Same Old Home Day

The Elder Hammond Meeting House was built in 1796 by the Second Baptist Church of Foster with funds from the Rhode Island General Assembly. It was used as a place of worship as well as a venue for public meetings; the first Foster town meeting was held there in 1801. Foster has held its town meetings in the building ever since, making Elder Hammond Meeting House the oldest continuously used governmental assembly building in the United States.

In 1904, the town of Foster celebrated its first “Old Home Day,” in order to raise funds for repairs to the Meeting House, or, as it is called today, the Foster Town House. In true Rhode Island fashion, the celebration was a traditional clam bake and included chowder cooked in massive iron cauldrons, which are still on display today at the Foster Preservation Society. Many Fosterites brought dishes and silverware from their own homes for use at the celebration and local sawmills provided native timber boards for makeshift tables. In attendance was United States Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, who was born in Foster. Today, the Old Home Days celebration is still a time for the people of Foster to come together and celebrate their town’s heritage.

An interesting side note: I believe the sapling in the top image is the very same majestic maple tree featured in the bottom image (although there’s no way to be sure).