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Fox Hill Farms

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Mid-18th century; wing, mid-20th century. 994 Fort Getty Rd.
  • Eastern gambrel side of farmhouse (Abby Jenkins)

On the peninsula is the remnant of another large colonial farm. Originally owned by the Arnold family, it eventually passed to Benedict Arnold, father of the famed Revolutionary patriot-traitor of the same name, who bequeathed the farm to two nephews at his death in 1733. Two mid-eighteenth-century farmhouses mark this division. The Jonathan Law Farmhouse is another five-bay shingled house with gable roof, off-center chimney, and ell, its openings plainly framed in the manner of the Thomas Watson farmhouse ( JA7). The second, named for the principal topographical feature at the northern end of Beavertail, is gambrel-roofed and may incorporate within it part of the original farmhouse mentioned in Benedict Arnold's will. It is privately owned, but the fields and walls sloping down to the bay can be viewed from the road.

Fox Hill Farm is of interest also as the twentieth-century home of the Sydney Wrights, who added the Neo-Colonial wing as both complement and foil to the ancient relic coupled to it. Catherine Wright, born Catherine Wharton Morris, granddaughter of Joseph Wharton, was a writer, painter, and philanthropist whose benefactions included Jamestown's Philomenian Library.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Fox Hill Farms", [Jamestown, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-JA17.

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