Sep 14, 2019 The Casino & Ballfield in Old Buttonwoods, RI. 23 Eighth Ave, Warwick, RI 02886. Ceremony and Reception are located outdoors and there is a walk between the two.FOLLOW SIGNS FOR PARKING Ladies- wear comfortable shoes that won't sink in the grass. We will be by the water, so bring something in case it gets cold in the evening hours. Posts about old buttonwoods casino written by brandonwerth. Never in my 25 years of life on this planet did I ever think I would shoot a wedding in Rhode Island.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Buttonwoods is a neighborhood located inthe West Bay area of Warwick, Rhode Island. The OldButtonwoods section of Warwick was founded as a summer colony in1871 by the Rev. Moses Bixby of Providence’s Cranston StreetBaptist Church, who was looking for a serene vacation retreat forhis congregation. He envisioned a community that would be similarto OakBluffs on Martha’sVineyard, where the Methodists established a summer campgroundin 1835. Today, this coastal neighborhood on Greenwich Bay is hometo people from many different religious backgrounds.
Prior to locating to Cranston, RI in 1870, Moses Bixby spent tenyears as a Christian missionary in Burma and Siam. He founded theFirst Shan Church in Toungoo, Burma in 1862 among the Tai peoplethere (the Shan). This church has survived until modern times andis doing well. As of 2009, there are currently 92 Shan churchesattributed to his efforts to build the First Missionary To TheShan Of Burma
Bixby and his fellow missionaries met with the King of Siam in1862 and obtained his blessing to teach English to the Shan livingin that kingdom. This was the year that Anna Leonowens was introduced to theking and became his Royal governess and English teacher. Localfolklore attributes Bixby to have been the facilitator of thatengagement documented in the book called Anna and The King of Siam.
Missionary records show that Mr. Bixby's assistant was Miss A.R. (Anna) Gage, Bixby's wife's sister. She stayed in Burma andfounded a girls school there in 1873 to teach the Burmese girls theEnglish language. Anna Gage stayed in Burma for many years givingMoses Bixby a family connection to his former mission. See The Baptist MissionaryMagazine, Volume XLVII, Page 272, American Baptist MissionaryUnion, published in 1867and The Golden JubileeReport
When Bixby arrived in Cranston, he linked up with LodowickBrayton. Brayton was a successful industrialist and investor whobought the old Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, said to be the firstchurch in Cranston, in 1866. He set up a Sunday school in thebuilding. This was also the location of the first May Breakfast inRhode Island established one year later by Mrs. Ruby King to raisemoney for a new church. See Lodowick Brayton and thefirst May Breakfast
The Life and Works of MosesBixbyJeannie Bixby Johnson, Silver Burdett and Company,1904,[1] showsthat Bixby founded the Cranston Street Baptist Church in November,1870, upon his return from Burma. Bixby expanded Brayton's Sundayschool into a church of 50 or so members and relocated to CranstonStreet. Within a year, three investors acting as trustees, LodowickBrayton, The Rev. Jonathan Brayton, and Andrew Comstock purchasedthe Buttonwoods campground in Warwick for $10,000.[2] Anearly plat of the campgrounds shows the laying out of 1,026 lots on420 acres of land and a large tabernacle. According to thecartographer, this map 'is advertising the sale of lots in SectionNo. 3.' Rhode Island HistoricalSociety, Call# Map 1393-1394, 1872-1873.
The Buttonwood Beach Association was incorporated in 1872 by aspecial act of the Rhode Island General Assembly. The trusteespassed control of the running of the campground to the association.The association then started selling lots to individuals. Itcontinues to sell lots from time to time and reserves the right tosell additional platted lots.[3]
Many deeds include the provision that owners must first offertheir property back to the association in the event of a sale. Afew owners have refused to pass that provision on to the nextowners.
