Hours October to May

Tuesday – Friday 10 AM to 5 PM Last exhibit admission at 4:30 PM.

Offerings:

Self-guided tours of: Everyone Was a Farmer, and Terra Nova, Vida Nova.
Browsing the museum shop.
Private Wilbor House tours, genealogical & general research, by appointment.
Educational programs and events, as scheduled or by appointment.

Hours

Upcoming Events

Sakonnet History Garden:

Public Progress Report

In Person Lecture, Tuesday, May 14

Join us via Zoom, too:

For the last year, the Little Compton Historical Society has been working with Wampanoag advisors and local garden designers to plan for a new permanent exhibit, the Sakonnet History Garden, on the Historical Society grounds. The wheelchair accessible garden will share the story of the Sakonnet Wampanoag People from 12,000 years ago to the present. It will include a wide variety of labeled Native plants and will feature approximately six pieces of public art created by Wampanoag and other local Indigenous artists. There will also be a digital guide provided by the Bloomberg Connects app. The garden will open to the public in the summer of 2025, and is a key feature of the Historical Society’s multi-year Sakonnet History Project. Planning funds for the garden exhibit were generously provided by a Rhode Island Foundation Community Grant.

The Historical Society invites the public to review the plans for the garden and learn more about the project at a meeting scheduled for 7 PM, May 14 at the Little Compton Community Center. Participants may also attend via Zoom and may register with the link below. The meeting will be filmed and placed on the Historical Society’s YouTube channel.

The Sakonnet History Garden planning team includes Earl Mills, Native plant expert and Chief of the Mashpee Wampanoags; Linda Coombs, an Aquinnah Wampanoag historian and educator; John Gwynne, the retired head of design for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo and now the co-proprietor of Sakonnet Garden, a near neighbor to the Historical Society; Josie Richmond, co-proprietor of Treaty Rock Farm, garden designer and fine artist; and Marjory O’Toole, Executive Director of the Little Compton Historical Society.

The Sakonnet History Garden is a revitalization of the Dorothy Paine Brayton Garden that runs along the north side of the Historical Society property. The Brayton Garden space has been an under-visited, under-utilized space on the Historical Society grounds. Recent efforts to replant it were thwarted by the neighborhood deer. Now reimagined as a permanent exhibit telling the story of the Sakonnet People, the garden will become an important gathering and educational space for people of all ages. Several memorial stones placed in the garden in honor of Mrs. Brayton will remain an important part of the museum property.

In 2025 the Sakonnet History Garden will be joined by a special exhibition featuring many of the Wampanoag belongings in the Historical Society’s collection as well as the art and traditional craft of present-day Wampanoag and other local Indigenous artists. There will also be a new book sharing the history of the Sakonnet people.