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The 2014 Rhody Warm
NOOSENECK VILLAGE
COLLECTION
from our Lost Village Series
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2014 essay winner Molly Reeves with Roberta Browning, RI Sheep Co-op Corresponding Secretary.
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Long ago, there grew a thriving settlement, called Nooseneck Village, on the banks of two rivers, the Nooseneck River and the Big River. The
settlement began in the early 1800's when David Hopkins, the town's main entrepreneur, built the first mill. After that, he built several mills in
town with his last being in 1867, now called the "Hopkins Mill". This is the only mill that has survived in West Greenwich through the years.
No one knows exactly why this settlement was named "Nooseneck",
although local lore holds that it was named because of an Indian tradition of trapping deer by hanging nooses in trees in the valley and
then driving the deer into them. Times were exciting back then with the general flurry of people going to and from work in the local mills,
shopping at one the three local stores and attending the village events. Rhode Island Route 3 cut thru the center of this village and was the
main highway between New York City and Boston prior to Interstate Route 95 being built. The Nooseneck Inn was busy serving its many
traveling customers as well as locals. This Inn is still a restaurant and bar today, and is proud to be in business for over 100 years.
By 1937, children attended school in the new Town Hall. Yes, that's
true! While the Town Hall was first the center of official business for the town of West Greenwich, there was a large room where the children were taught while their parents worked in the mills. It may
seem strange now, but the town found it a practical use for the space.
But everything is different now: the mills are shut down, many of the
houses are abandoned, the shops are no longer in business, and even the Town Hall is vacant. Much woodland has been harvested for the Big River Reservoir, which was proposed in the 1960's.
About 8,000 acres were taken by eminent domain from approximately 350 landowners. Nooseneck Village and other small
settlements of the Town of West Greenwich were liquidated and families left the town. As it turned out, the Big River Reservoir
was never built. The land was determined to be too sandy and porous for a reservoir and it was determined the project would
ruin almost 600 acres of protected wetlands. People have been known to compare Nooseneck Village to a ghost town, but all it really represents is a Lost Village.
Congratulations to Molly Reeves of Slatersville, who wrote the winning essay for which the 2014 edition of the Rhody
Warm Blanket is named. The narrative above is based on her research and essay on the Nooseneck Village, with editing done by Irene Nebiker and Kevin Breene.
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