At the start of
the Twentieth Century, Conanicut Island's economy
continued to be driven by agriculture and summer
recreation as well as construction and operation
of coastal defense installations. Nineteenth
Century industrial development, which had changed
living and working patterns throughout New
England, had totally bypassed Conanicut Island;
largely because of the lack of water power.
Military
Construction in the First Two Decades
Between 1900 and 1905,
Fort Grebel, on Dutch Island, added Batteries
Ogden, Sedgwick and Mitchell . In 1900, the War
Department bought 31 acres for Fort Getty and
fortifications were quickly erected. On the
eastern side of the island, summer homes were
condemned near Fort Dumpling to establish Fort
Wetherill, which was built between 1902 and 1907.
This new fort replaced Fort Dumpling and
incorporated its land. In 1909, a portion of
Gould Island was purchased by the Govenment.
Then,
for almost a decade, construction ceased and the
various island fortifications were disused; only
to be reactivated during World War I. Between
1916 and 1921, more land was acquired at Prospect
Hill, near the Conanicut Battery site, for
establishment of an observation and fire control
station. The Government also
purchased the remainder of Gould Island in 1918
and established a torpedo station and test
facility.
Then,
as was the case a decade earlier, at the end of
the war the Conanicut Island fortifications fell
into disuse.
Life
in Jamestown - The First Four Decades
In 1903, Jamestown
was a bustling resort with nine hotels. The
Bay
Voyage had a capacity of 75 guests; Champlin
House, 75; Thorndike Hotel, 250; Gardner House,
300; Bay View, 200; Prospect House, 50; Tennant
Cottage, 25; Allen Cottage, 30; and the Bay View
Annex, 50.
To better accommodate visitors and
cross-bay travelers, a new ferry boat, the Governor
Carr, began to serve the route between
Jamestown and Newport in 1927.
The golden age of large
resort hotels was brief in Jamestown and
elsewhere. Patronage began to decline in the
nineteen-twenties as wider ownership of
automobiles made more vacation choices available
to greater numbers of travelers. The
decline of large hotels was rapid. As an example
of the change from boom to bust, when the Thorndike
Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1912, it was
rapidly rebuilt. But the new Thorndike survived
only until 1938, when it was demolished due to
the combined effects of changing vacation
preferences and the overall decline of
discretionary spending during the Depression.
 |
|
 |
The
Thorndike Hotel: 1889-1912 |
|
The
Thorndike: 1913-1938 |
In 1938 a major
hurricane caused much property damage and the
loss of more than 300 lives in the Narragansett
Bay region. It swept much of the sand from the
Mackerel Cove beach and destroyed its popular
Beach Pavilion. It also speeded approvals for a
bridge to Saunderstown by destroying the West
Ferry docks.
Change
Accelerates - The Forties through the Eighties
 |
The first Jamestown Bridge
opened in the summer of 1940, replacing
West Ferry service with a continuously
available link to the western mainland.
At that time, the population of Jamestown
was about 1750. The bridge was almost
7000 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 135
feet above high water. It led to an
acceleration of development in the
northwestern part of the island (although
most of the impact was delayed until
after World War II ended).
|
In 1941 the Gardner House, one of the
larger hotels, was taken down after being
idle for several years.
A few months
after demolition of the Gardner House, a USO
building was constructed on its site.
(After the war, the building was
purchased by the town and is now known as
the Community Center. It was extensively
landscaped and remodeled in 2002.)
|
 |
World
War II brought establishment or
reactivatation of military bases around
Narragansett Bay, including Forts Getty
and Wetherill on Conanicut Island,
Fort Greble on Dutch Island, a torpedo
factory on Goat Island and a
torpedo station on Gould Island. It also
brought a resurgence of shipbuilding to
the Bay area. The Naval buildup
reached its peak, in 1944, when the Navy
had a total of 162,000 military and
civilian Naval employees in Rhode Island!
|
 |
Although most war-related
facilities were decommissioned shortly after
World War II, the military presence in the area
continued to be strong for several decades -
through the Korean War, the Cold War and Vietnam.
Several major Naval commands remain in the
area, all located on Aquidneck Island: the Naval
War College; the Naval Education and Training
Center, with its Officer Indoctrination School,
the Chaplain School, and Surface Warfare Officer
School; and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
 |
Following the war, recreational
boating and boat construction blossomed
in the Narragansett Bay area. Fiberglass
craft gained favor over labor-intensive
wooden-hull boats and more
outboard-powered motor boats appeared on
the Bay. Even so, sail boats continue to
dominate the waters.
Ferry service for
travelers between Jamestown and Newport
reached a new level of comfort and
efficiency with two new ferry boats, the Jamestown
and Newport.
|
In 1969, the Newport (Pell) Bridge was
completed, establishing
Route 138 as a continuous highway from South
County to Newport. Its
construction led to elimination of traditional ferry service.
The bridge is
celebrated on the Rhode Island
commemorative quarters. Its deck is 205
feet above the bay, its towers reach an
elevation of 400 feet and the distance
between the east and west abutments
exceeds two miles. |
 |
The Bay View
Hotel, the last of the very large hotels that
were a mainstay of Jamestown's
economy in 1900, ceased operation in the 1960s.
In 1975, a portion of the building was converted
to commercial space. When no viable plan could be
found to renovate and reopen the hotel, the
building was demolished in 1985.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Click the link
below for the final installment of this history
narrative
The
Twentieth Century - Part II
The
1990s to the Present - The Challenge to Island
Identity
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Or go directly to other topics:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jamestown
RI - Rhode Island Visitor Information Home Page
Direct
questions and comments on this site to Webmaster
|