Senate backs Richmond land’s preservation

PROVIDENCE – The Senate has approved a resolution sponsored by Sen. Catherine Cool Rumsey, D-Charlestown, supporting the preservation of a 1,825-acre property in Richmond as a forest and wildlife reservation, according to a news release.
The land, located along Hillside Road and known as “Hillside,” was the property of the Theakston de Coppet, who retired from a career as a stockbroker from New York in 1916 and settled in Richmond to take up farming.
The land includes remnants of 19th-century rural, industrial development, including foundations for a water-powered stone mill, a woolen mill and a dye house, a cider mill, a dance hall and store and worker housing. It also contains a three-quarters-of-a-mile-long section of the Beaver River, a major tributary to the Pawcatuck River.
The resolution supports preservation of the land in accordance with de Coppet’s will, and requests that the R.I. Department of Environmental Management accept custody of the property for that purpose. •

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