Clouds Hill Farm and House Museum

Long promised pictures of Clouds Hill Farm in Warwick, RI. I first talked about the house museum here. There are fewer than I thought I had, but, oh well.

First is a shot of the North face of the property. One of the things I found so interesting about the house is that it is made of stone. Normally a house in this style is made of wood.


This is not the entrance of the property, the east facing side is. Sited on a hill, it was difficult to catch that angle of the house. The house looks down to busy Post Road and condos now with plenty of water views, but I can only imagine how stunning the view was when the house was first built and nothing was in the way.


The property features working horse stables and has a pony as well. The property is also a prime turkey habitat. I saw numerous turkeys roaming wild throughout my afternoon there.

I got to see the house for free through Preserve Rhode Island's Thresholds: Step Inside History. Clouds Hill Farm was one of 23 properties listed. The event is being held again this year with some of the same properties as last year and many new ones as well. On May 9th from 11:00 to 3:00, 26 Rhode Island properties will have free admission. Click here to go to the event poster for a list of participating properties.

Clouds Hill is not on the list this time, but is worth the price of admission.

Free House Museum Event in Rhode Island

I received this in my email today from Preserve Rhode Island. It is an announcement about an event across the state in which certain house museums will open their doors for free. The event is called Thresholds: Step Inside History and will be held on Saturday, May 9, 2009 from 11:00am - 3:00pm.

They first held this event last year around the same time and I happily took my mom (this is the day before Mother's Day) to Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum in Warwick, Rhode Island. I had wanted to view this house because it has such an interesting history and remained in the hands of the original owner's descendants. It was turned into a museum because the remaining descendant had no children and she wanted the property to be taken care of. The house was built in 1872 and was home (in 1931) to the first female fire chief in the world. The engine house (and fire truck!) from the volunteer fire company she formed is still on the property as are some barns with horses and ponies. Wild turkeys also roam the area. I have pictures of the house somewhere on my computer which I will post when I find them.

I am happy to see that this year the event is an hour longer than last year running from 11:00 to 3:00 instead of 12:00 to 3:00. Maybe I'll be able to get to more than one place this year (there are 23 properties participating). This year I'm torn between going to the Paine House Museum in Coventry, Rhode Island and the Old Jamestown Windmill in Jamestown, Rhode Island. They are in very different parts of the state, so I don't think that I could get to both even with the added hour.

I will post about this event again as the date gets closer, any of these properties are well worth a visit.