A deteriorated sign originally erected in the 1930's was lost during renovations to Updike Park in the Wickford Village section of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. A beloved local landmark, North Kingstown Arts Council member Melissa Devine led a project to replicate and replace the sign.
Wickford Updikes sign to be unveiled Friday
By Chris Church / Staff Writer -- Nov 12, 2015
A sign that greeted visitors to Wickford village for nearly seven decades before it disappeared about 15 years ago will be replaced during an unveiling ceremony Friday at 10 a.m. near Updike Park.
“It’s something I’ve really wanted to do for 15 years,” Melissa Devine, a member of the North Kingstown Arts Council, told The Independent earlier this year. “I would always see an old picture or a postcard (of the sign) and was curious where it went.”
The sign, which read “Wickford Sometime Updike’s Newtown Named 1663 Platted 1707,” was originally designed, built and installed on the corner of West Main and Brown streets by the Main Street Association in the 1930s, according to Town Historian Tim Cranston.
“The village, platted out for Lodowick Updike, was a true planned real estate venture,” Cranston said. “He originally called it Updike’s Newtown as in Lodowick Updike’s brand new town. He later changed it to Wickford as the Updike clan were generally trying to curry favor with the Connecticut colony, whom they hoped at that time would be taking over the west bay of the Rhode Island colony. Connecticut Governor Winthrop’s wife, Elizabeth, was born in Wickford, England.”
The original sign was replaced with a replica at some point. In the late 1990s or early 2000s, Cranston said the town renovated Updike Park and installed the stone and gardens that are there today.
“The sign was taken down and the intention was to put it back up but the condition was so poor they couldn’t do it,” he said. “It just kind of disintegrated and, as the group closed up after the renovations, the sign just kind of slipped through the cracks.”
“I’d remembered that sign as a kid growing up in town and had used the image in tourism publications when I worked for the state Tourism Division and just felt we should bring it back,” Devine said.
She contacted local wooden sign builder Rob Blais, and he agreed to take on the project and create a replica that stayed true to the original dimensions and design.
Last year Devine was able to secure $2,800 from the North Kingstown Town Council to put toward the project. The remainder of the money was provided by several residents, businesses and organizations, including HistWick, Plum Beach Garden Club and Andy Kinnecom, a direct descendant of Lodowick Updike and founder of Swipe for a Cause. Kinnecom also is the developer seeking to redevelop the former Wickford Elementary School.
“This sign was really a part of the town and the village,” Devine said.