History abounds on Bristol farm

NEW LAND: Jennifer Bristol, executive director at Mount Hope Farm, took the reins one year ago. “Walking onto it the first time, I was already engaged,” she said. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
NEW LAND: Jennifer Bristol, executive director at Mount Hope Farm, took the reins one year ago. “Walking onto it the first time, I was already engaged,” she said. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

When Jennifer Bristol arrived at Mount Hope Farm as its executive director one year ago, she walked into a nonprofit long sustained by the good will of generations of Rhode Islanders who have called it among their favorite local spots.
She also walked into an organization that was struggling to define itself.
“I’ve talked to hundreds of people and they all have in their mind this picture of what the farm is to them,” Bristol said. “It’s like this place where they went that was magical to them. Without being corny, it’s that for so many people but different in every case. Marrying the visions of all those people to allow them to maintain the experience and support the future and health of [the farm] is what has to happen on our end.”
Bristol is charged with developing a five-year plan for the farm, the challenge of which was one thing that attracted her to this position.
“It’s an amazingly beautiful place. Just walking onto it the first time, I was already engaged,” Bristol said. “It doesn’t fall into any one category.”
Mount Hope Farm overlooks Mount Hope and Narragansett bays in Bristol and has existed since Isaac Royall, a wealthy Massachusetts man, built the Gov. Bradford House on the land, which was purchased in 1680 by a group of merchants with permission from Charles II of England.
During its history, the farm has been under a dozen different ownerships, including Nathan Miller, after the state, having confiscated the farm from the original royalist owners, sold him the farm to pay for gun powder during the American Revolution.
The Mount Hope Trust acquired the farm in 1999 from the Haffenreffer family for $3.3 million.
The trust’s mission is to preserve and protect the integrity of the farm’s natural assets and historical structures. Mount Hope Farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 4, 1976.
“It has value in the history of the United States,” Bristol said.
Among other things, the farm is the site of King Philip’s headquarters for the Wampanoags during the 17th-century King Philip’s War.
The onetime dairy farm today has many functions. There are more than 127 acres of fields, woods, streams and ponds for walking, hiking and exploring. It has a year-round local farmers market that moves inside during the winter. The Governor Bradford Inn offers a weekend getaway. The Governor Bradford House and Gardens, The Barn, and the Cove Cabin all serve as wedding and special-events locations that help sustain the farm financially.
“The wedding business is a key support for our operations. … We want to maintain that [but] a perfect world would be when I can say that Mount Hope Farm is not a wedding site that is a historic place, but a historic site where you can also have a wedding,” Bristol said. “It’s time for Mount Hope Farm to step outside that box.”
Bristol is a native Rhode Islander who previously worked for the National Conservancy in Arlington, Va., to help the organization develop a five-year sustainability plan.
She had been anxious to return to this area and wanted to find similar work where she could make a difference.
Bristol wants to focus on communicating the farm’s relevance and building a broader community base.
There are two restoration projects under way at the Governor Bradford House funded by the Champlin Foundation and one at the barn that involves a top-to-bottom restoration funded by several sources.
“Every day something needs to get done. Every year there are big items,” Bristol said. Bristol is helping to establish a 4-H Club at the farm that will focus on leadership development for kids. Another moving target, she said, is developing “greener” practices throughout the farm, including at the inn.
She also is working to engage the next generation of farm visitors with family-friendly programs, including “Adopt a Spot,” where for $127 a family buys a farm membership for four that includes year-long programming and, in September, a camp-out where families will sleep outdoors in the spot they adopted.
“I’m a big believer if you bring children and they’re encouraged and welcomed, they’re never going to forget that, they’re never going to lose that feeling,” Bristol said. “I would love people to perceive Mount Hope Farm [as a place] where they can come and enjoy it, find a community, but where they know we are a resource.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Mount Hope Farm
Owners: The Mount Hope Trust
Location: 250 Metacom Ave., Bristol
Employees: 4
Year Established: 1745
Annual Sales: NA

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