'The Farmer and Middletown' to Be Unveiled at Paradise Park

Farmers and farm families were instrumental in shaping Middletown’s history through service to the town government, church and social organizations, according to local historians.

To honor that legacy, the Middletown Historical Society will unveil a special new free exhibit to the community this Saturday, Aug. 20 at the Old Paradise School to spotlight Middletown’s farming roots and to demonstrate how farming contributed to Middletown's history.

Rain or shine, ‘The Farmer and Middletown’ exhibit will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday in conjunction with the town’s first annual “” daylong festival, also to be held at Paradise Park.

The Middletown Historical Society's free exhibit also will be available to view from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays through the end of August.

Former Town Councillor Theresa Santos, herself the daughter of a cattle farmer, has long been involved with the Middletown Historical Society.

Santos recently shared her excitement for this weekend’s joint activities to blend art and history at the historic Paradise School and on the grounds beneath Boyd’s Windmill. She was certain that the historical society's exhibit will leave as lasting an impression as some of artists’ and performing artists’ works to be showcased this weekend.

“It’s phenomenal—what we have lost in Middletown,” Santos said of the exhibit’s portrayal of farming from the 19^th through 21^st centuries in Middletown. “Being a farmer’s daughter, I look around and see all this land—it’s just disappeared.”

The Middletown Historical Society exhibit also will show how the farmers of Middletown were instrumental in the development of modern farming techniques seen today, according to an exhibit press release.

Long before the central area of Aquidneck Island became known as Middletown, the land provided sustenance to native peoples, and the City of Newport flourished from the bounties of local soils. Local historians connect how farmers in the central and east side of Aquidneck Island had perceived the need to separate from the City of Newport for the growth of their community to continue, and founded the Town of Middletown. 

The Middletown Historical Society’s exhibit also sets out to show how local farmers’ thirst for knowledge over time continued to be revealed through the farming, religious commitments, cultural pursuits and political endeavors that followed.

See ‘The Farmer and Middletown’

• The exhibit is free and is open to the public.
• The exhibit will be displayed at the Middletown Historical Society’s headquarters inside the Old Paradise School, 1 Prospect Avenue. 
• The exhibit will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20 and from 2-4 p.m. on Sundays for the remainder of August.
• For more details, please visit www.middletownhistory.org.
• For information about this weekend's "Celebration of the Arts,"