Providence residents Henry G. and Hope Brown Ives Russell developed this marvelous bayside property as their country retreat in the mid-1870s. After their deaths in the early twentieth century, the heirs of this childless couple gave the property to the state for use as a public park, a much-appreciated amenity at the southern extent of the densely developed metropolitan Providence area. Although the High Victorian Gothic main house succumbed to fire exactly a century after its construction, the outbuildings and circulation system from the country-retreat era remain, enhanced by 1920s designs created by Olmsted Brothers' Percival Gallagher and carried out by the Metropolitan District Commission, predecessor of the Department of Environmental Management. Today this is a pleasant rural park, with all the attendant facilities expected for recreation, including golf, tennis, picnic sites, and swimming.