Watch Hill Conservancy

Preserving community character - an important part of the conservancy's mission is to preserve and enhance the historic character of the community. Most of watch hill is recognized as an historic district on the national register of historic places as designated by the united states secretary of the interior and the national park service. The watch hill historic district's designation report lists more than 180 structures as significantly contributing to the historic value of the district. The historic character of watch hill is under constant pressure from development, changes to state and town building and zoning codes, severe weather, and increased flooding from rising seas. The watch hill conservancy has been particularly busy working jointly with the watch hill fire district leadership to respond to these pressures. In 2024, the conservancy was highly involved in monitoring proposed development activity and state and local governmental decisions that could result in significant change to community character or have negative impacts to the historic district designation.

Informing the community - 2024 was the conservancy's seventh year hosting the lanphear live speaker series. The conservancy designed the series to inform the community on topics that are interesting and timely, typically covering areas such as science, history, nature and technology. Lanphear live is held in the chaplin b. Barnes reading room at the lanphear livery and is provided at no cost to those who attend. The virtual presentations we hosted in 2020 in response to the pandemic were so popular that the conservancy continues to record and share its lanphear live programs with the public on its website and youtube channel. Owning and managing the reading room as a community space is a relatively new initiative for the conservancy. The conservancy acquired the property in late 2020. Carrying and maintaining the space results in significant costs to the organization. The conservancy is working to offset these costs by seeking outside funding (community programming sponsors and grant funding) to support the community programming and by renting the space to third-parties.