Great Weekend Getaways
Antique Aficionados Rejoice
Historic Bristol, RI
Westchester Magazine June 2004

My sister was my enabler; she was the one who got me addicted to antiquing (or, as my husband describes it, parting with lots of money for old junk that our grandmothers threw away).  So it was only fitting that she planned an overnight jaunt to the historic little town of Bristol, RI, home to an impressive number of antique shops and historic attractions, to celebrate my birthday.

The word for Bristol is unpretentious.  Quieter, less crowded and not as fancy-schmancy or expensive as its famous chichi neighbor of Newport, this quinessential New England coastal village, nestled between two bays, features a compact downtown that begs to be explored.  Poke around its dusty antique shops, refuel with something chocolate from one of its diet-busting bakeries, browse through its funky gift galleries or settle in at one of its quaint little cafes.  Dating back to the 1680s, Bristol's tree-lined street plan is particularly suited to strolling and showcases outstanding examples of architecture spanning three centuries, from Federal and Greek Revival to 19th-century country estates.

If you become weary of wandering throught the shops or want to work off any of those oh-so-yummy carbs, lace up the cross trainers and hit the East Bay Bike Path, an abandoned rail bed along Narragansett Bay that connects a string of eight parks.  And while it invites a lot of sweat-producing activities like biking, power walking, running and inline skating, you could just plop on one of its benches to watch the sun set over the water; we did.  Then, off to dinnerr at the upscale The Lobster Pot (reservations suggested; 401.253.9100) where the just-caught, traditionally prepared seafood (remember Oysters Rockafeller?) is served with a panoramic harbor view.

Where to Stay

Home base during our getaway was the comfortable 40-room boutique-style Bristol Harbor Inn (866.254.1444; www.bristolharborinn.com) located on the water at Thames Street Landing.  Ask for a water view (Not all rooms have one) or one of the eight historic rooms that feature gas fireplaces, mahogany furniture, chair rails and crown molding.  If there's no room at the inn, or your looking for a more old-fashined lodging experience, check the Bristol website (www.onlinebristol.com) for some charming B&B options.  Weekend rates start from $169 per night for a double to $249 per night for a water view suite.

What to Do?

For Nature Lovers:  the Audubon Society of Rhode Island Environmental Education Center (1401 Hope Street, 401.245.7500).  Situated on the 28-acre McIntosh Wildlife Refuge, this interactive museum and nature center features te state's largest aquarium and includes touch tanks, wildlife exhibits and 3D dioramas (look for the 35-foot long replica of the right whale), plus a onehalf mile boardwalk to the shore of Narragansett Bay.

For Gardeners:  Blithewold Mansion, Gardens and Arboretum (101 Ferry Road, 401.253.2707).  Explore this 45-room 17th-century English manor-style mansion (featuring mostly original furnishings) and 33-acre grounds overlooking Narragansett Bay.  Green thumb-types will want to consult the staff horticulturalist onsite Sundays during the summer, about the Arboretum's 250 varieties of trees and shrubs.

For Marine Enthusiasts:  Herreshoff Marine Museum and America's Cup Hall of Fame (1 Burnside Street, 401.253.5000).  A must-visit for boating enthusiasts (after all, Bristol was once the yacht-building capital of the world).  View over 60 historic yachts, steam engines, fittings and memorabilia from the Herreshoff family, builders of many America's Cup defenders.

For Kids:  Coggeshall Farm Museum (Popasquash Road off Route 114, 401.253.9062).  Take the kids to experience thsi living model of a 1790s marsh farm featuring free-roaming sheepand chickens, outbuildings depicting 18th-century farm life, a working blacksmith shop and a garden with heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs.  End the day with a stroll through the adjacent Colt State Park.  

For History Buffs:  Linden Place (500 Hope Street, 401.253.0390).  The "jewel in the crown" of Bristol's historic district, this Federal period mansion was built in 1810 by General George DeWolf, whose grandson founded the company that is now Fleet Bank.  The mansion has hosted four United States presidents and was once the home of actress Ethel Barrymore.  Be sure to leave time to wander around the properties sculpture-filled garden's.

Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology (Tower Street off Route 136).  Brown Universities only major museum, this cultural hothouse features an events calendar chock-full of lectures, performances, symposia and festivals.  Located on the traditional lands of the Wampanoag peoples, the also displays artifacts from native peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.


Yarnell, L. (2004 June).  Great Weekend Getaways.  Westchester Magazine, 
    pp. 125-127.

