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DiMillo’s On the Water in Portland, Maine, is housed in a former Jamestown ferry boat. (Courtesy of DiMillo’s On the Water by way of Instagram)

On June 28, 1969, the Newport Bridge formally opened between Jamestown and Aquidneck Island, altering the driving habits of Rhode Islanders ceaselessly.

Previous to the bridge’s opening, residents of Jamestown needed to take a ferry to get to Newport, or else go the great distance round via Windfall utilizing the already-constructed Jamestown Bridge. On the time of the brand new bridge’s building, two steam-powered ferries — the Jamestown IV and the Newport II — nonetheless provided ferry service to the opposite aspect.

Jamestown residents can not hop on a year-round ferry to take pleasure in dinner on Thames Road, however they will head as much as Portland, Maine, in the event that they wish to relive their ferry days in type. After its decommissioning, the Newport II had a protracted and roundabout journey that included stops in Pawtucket and New York earlier than it was bought by a Portland restaurant proprietor. As we speak, the DiMillo household nonetheless operates the ferry as DiMillo’s On the Water, serving baked stuff lobster and fried clams on the identical deck the place holiday-goers as soon as loved views of Narragansett Bay.

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The ferry boat Newport II transports passengers throughout Narragansett Bay. (Courtesy of the Jamestown Historic Society Assortment)

Jamestown to Newport

Even earlier than its gig because the Jamestown ferry, the Newport II already had a protracted historical past of transporting folks and automobiles. In 1941, the unique boat was commissioned because the New York and opened as a automotive ferry transporting automobiles between New Fortress, Delaware, and Pennsville, New Jersey. The boat was later offered to the state of Virginia, the place it operated as a ferry between Norfolk and Hampton.

In 1958, the state of Rhode Island bought the ferry and named it the Newport (the second ferry boat of that title). Because the Jamestown Historical Society has recorded, the 2 islands already had a protracted historical past of steam ferry boats courting again to 1873. The primary wood-powered ferry boats ultimately gave technique to the extra reliable boats of the 1900s. In his 2015 documentary, We Took the Ferry, filmmaker Bob Sutton recalled how college students in Jamestown needed to take the ferry each day to attend Rogers Excessive College.

In 1969, the Newport Bridge opened — it wouldn’t be renamed the Claiborne Pell Bridge till 1992 — and the ferries have been not wanted. The Jamestown IV and the Newport II loved their remaining runs. (You possibly can watch video of the ferries throughout their remaining week of service here.)

A Floating Artwork Colony

As with all good journeys, the Newport II then took an fascinating detour. In a transfer that would solely spring from Nineteen Sixties counterculture, town of Pawtucket bought the ferry for $1 to show it right into a floating artwork colony for youth. The ferry moved to the Blackstone River, the place metropolis directors deliberate to make use of federal grant cash to host leisure and cultural packages. A 1971 New York Times article data the preliminary response of residents:

“‘I believe earlier than the ferry opened quite a lot of questions needed to be answered,’ Mr. [Richard] Partridge [recreation and cultural coordinator for the city] says. Now the persons are discovering out that ‘it’s not a bunch of longhaired hippie freaks doing loopy issues. They’re doing very constructive issues,’ he mentioned.”

David Quinn, a 23-year-old metropolis worker who would later function tax assessor in Windfall, was employed because the floating youth heart’s first director. He recollects how the ferry would host performs and occasions and even served a gathering area for the unique Operation ZAP cleanup in 1972.

“It was fairly profitable. We had plenty of occasions for younger folks, extra arts-oriented than there was on the junior and senior excessive faculties,” he says.

The trouble was short-lived, and in 1977, the Setauket Yacht Membership in Port Jefferson, New York, bought the boat. It turned a clubhouse and storage facility till the DiMillo household bought it in 1980.

DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant

Tony DiMillo, patriarch of the DiMillo household, had already spent a number of a long time within the restaurant enterprise when he bought the previous ferry in 1980. In accordance with the restaurant’s web site, he opened his first restaurant, Anthony’s, in 1954 and later opened DiMillo’s On the Waterfront throughout the road from its present location. In 1978, he bought the wharf the place the restaurant sits, and, after two years of renovations, he opened DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant on Portland Harbor.

As we speak, the restaurant continues to function as DiMillo’s On the Water (the household additionally owns the encircling marina and a yacht dealership). Visitors can eat basic New England seafood dishes like scallop rolls and lobster mac and cheese in rooms that when encompassed the ferry’s many decks and seating areas. They’ll even dine outdoors for a chance to take pleasure in dinner overlooking the bay — even when it’s a special bay from the waters the boat as soon as cruised in Rhode Island. The restaurant additionally hosts weddings and banquets, which suggests actual Rhode Island historical past buffs can get married on the previous Jamestown ferry.

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Eating outdoors at DiMillo’s On the Water. (Courtesy of DiMillo’s On the Water by way of Instagram)

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