Casey Farm

Casey Farm is a historic farm in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, United States. It is now a historic museum property, operated by Historic New England, and is open to the public.

History

Casey Farm occupies a 300-acre (120 ha) tract of land that has been undivided in 300 years of ownership. It extends the full width of the neck of land between the Narrow River and the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. Its main house was built c. 1725-50 by Daniel Coggeshall, and became Silas Casey's when he married Coggeshall's daughter. The property remained in the hands of Casey descendants until it was given to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA, now Historic New England).

The farm produced food for local and foreign markets. Located near Newport, Rhode Island Casey Farm had access to materials imported from England, enabling its early owners to live in a fashionable manner. Prosperity ended with the burning of Newport during the American Revolutionary War, and the farm settled into a pattern of absentee ownership. Starting in the mid 19th century, the Casey family began to improve the farm. They leased the property to tenant farmers but retained two rooms in the house for their own occasional summer use, as they had come to regard the farm as their ancestral home.