Yankee Magazine September 2003

Walkabouts by Susan Peery.
Strolling by the Bay: Bristol, Rhode Island beckons you with a weekend full of antiques and yachting dreams. 

     We sit on the boardwalk at Thames Street Landing, looking out at sailboats tacking toward home across Narragansett Bay.  Our lodging at Bristol Harbor Inn, as close to the water you can get without falling in, is part of the Landing complex.  If we turn our heads we can see the sunset reflecting off the windows of our room.  Our car is parked for the duration--we won't need it until we leave.  Ahead lies a weekend of coastal living, village meanderings, leisurely dining, antiquing--it doesn't sound too bad at all, does it?

     You could send a weekend being charmed by Bristol and never leave Thames Street Landing and the inn.  Within a few steps of our boardwalk chairs are shops selling Chinese antiques, Irish sweaters, Christmas ornaments, and locally famous Gray's on the Dock ice cream (made in Tiverton, Rhode Island).  There's a spa and "body boutique" and more food--a fancy bakery, J.G. Goff's Pub for supper, and Dory's Cafe for soup and sandwiches.

     But Bristol is made for strolling.  The tidy grid of streets (laid out in the 1680s) within three or four blocks of our inn is lined with shops, restaurants, bakeries, museums, and Colonial- and Federal-period homes, all in the town's Historic District.  A canopy of mature trees shades many streets.  The Bristol Tree Society's guide leads us to a 200-year-old European linden (possibly the town's oldest tree) on Hope Street, a majestic copper beech (off State Street), and a stately, healthy American elm on the town common.

     Hope Street, Bristol's main drag, has a red, white, and blueline painted down its middle.  It's a point of local pride that Bristol--which was shelled and burned by the Bristish during the Revolutionary War--has the nation's oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration, dating back to 1785.

     But Bristol's greatest claim to fame may be its maritime heritage.  While museum-going may not seem the ideal fall trek, at the Herreshoff Marine Museum you can almost feel sails slapping in the wind.  Half a mile south of the village center on Burnside Street (just off Hope), the museum showcases sailing, shipbuilding, and he yacht racing that brought so much pride to the towns along the bay.

     Here, from 1863 to 1945, the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company produced he world's finest yachts, the first Navy torpedo boats, and eight consecutive defenders of the America's Cup, including Reliance, now immortalized on the Rhode Island commemorative quarter.

     An afternoon at the Herreshoff and adjoining America's Cup Hall of Fame leaves us ready for the half-mile walk to the Lobster Pot, a classic New England shore restaurant (it opened in the 1920s) featuring stuffed lobster, deep-fried shellfish, and the like.  We linger over a quiet, relaxing dinner to wach another sunset.

     The next day we eschew the body boutique in favor of sniffing out treats for our three dogs at WOOF: A Bakery for Dogs on State Street.  It's hard to choose among the eclairs, lollipops, bacon cookies,  designer collars, and dog-theme greeting cards.  We finally spring for a Big Dog Bonanza variety pack.

     Robin Jenkins Antiques on Hope Street attracts us with the lovely old garden urns and 19th-century painted furniture in the window.  Several other antiques shops in the village stand out, too, including Alfred's (we love the old Christmas ornaments).  Soon its time to find our car back at the inn and stash our booty.

     We've barely scratched the surface of this scenic coastal village.  We hear its lovely in the December, illuminated with thousands of lights, and in May and June, when the gardens are in bloom.  And don't forget the Fourth of July--Bristol hasn't, ever.

Peery, S.  (2003, September).  Walkabouts.  Strolling by the bay.  Yankee
     Magazine,  pp.  100-104.

HAVENS; Weekender | Bristol, R.I.

By AMY PAULSEN

WHAT does Newport have that Bristol doesn't? In a word, crowds. Like its famous cousin just to the south, Bristol is a quintessential New England waterfront town, heavily ballasted with three centuries of seafaring and by fine examples of Federal and Colonial architecture. But where Newport courts all manner of visitors, from high society to honky-tonkers, Bristol, on a tiny peninsula between the Narragansett and Mount Hope Bays, has traditionally kept a much lower profile.

''Bristol in many ways has an insular personality,'' said Joan Roth, a lifelong resident and president of the board of Linden Place museum, a preserved Federal mansion on Hope Street, the main thoroughfare. ''We're very much like people who live on an island because historically Bristolians looked out to the sea; they didn't look back to land. But now we're beginning to try to attract people to come and see our lovely town.''

