Cemetery program to provide care for these memorials to our ancestors. Most of our small family plots do not have perpetual care arrangements. The Foster Preservation Society is engaged in locating and documenting them. This is the first step in a multi part plan to restore them.

February Membership Meeting

Ghost Hunt Results  AND  Images of America

Monday, February 13, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House

 At this special meeting there will be two speakers:

Ghost Hunt Results - First, John Austin and the team from G.h.o.s.t. will be presenting the findings of the Foster Town House ghost hunt which took place on November 11, 2011.  On that cold night (49 degrees), GHOST investigators blanketed the building with infrared motion detectors, audio recorders, electromagnetic field gauges, and temperature sensors in the hopes of capturing some evidence of paranormal activity.  Tonight we will learn what they found.  in the meantime you may read the Observer article from 11/30/2011 on our NEWS page.  AND ...

Ray Wolf will be presenting his new "Images of America" book on the Town of Foster, RI 

September Membership Meeting

Ancient Indian Peoples of New England: An Archaeologist's  Perspective

with Alan Leveillee

Monday, September 12, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House

Archaeologists have found evidence of Indian peoples spanning 11,000 years occupying what we now call New England. What do human remains and artifacts tell us about these early residents of North America? What is their relation to present-day Native American tribal groups? Learn about what archaeological sites reveal about life in this region several millennia before the arrival of European colonists.
 

Alan Leveillee is an anthropologist and archaeologist dedicated to sharing archaeological research with non-specialist audiences. Having worked in cultural resource management for more than 20 years, he currently serves as a principal investigator and Director of Educational Programs at the Public Archaeology Lab, a non-profit consulting firm, and as the Rhode Island statewide network coordinator for the Education Committee of the Society of American Archaeology. He presents papers and publishes regularly and serves on the  advisory boards of four area museums: the Sydney L. Wright Museum, The Robbins Museum, The Museum of Primitive Art and Culture, and the Nathan Fisher House.

This Program was offered through the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

Paine School Tour of the Town

April 14, 2011 -- April 2014

3rd Foster Barn Tour: Better Barns Old and New

Saturday, September 11, 2010

 Self guided tours of the following Barns:

 Greene Barn   -   Paine-Bennet Barn   -   Red Rock Farm

Campbell Barn   -   Bartel Farm   -   Paine Barn   -   Shippee Farm

Annual Plant and Yard Sale

5th - Saturday May 23, 2009

Held at the Joshua Jones House, Mt. Hygeia Road.

4th - Saturday May 31, 2008

  Held at the South Foster Fire Station.

3rd - June 2, 2007

  Held at the South Foster Fire Station (See pictures at the top of this page).

2nd Foster Barn Tour: Better Barns and Garden Tour

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Self guided tours of the following Barns and Gardens:

Nordland Farm   -   Campbell Barn and Garden   -   DeMerchant Garden

Moffat/Riccio Garden   -   Paine-Bennet Barn   -   Merriman Barn and Garden

Grass Farm Barn   -   Paine Barn   -   White's Garden   -   Colwell Farm

Stone by Stone

March 13, 2007 at 7:00 pm

Chopmist Senior Center

The Preservation Society joined the Foster Conservation Commission in a regional program hosted by the Scituate Conservation Commission.  University of Connecticut Professor of geology, Robert Thorson, spoke about the loss of New England stone walls and signed his book entitled The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls.

 Foster Barn Tour

Saturday, August 12, 2006

The Foster Preservation Society is pleased to partner with property owners, stewards of these cultural assets, to encourage awareness, preservation and/or continuing reinterpretation of Foster’s agricultural heritage.

Barns and outbuildings are Foster’s most endangered species. They are an all too often overlooked and important part of the Town’s rural character and are especially vulnerable because maintenance costs and property taxes make them seem a luxury to preserve. Today in Foster only a handful of properties survive which can be termed historic farm complexes. The continuing loss of outbuildings alters irrevocably the present appearance and past record of the community.

Foster RI Statewide Historical Preservation Report, P-F-1

Cherished Possessions: A New England Legacy

November 14, 2005 at 7:00 pm

Foster Town House

Nancy Carlisle, Curator of Historic New England (formerly the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities - SPNEA) will offer a slide presentation and lecture relating to poignant tales of both famous and forgotten players in New England's story.

Cherished Possessions, an exhibit that has travelled to museums around the United States, showcases 175 objects that provide entry points into history, recounting tales of childhood and family, depicting a nation deeply divided by war, and describing lives of poverty and affluence.