The following article was published in the Providence Journal on December 10, 2006 as part of a series on local neighborhoods. 

 
‘It was a wonderful place to grow up’  By Christine Dunn Journal Staff Writer
 
Henry A.L. Brown, of Warwick, who is 74, remembers when the Governor Francis Farms subdivision was a family farm — his family’s farm. Even after the first houses were built there in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Brown said, his father’s cows would sometimes wander into the lush backyards of the coastal neighborhood. The property, formerly known as Spring Green Farm, was owned by descendants of Rhode Island Gov. John Brown Francis: Elizabeth and Sally Francis, who adopted their cousin, Brown’s grandmother. She inherited the farm when Sally Francis died in 1904. But the sale history of the land that is now Governor Francis Farms goes back to 1642, when surgeon John Greene bought it from Chief Miantonomo. In 1782, Providence merchant John Brown purchased the property. Henry Brown, a local historian and member of the Warwick Conservation Commission, said after his grandmother died in 1936 that his grandfather, who was trustee of her estate, began to experience pressure to sell. Brown said the housing subdivision started out small. “They were taking a big chance at that time,” he remembered. “They were still suffering from the Great Depression.” But by 1939, the creators of Governor Francis Farms, including landscape architects E.M. Prellwitz and J.D. Graham, who trained with Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., the son of the designer of Central Park in New York City, envisioned what would then be the largest planned suburban development in Rhode Island. Care was taken to retain as many trees as possible, giving the neighborhood a natural beauty that survives today.
 
There are about 800 houses in “The Farms,” which became and remains one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Warwick. In his marketing, developer Roswell Liscomb highlighted his “all-electric houses,” with electric refrigerators, a major step up from ice boxes, and electric stoves. Brown remembers the first lots sold for $450. When Brown’s father was managing the dairy farm, there were cows, hens, chickens and a huge apple orchard. After the houses came, Brown sold eggs to residents and occasionally helped a friend with a paper route. Gertrude Johnson and Mary Wales, the founders of Johnson & Wales University, were on the paper route, on St. George Court. “They were absolutely wonderful,” Brown said. He remembered that “Miss Johnson, ever the schoolteacher,” gave the paperboy a copy of The Red Badge of Courage as a tip one Christmas. “It was always very exciting,” said Brown, who still lives on Spring Green Road in The Farms. “The people up there were like family. There were Christmas parties, all kinds of functions. “It was a wonderful place to grow up. It still is a wonderful place.” “I like the convenience, I like the privacy, and I like to kayak,” said King Philip Circle resident Denis J. Hackman. Hackman travels a lot for his job and likes the proximity to T.F. Green Airport and downtown Providence. Hackman grew up in The Farms, and returned with his wife, Valerie, and their family after a sojourn in Oregon. Hackman’s parents, who are in their 90s, still live in the neighborhood. “I’m living four blocks from where I grew up,” Hackman said. “There are all these connections to the neighborhood — all kinds of Rhode Island stuff,” he said. But the Hackmans, whose children are grown, are planning to sell their 1942 house, and possibly downsize to a condominium.

Asking prices for houses on the market recently in The Farms ranged from $239,900 for a three-bedroom ranch, to $574,900 for a four-bedroom Colonial. Even in today’s cooling housing market, The Farms remains popular, said Al Noviello, a real estate agent with Keller Williams. He said 22 people came to the first open house he held for one of his listings there.

POPULATION: (Warwick, 2000): 85,808 MEDIAN SALES PRICE: (Warwick, 2005) $244,700
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: John Brown Francis Elementary School Aldrich Junior High School Pilgrim High School
INTERESTING FACT: The onetime owner of the Governor Francis Farms property, John Brown Francis, was governor of Rhode Island from 1833 to 1838; he also served in the U.S. Senate and as chancellor of Brown University.

If any of you have some interesting photos or stories about the history of The Farms, we'd love to post them. Email neighbor@mygfna.com