But not too many people: ''We don't want to become another Newport'' is the local mantra.

''There's a lot going on in Newport, but the downside is it's congested, and a lot of people don't like that,'' said Jeffrey Hirsh, a businessman who splits his time between Bristol, where he owns the Lobster Pot restaurant, and New York City, where he is a jewelry manufacturer. ''Bristol has charm -- it has character.''

A walk along the eight-block stretch of downtown Hope Street provides supporting evidence: no candle emporiums or canvas tote shops. Instead, there is an old-fashioned main street with a library, a post office and a barbershop.

That unaffected quality is what lures New Yorkers, many of whom discover the town by accident, as Steve and Debra Krohn did. In 1990, the couple drove up to nearby Little Compton, R.I., where Mr. Krohn had an appointment for a job interview at the Sakonnet Vineyards.

''On our return to New York,'' Ms. Krohn said, ''we came over the Mount Hope Bridge into Bristol. It was July 5th; the stripe down the middle of the road was red, white and blue; all the flags were flying; the town was pin neat. We stopped and walked down to the park and watched the ferry come and go out to Prudence Island and I just said to him, 'You better get this job. I want to live here.' '' Mr. Krohn got the job, and the couple has lived in Bristol ever since.

The Scene

In her memoir ''American Girl'' (Random House, 1992), the late New York Times columnist Mary Cantwell (a fourth-generation Bristolian) described the Hope Street of her childhood as ''one big living room.'' The metaphor is still apt. Bristol has the feel of a maritime Mayberry where people on the street greet each other by name. ''If they don't recognize you,'' Ms. Krohn said, ''they'll stop you and say, 'You're not from around here, are you? What do you think of our little town, Bristol -- isn't it great?' ''

But Mayberry was never this culturally diverse: Bristol is both a sailing town and a college town (Roger Williams University is at the southeast tip), and it is home to old-school Yankees as well as Portuguese-Americans, who currently make up 37 percent of the town's population.

At 9:30 on a recent Saturday morning, Hope Street was just waking up. Boys from the King Philip Little League (''We haven't lost a game yet!'') were out in force, collecting money to pay for new uniforms, and locals wandered in and out of Café La France to pick up newspapers and cups of coffee. As the sun reached its midday height, the action shifted to the waterfront. Cyclists glided along the East Bay Bike Path, a 14.5-mile trail that runs up the coast to Providence; motorcyclists congregated in the parking lot of the Sip'n Dip doughnut shop; and at Quito's, a waterfront shoe box that serves great seafood, locals sat under the awning and quaffed bowls of quahog-studded chowder.

For two weekenders, Pamela and Carroll Delaney (she grew up in Bristol, he went to boarding school nearby), Bristol is a balm after a hectic Manhattan work week. ''It's very serene,'' said Ms. Delaney, president of the New York City Police Foundation.

To every season there is a celebration in Bristol. In the fall there is the Harvest Fair at Coggeshall Farm Museum; in winter there is the Grand Illumination, when the whole town is set aglow for the holidays (''You can probably see it from the space shuttle, it's so bright,'' said Mary Upton, a local real estate agent); in spring there is Daffodil Days at Blithewold, a 1907 waterfront mansion set on 33 landscaped acres; and for the Fourth of July, the town has a three-week celebration, an event that was begun in 1785 by veterans of the Revolutionary War.

Pros

''For a town its size, I can't think of any other place that has as many museums and public properties,'' said Mr. Hirsh, who quickly rattled off a list of the town's attractions, including the 464-acre Colt State Park, the 17th-century Mount Hope Farm, the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America's Cup Hall of Fame, and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

There are three bistro-style restaurants -- Hotpoint, Roberto's and Redlefsen's Rotisserie and Grill -- and two traditional seafood restaurants, the Lobster Pot and S. S. Dion.

For grocery shopping, there are a supermarket just outside of town, two fish markets and a great bakery (Bristol Bakery) in town. Farmers' markets and roadside produce stands set up shop from May through October.

Weekenders with wanderlust quickly discover that Bristol is something of a geographic hub: Newport and Providence are each 25 minutes away; Mystic, Conn., and Hyannis, in the center of Cape Cod, are each an hour's drive; and Boston is about an hour and a half away.

Tony Margiotta, a former New York City school teacher who moved to Bristol three years ago, referred to it as the bellybutton of New England. His wife, Angie, also a former teacher, gently corrected him: ''We're the jewel in the bellybutton.''

