Barrington 300: June Heritage Weekend Tours

Saturday June 17 & Sunday June 18, 2017

• Bus Tours of Neighborhoods, Homes, and Churches

• Historic Prince’s Hill Cemetery Tours

Bus Tours of Neighborhoods, Homes, and Churches

Discover the Alfred Drown, Maple Avenue,
Mathewson Road/Jenny’s Lane, Nayatt Road,
Old Barrington Village, and West Barrington neighborhoods.

Saturday, June 17:
10:00-12:00 pm (Northern loop)
12:15-2:15 pm (Southern loop)
2:30-4:30 pm (Visit inside two 18th-c. homes and the White Church)
Sunday, June 18:
12:00-2:00 pm (focus on Churches)
2:15-4:30 pm (Jenny’s Lane, Tyler Point and Hampden Meadows)

Space is limited. Please reserve a place on one of the 5 Historic Bus Tours by e-mail to bvnedwards@gmail.com. There will be a charge for the bus tour. $10 will buy a button ($5.00 for under 16 and over 60), which is good for every bus tour.

Historic Prince’s Hill Cemetery Tours

Learn about part of Barrington’s heritage, made possible by the contributions of some of the
people buried in Prince’s Hill Cemetery. There are 5 different presentations, so join us
for 1 or all 5 presentations and hear about:

East Bay Roots: Finding Your Family in Barrington and Beyond

Saturday, April 29 2017, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Barrington Senior Center
281 County Rd., Barrington RI

Barrington’s own Nathaniel Taylor will offer a morning workshop on genealogy with an East Bay and Barrington focus. The workshop will cover a range of beginning and intermediate topics, including hands-on presentation of unique and helpful local resources from Barrington Preservation Society record collections.

Topics: Beginning basics; DNA; online sources and organizations; special issues and strategies for Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts; local resources in Barrington.

Free event: Light refreshments (coffee) will be available. Pre-registration is encouraged, by sign-up sheets located at the Town Clerk’s office or the Preservation Museum, or online (by clicking here) at Eventbrite.

Nathaniel Taylor is Editor and Publisher of The American Genealogist, the leading independent journal of genealogy in the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in history and taught medieval and modern history at Brown, Harvard, and elsewhere for twelve years. He speaks in New England and nationally on genealogy and heraldry. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (the nation’s honorary society of the fifty most accomplished living genealogists) in 2011. He is a trustee of the Barrington Preservation Society and has been its President since 2015.

Sunday, January 15, 2017, 12:00 Noon
Bluewater Bar and Grill, 32 Barton Ave., Barrington

Come celebrate the opening of Barrington’s Tricentennial Year with the Barrington Preservation Society! Learn about the Society’s forthcoming book, Barrington (Arcadia Press, Images of America series) and our other activities at our Annual Meeting and Luncheon to be held on Sunday, January 15th, at the Bluewater Grill, Barton Avenue.

We will also honor the Town of Barrington with presentation of this year’s prestigious Elizabeth Sargent Warren Preservation Award in honor of our elected and appointed town officials and their long-term role in preservation of the historic Barrington Town Hall, part of the Barrington Civic Center National Historic District.

2016 Plaque Presentation
featuring Maureen Taylor, Photo Detective

Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 7–9 PM,
Barrington Senior Center (Lower Level of Library)

Sunday, January 10, 2016, 12:00 Noon
Bluewater Bar and Grill, 32 Barton Ave., Barrington

Guest Speaker: Architect Martha L. Werenfels, AIA, LEED AP: “Breathing New Life into Historic Manor Houses: a Look at Three Rhode Island Projects.” Ms. Werenfels will discuss three projects featuring sensitive repurposing and restoration of historic private homes, with special reference to Barrington’s Belton Court, whose proposed renovation as part of a project involving assisted living and elder care is currently before the Barrington Planning Board.

Reservations for the lunch are now closed (as of Thursday, January 7, 2016). The event is fully subscribed. Thank you for your interest.

