HISTORY

Our beautiful home is Fayerweather House, built in 1820 and added in 1984 to the National Register of Historic Places. One of several historic clapboard buildings in the picturesque village of Kingston, Rhode Island, Fayerweather House has two stories constructed around a massive stone chimney. Three rooms on the first floor – each with a fireplace, corner beams and 18-inch floorboards – are open to the public. The “Keeping Room” is dominated by a granite fireplace with a Dutch oven. In the west room hangs our Bicentennial Quilt stitched in 1976 by the founding members of Fayerweather Craft Guild, with thirty colorful panels depicting local landmarks.

Fayerweather House is surrounded by almost an acre of park-like grounds featuring majestic trees, shrubs, and garden plantings typical of the 19th century. The garden is maintained by the Kingston Hill Gardeners, who hold an annual plant sale on the grounds. Next to the house is the original stone well (no longer functional). To the east are some foundation stones and the base of a forge, the only remains of the Fayerweather blacksmith shop, which served the village for the better part of the 19th century.

The story of the Fayerweather family, for whom the house is named, begins with George, a slave of the Reverend Samuel Fayerweather, minister of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wickford. Around 1770, George gained his freedom and adopted, as was customary, his former master’s surname. His son, George, became a blacksmith in the village of Kingston (then called Little Rest, now part of the town of South Kingstown). In 1820 he built a home next to the blacksmith shop for his family, which came to include 12 children. His son, Solomon, took over the blacksmith shop from his father, also becoming sexton of Kingston Congregational Church. Another son, the third George, eventually joined Solomon in the blacksmith business, returning to Kingston from Connecticut in 1855 with his wife, Sarah Harris, a noted abolitionist. Sarah Harris Fayerweather lived from 1812-1878. Her remarkable story appears in John F. Kennedy’s book “Profiles in Courage.” Another Fayerweather son married Hannah Rodman, daughter of Ninigret, sachem of the Eastern Niantics. All told, Fayerweather descendants resided in the original home until the late 1950s.

 In 1962, the Kingston Improvement Association acquired Fayerweather House, which at the time had become derelict. After a community-supported restoration, it became home base for the Fayerweather Craft Guild and its gift shop, open from April through December. In the east room visitors can view an ongoing exhibit of Fayerweather artifacts, including historical photographs, an old blacksmith’s bill, and newspaper clippings about the cottage’s restoration.