East Greenwich Historic Markers Project Completed

[From the editor: A wonderful recent trend in the Rhode Island history scene has been the placement of historic markers in towns across the state. Historic markers bring back to life the history of towns in a publicly accessible way, often in areas where historic buildings still exist. An impressive recent historic marker project was just completed by the town of Richmond, which placed historic markers on the Richmond Heritage Trail (on Country Acres Road, across from the Meadow Brook Golf Course). Wilcox Park in Westerly and the East Bay Bike Path have long had fine markers, as have the cities of Newport and Providence. (If you are aware of other towns doing the same, please let me know.) The hope is that these articles will inspire other towns and cities to do their own historic marker projects.
In an article on this website posted two weeks ago, Mike Donohue and Tim Cranston (North Kingstown’s terrific historian) explained how Wickford’s ground-breaking historic marker project was accomplished. The main driver of the project was Historic Wickford, Inc. (“HistWick”), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve, protect and celebrate historic Wickford village.
East Greenwich also completed an outstanding, award-winning historic marker project that is the subject of the article below.]

 

How did the East Greenwich Historic Marker Project come about?

The East Greenwich Historic Preservation Society (EGHPS) had long entertained the idea of an interpretive signs project, and in recent years, we were inspired by Histwick’s “Wickford Walk” historical marker program. We felt an increased impetus to act because the town will soon celebrate the 350th anniversary of its founding. Ahead of that milestone in 2027, we wanted to give increased visibility to the town’s rich heritage and in some ways, to bring a modern lens to the public telling of the story of East Greenwich. We kicked off the project in the fall of 2021, and it took two years to complete. The EGHPS paid for all of the signs, their original artwork, the consultants we engaged to assist and has set out a maintenance fund as well. The town of East Greenwich installed the signs in collaboration with the EGHPS.

What were the goals of the Project?

Our goal was to enhance appreciation for the heritage of East Greenwich by illuminating the stories of its inhabitants and historical places. In so doing, we hoped to elevate pride and positive feelings about the town. We also wanted to strengthen the community’s sense of place, both for longtime residents and newcomers to the town. East Greenwich has experienced population growth and bringing forward the multi-faceted story of the town is a deliberate community building activity the EGHPS was honored to facilitate. The stories we tell on the signs touch on all aspects of our collective American story from Native American settlements to colonization, industrialization, treatment of marginalized populations and more.

We also aimed to focus not on one great man or famous person but to some of the many ordinary people that were part of East Greenwich’s story. A splendid example is on our sign discussing the former Kent County Courthouse, now East Greenwich Town Hall, the former Kent County Jail and the cottage industry that grew up in town around those activities, such as for lawyers. On that sign, we illuminate the story of Everlin Parker, a female jailkeeper for the Kent County Jail from the late 1800s to 1920s. She is a rare example of widowed, single mother to two small daughters who also managed the County Jail’s operations and inmates during a time when not many women worked outside the home. Everlin thus stands out as an untold, remarkable story that our project highlighted.

Another sign tells the story of a marginalized population on Scalloptown, which was an area of East Greenwich home to quahoggers, fishermen, people of color and others in what has been characterized as a “shanty town.” While Scalloptown was destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938, the community’s response to this marginalized group is a story that should be remembered.

 

How did you decide how many markers to do and on what topics?

Putting the downtown historic district in our bullseye, we considered the range of potential stories we could tell. We then chose a selection of subjects, focusing on historical breadth and inclusivity. The next step was to identify feasible sign locations and the most enjoyable walking route. Bringing that all together, we created thirteen signs that covered a range of topics: from Indigenous life to colonization to the Revolutionary War to industrialization. In the arc of what the markers cover, they help to tell not only East Greenwich’s story, but also America’s story.

How did you manage cover art for the markers?

Since its establishment in 1967, EGHPS has built a robust archive of photographic assets. From that collection, we selected a few, high-quality images to appear on each marker. Our focus was on capturing the viewer’s attention and drawing them in. On our sign for the East Greenwich Academy, which was originally a private secondary school in East Greenwich from the mid-1800s that was later used as one of the town’s first public high schools, we pored over image choices until we found photographs that included a person of color and a lively group of female basketball players from the early 1900s. In four instances where photography was not available, we commissioned original artwork.
One example of original artwork we commissioned appears on the sign focused on the Indigenous settlement and use of the area (e.g., the Pequot Trail) and what is now known as Post Road. We collaborated with Narraganset artist Dawn Spears to put forward a vision of what the area may have looked like in broad, colorful strokes to give a sense of how the land appeared and was used pre-colonization.

We are fortunate that EGHPS’s archivist, Rachel Peirce, is also a graphic artist. She did all the design work. In developing the overall layout, she established a few unifying elements–common background colors, a consistent header, and a map of sign locations–and employed three separate text sections with crisp headlines to make the information easy for readers to process.
As we designed the signs, we kept in mind that most viewers of our sign would be most attracted to visual images rather than blocks of dense text. Matt Carcieri performed “market research” to determine the most effective type of sign display that did not overwhelm the viewer while at the same time giving the reader several entry points into the material covered by the sign.

Who wrote the text of the markers? Was it vetted by anyone?

The principal writers were Matt Carcieri and EGHPS Vice President Jennifer Suellentrop. They developed each sign in collaboration with subject-matter experts and two paid consultants: Charles Roberts, the director of the Rhode Island Slave History Medallions project, and Lorén Spears, the executive director of the Tomaquag Museum. In addition, we had three reviewers with deep experience in local and state history review the text: town historian Bruce MacGunnigle, EGHPS board member Gloria DePaola, and Rhode Island Roots magazine editor Cherry Bamberg. We adhered to a strict word limit for each piece of text to avoid dense word clusters that could hinder a viewer from engaging with the material. We deliberately put forward a writing style that was accessible to any reader in a “plain English” manner and labored over word choice to this end.

Would you like to add anything else that readers should know about the Project?

The project has been very well received by the community. At launch, the comments on social media were universally positive, and on any given day, people can be seen studying the signs. Each month, dozens of people pick up a trail map. Trail maps are available at the sign in front of East Greenwich Town Hall. We also have maps available online at eghps.org. We are also proud to have won a Rhody Award for Community Engagement in Historic Preservation, which is a juried award that Preserve RI has established.