University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

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The Grist Theme r p he theme for the 1931 grist has been taken from the “Stephen Hopkins Smith House” in Lincoln. Throughout its pages, colonial ideas per- vade. The rich brick red is the typical color used by printers of that period. The fireplace which appears in the lower corner of many of the pages is a duplicate of one found in the Smith house. The door is a side entrance to this house. The editors have tried to have a distinct colonial atmosphere throughout. This atmosphere is expressed even more in the sectional pages, where colonial scenes appear on old style paper. The blue and white cover is naturally a reminder of the college colors, while further connection between college and Grist is brought out in the aerial view on the inside back cover sheet. J The house carries with it a romantic story which Grist readers are sure to enjoy. The most striking legend, perhaps, is of the origin of the old mansion. Certainly not later than 1811, Stephen Hopkins Smith was in love with a girl who promised to marry him on one condition. The condition was that he should provide her with a finer house than any other woman in the county. Smith won fifty thousand dollars in the Louisiana Lottery, and used it, to the last penny, to build a suitable nest for his bird of fine plumage. He fashioned his house of granite from the ledge still to be seen across the fields from the mansion. Noble were the rooms, beautiful the architecture. He sent across the ocean for marble for the mantels. He hung the picture of his lady love in a golden frame upon the wall. No finer house existed in all the countryside. But, alas, Stephen Smith, the adoring lover, had spent all his money upon the mansion — and the lady of his heart promptly threw him over. J Many have often wondered what became of the lover. It is said that his sister indignantly cut the picture of the girl from its golden frame. Mr. Smith never lived in the mansion fashioned with such loving care} he went to live in a small house a short distance from the mansion. He loved flowers; there are always traditions of his love for them, and it is said that he planted in Quinsnicket Grove at least one specimen of each plant common to the flora of our State. He stocked the pond, that lies at the foot of the hills around it like a Scotch tarn, with goldfish, and perhaps lived out his gentle life happier with his goldfish pond, his garden and his woods, than he would have been with the heartless girl who jilted him. J Mr. Talbot tells that the front path, broad, rather roughly paved with large stones, was laid in a night by lantern-light by way of doing honor to a Governor expected to breakfast with the family then residing in the mansion, next morning. Another ver- sion is that it was laid in haste for a wedding.