In A Walking Tour of Buttonwoods Beach, written by Robert O.Jones of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and HeritageCommission, he reports that the “shore bordering the Greene Farmsat Nassauket (actually Baker’s Creek) became a popular destinationfor excursions. Travelers came by steamboat or by wagon overlandfrom the Apponaug train depot. In the 1830s the Kinnecom family, agroup registered with the Narragansett Indian Tribe,[4] startedto hold clambakes on the Greene property, the earliest-known effortto make a commercial success of what had been a long-standing RhodeIsland social and culinary tradition. The vicinity was also afavored place for church outings. The area was first calledButtonwoods at this time, named for the many buttonwood trees thatonce grew here.”[5]
Just how popular the Buttonwoods destination was for the publicin the 1880s is made clear in a representation to the Warwick TownCouncil by John G. Bissell and others regarding the “Road used byButtonwood Beach Ass’n for Horse railroad” on October 18, 1881.Apparently this railroad was being torn up at that time. Bisselland others quitclaimed their interest in this road so that it mightcontinue to be “used by thousands for a carriage road.” Even in theold days there were traffic jams on the roads to the shore, itseems.[6]
The plan for the Buttonwoods site now located at the Rhode Island HistoricalSociety in Providence called for 1,000 or so land parcels to besold to Baptists from around the region.[7]Lodowick joined with his brother Jonathan and with Andrew Comstockto secure the $10,000 in financing for this enterprise. This wouldbe the equivalent of hundreds of millions in today's dollars, alarge real estate development. Much of the cash investment camefrom the Brayton family (railroaders and steel dealers and investorin the Colvin loom.[8] The Panic of 1873 setin shortly after this investment was made and few lots wereactually sold for many years. The campgrounds were resurveyed in1882 into much larger lots, many of remained unsold and werecombined into a large tract of open space in recent years. Braytondied a rich man but his fortunes were much diminished in the realestate deflation that followed the panic. History of Rhode IslandManufacturers
Andrew Comstock, a beef shipper and merchant in Providence andfounder of the Hammond Beef and Provision Company of Hammond,Indiana, Chicago and Omaha was the other significant investor. Heremained a very rich man throughout his life. His Providenceoperation was located at a rail siding in what is now the RogerWilliams National Memorial Park where the original Providencecolony was established.[9] TheHammond Beef companies along with several refrigerator rail carcompanies along with Armour and Company, Gustavus Swift, and Morris Beef Companywerethe subject of the 'Beef Trust' trial of 1910. See Industries and Wealth ofthe Principal Points in Rhode Island
The main interest of these partners was to develop a rail linkfrom Providence to the shore, with Buttonwoods as the terminus.First a horse railway was established and then steam trains wereintroduced. This then became the Suburban Railroad servicing RockyPoint, Oakland Beach, and Buttonwoods. It was wiped out in the 1938hurricane.
This residential neighborhood is small, about 170 houses, andmost of the houses are historic, with many Victorian cottages andlarger shingled bungalows in the Arts and Crafts style. The waterfront alongPromenade Avenue has many mature trees in their streets. Many ofthe original cottages have disappeared over the years, includingthe cottage at Buttonwoods Point, torn down in the 1980s, and theMoses Bixby cottage, which, except for the roof peak on the Westside, was torn down during the real estate boom of the 2000s. Thesewere two of the original cottages at the beach of seeminglyhistoric value.
The above mentioned A Walking Tour of Buttonwoods Beach, writtenby Robert O. Jones, documents a few original cottages that surviveto this day including the Smith S. Sweet house at 1078 ButtonwoodsAvenue and a cottage at 12 12th Avenue which was also in the Sweetfamily. A cottage at 5 13th Avenue, across from the location of theoriginal Moses Bixby house, built in 1872, was also leveled duringthe real estate boom of the 2000s upon the death of the formerowner who had lived there for much of the 20th Century.
The Buttonwood Beach Association now organizes activities andcelebrations for residents, many held at the Buttonwooods FireDistrict-owned building called the Casino. The Casino has a stageand two bowling alleys. Tennis courts and a playground are nearby.Potluck dinners, seasonal parties, and arts and crafts lessons forchildren take place there. Fire District residents and others canuse the hall for private parties. The Buttonwood Beach Associationowns a nondenominational chapel at Ninth Avenue and JaniceRoad.
Buttonwoods Campground Warwick Ri
The city just completed work to connect Buttonwoods to thepublic sewer system. This has created some pressure on the beachassociation to sell some previously 'wet' lots for additional realestate development. The association has obtained an exemption ofsewer assessment fees on lots that have yet to be developed.However, the City of Warwick is fighting that exemption. Theassociation also considered building a large cell phone tower onits property. But, it was subsequently claimed that this wouldcause tax problems for the association. Clearly, the battle to keepthings the way they were verses encroaching development is a factof life at Old Buttonwoods, too. Minutes of Buttonwoods FireDistrict
Across Buttonwoods Cove, although not part of Old Buttonwoods,is Warwick City Park, which includes three baseball fields, picnicareas and shelters, three-miles of paved bicycle paths, and tenniscourts among other amenities.
Notes
- ^The Life and Works of Moses Bixby, Jeannie Bixby Johnson, SilverBurdett and Company, 1904
- ^Town of Warwick land records, Book 37-B, Pages 141 through 144,December 4, 1871
- ^Recent transactions include the quit claim deed conveyances ofWarwick City Plat 373, Lots 34 and 37 to abutting landowners
- ^T.F. Green Runway Expansion Environmental Impact Study, KinnecomNative Historic Cemetery Notes, Rhode Island HistoricalPreservation and Heritage Commission
- ^ AWalking Tour of Buttonwoods Beach, written by Robert O. Jones ofthe Rhode Island Historical Preservation and HeritageCommission
- ^This report can be found in the Town of Warwick, Town CouncilProceedings, Book 8, Page 154
- ^Rhode Island Historical Society Archives Map Room
- ^History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations:Biographical NY: The American Historical Society, Inc. 1920
- ^New England Families, William Richard Cutter, Lewis HistoricalPublishing Company, NY, NY, 1915
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