Sunday, January 11, 2015, at Noon
Bluewater Bar and Grill
(formerly Tyler Point Grill)
Guest Speaker: Russell J. DeSimone

The Dorr War is little known outside Rhode Island but was fought over the right to vote and representation in state government. Find out how losing a war does not always mean the defeat of the ideas that started it! We will also be displaying the pennant that the Barrington Militia carried in the final Dorr War battle at Chepachet.

Russell J. DeSimone is an independent scholar who has spent a lifetime studying Rhode Island history and published several manuscripts including “Broadsides of the Dorr Rebellion” and “The Dorr Rebellion Chronicled in Ballads and Poetry”. He is currently co-historian-in-residence for the Dorr Rebellion Project Site at Providence College.

Guests should pre-pay for lunch, $28 per person, indicating choice of Atlantic haddock, chicken piccata, or pasta primavera, and send payment by check by January 7, 2015 to Barrington Preservation Society, c/o Peggy Mello, 15 Appian Way, Barrington RI 02806.

The Barrington Preservation Society will sponsor its 12th annual Winter Jazz Festival on Friday, December 12, in the Barrington Congregational Church at 461 County Road, at 7:30 pm.

Under the direction of Barbara Hughes, this concert is the first full concert performance of the year by the Barrington High School Jazz Ensemble. Welcoming the holiday season with music, they will perform jazz and seasonal favorites for a near-capacity crowd. Refreshments will be served in the vestry following the concert.

Admission is $5 (free for BPS members), and tickets will be available at the door.

Swim that Rock! BPS presents: Jay Primiano

Wednesday, November 12, 7 PM, Barrington Senior Center (lower level of Peck Library)

Dressed in orange, foul weather gear and carrying a bull rake, Jay Primiano will introduce readers and writers of all ages to his recently-published book Swim that Rock, inspired by summers spent fishing and quahogging on Narragansett Bay.

According to Primiano, everyone has “rocks” or challenges they need to face, and story-telling is a way to deal with those rocks. Primiano and his best friend John Rocco spent the summer of 1982 quahogging together on Narragansett Bay and created a story from that experience of an awkward young man who loses his father at sea, faces financial hardship and discovers his own strength working on the water.

Poet, author and performer Primiano creates characters that take on a life of their own, and charts the action, while John Rocco, a professional illustrator, provides drawings of Narragansett Bay and the tools of the quahogging trade.

Published last year, Swim that Rock is available in local bookstores.

Join the Barrington Preservation Society as we celebrate Barrington’s and Rhode Island’s maritime past with Jay Primiano.

The lecture is free and open to the public and complements the Barrington Preservation Society’s current museum exhibit: Barrington Ship to Shore. The museum (also on the lower level of Peck Library) will be open to the public at the conclusion of the lecture.

Gallery Talk: Thursday, September 4, 2014, 7:00 PM, Barrington Library Auditorium:

Master Shipwright Clark Poston on Restoring Wooden Boats

Clark Poston will describe the process for restoring classic, wooden boats at a lecture on Thursday, September 4 at 7 PM in the Barrington Library auditorium.

Poston trained for seven years at the Mystic Seaport Museum with renowned boat builder John Gardner and then spent two years building and restoring wooden boats on Martha’s Vineyard at Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway before going to Europe as the lead shipwright on the archival restoration of Avel, an 1896 C. E. Nicholson cutter.

Poston then founded the John Gardner School of Boatbuilding in Annapolis, MD before joining the International Yacht Restoration School staff in 1998.

At IYRS, Poston played a key role in the design, development and roll out of three federally-accredited career training programs: a two-year program in wooden yacht restoration, a six-month marine systems program, and a new six-month program in composites technology. He is also responsible for maintaining the important relationship between the school and its industry partners.

The lecture is sponsored by the Barrington Preservation Society and complements its recently opened exhibit: Barrington Ship to Shore. Poston’s talk is free and open to the public.