Cons

Being a geographic hub comes with its own set of headaches. Bristol's narrow, tree-lined main street is not really cut out for its job as primary through-street for traffic to and from Providence. ''At rush hour it gets pretty L.A.-ish,'' Ms. Upton said. And on weekends motorcyclists descend on Bristol's waterfront.

''People complain about the loud noises coming down through Hope Street,'' said Brian Comfort, a former editor of the Bristol Phoenix, a weekly newspaper. ''There are noise laws in place but I think they're difficult to enforce. That's probably one of the bigger issues.''

Whether you travel by motorcycle or minivan, you can make it to Bristol from New York City in less than three and a half hours -- but only if you time it just right. The stop-and-go traffic on Interstate 95, particularly on the constantly-under-construction Connecticut stretch, is frequently more stop than go during peak travel times. Driving to Bristol early on Friday evening and returning to New York late Sunday afternoon is a very bad idea.

The Real Estate Market

Prices are nowhere near Hamptons-high, but according to Steve Fessenden of Coldwell Banker, they have increased at least 35 to 40 percent over the last three years; statewide, prices have increased 14 percent in the last year. A three-bedroom, one-bathroom ranch that sold for $150,000 in 2000, he said, is now selling for $250,000.

And the old Federal and Colonial houses that send weekenders into a swoon are much pricier -- and harder to come by. ''There's very, very little on the market right now,'' said Ms. Upton, who works as an agent for Hogan & Stone. ''Historical homes do come on the market, but they don't sit there for very long.''

Hogan & Stone has one Bristol listing, a five-bedroom 1929 brick house on 3.75 acres, with pool and guest cottage, for $825,000. Older properties on the market now include an 1833 house with three bedrooms and four fireplaces for $750,000, offered by Residential Properties, and a three-bedroom 1790 house with six fireplaces for $370,000, listed by Century 21 Navigator.

This week there were 46 active listings in Bristol, with an average asking price of $818,000 (the high-end properties drastically ratcheted up the average). The lowest-priced property was a three-bedroom 1800 house listed at $229,000, and the highest-priced was a five-bedroom 1795 waterfront house in the tony Poppasquash Point neighborhood at $4.5 million.

With little room for new building, developers are turning to older properties for condo conversions. In the downtown area, the Coats American/Premier Thread factory on the waterfront at Thames Street is being converted into 80 condominium apartments, and plans are underway for the Belvedere Hotel on Hope Street to become a 20-unit condominium. Bill Hubbard, president of Center Development Corporation, the New York-based real estate company that is heading the Belvedere project, said that Bristol's vital downtown scene was one of its greatest assets. ''It's just a pretty little unnoticed oasis,'' Mr. Hubbard said. ''It hasn't been decimated by the surrounding shopping centers and strip malls. You can walk down the main street in the middle of the day and it's humming.''

LAY OF THE LAND
A Rhode Island Town, Yes. Like Newport? Oh, No.

POPULATION -- 22,469.

SIZE -- 10.11 square miles.

NEIGHBORS -- Kathy Quinn, widow of the actor Anthony Quinn; Ira C. Magaziner, a senior adviser in the Clinton administration; white-collar workers who commute to Providence; local business owners; yacht-oriented people; boat builders; and fishermen.

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE -- $283,000.

RECENT SALES -- A seven-bedroom Victorian with water views on Hope Street sold five months ago for $400,000, its asking price, after eight days on the market. In the northern part of town, known as the Highland area, a three-bedroom 1930 cottage sold for $250,000, down from its $279,000 asking price, after 17 days on the market. On High Street in the historic residential area, an 1811 Cape Cod with four bedrooms sold for $385,000, just under its $389,000 asking price, after 13 days on the market.

DISTANCE FROM NEW YORK -- 190 miles.

TRAVEL TIME -- In light traffic, just under three and a half hours. By rail, two and a half hours on the Amtrak Acela from Penn Station to Providence, 13 miles north of Bristol.

GETTING THERE -- From New York City, take Interstate 95 north to Rhode Island Exit 20 (195E/Cape Cod). Take Exit 7 (Route 114S/Barrington). Travel south for about 13 miles, through Barrington and Warren and into Bristol, where Route 114 becomes Hope Street.

WHILE YOU'RE LOOKING --  The Bristol Harbor Inn (259 Thames Street, 866-254-1444) is in a recently restored waterfront area called Thames Street Landing; it has 40 rooms from $119 to $249.

Paulson, Amy (2003, July 11).  Havens Weekender, Bristol, RI.  The New York Times.