 SVF Foundation's "Swiss Village" sits on 35 acres in Newport, Rhode Island with an adjacent 11 acre site which was formerly part of Hammersmith Farm. Among the 14 buildings that comprise the SVF site are exquisitely renovated animal facilities, a procedures laboratory, infirmary, workshops, offices and a large conference room.
Swiss Village was built in 1916 by Arthur Curtiss James and was modeled on a Swiss Village from the Italian region of Switzerland. The renovation of Swiss Village was completed in 2002, at which time SVF Foundation commenced operations.
Swiss Village History
In 1909 Arthur Curtiss James, purchased "Beacon Hill", the former Glover estate, in Newport, Rhode Island. He gradually acquired surrounding property until the estate consisted of 125 acres and the old Manor House formally known as "Edgehill".
In 1914, James started building "Surprise Valley Farm"- known as "Swiss Village" to the locals - to house a prize herd of Guernsey cattle he had inherited from his father. He then hired Grosvenor Atterbury, a well-known architect, to design a village patterned after those in the Italian region of Switzerland. The loose stone resulting from blasting out the "valley" was used in the farm buildings.
 The farm consisted of a cow and horse barn, a carpenter's shop, a dairy, two hen houses, a slaughter and smoke house, a bull and calving barn, a piggery two worker cottages, and various service buildings dug into the hillside for machinery, coal and ice, etc. In its heyday after World War I, the Village employed more than 100 people to maintain cattle, poultry, sheep, goats and vegetable gardens. The farm fed two James household staffs (at Gordon King House and at a townhouse in New York City), 100 farm hands, and the crew of James' yacht Aloha. During World War II, the James' entertained servicemen at the village
Arthur Curtiss  James and his wife Harriet Parsons James both died in 1941 and at that time Mrs. William Manice inherited "Edgehill" and purchased the Swiss Village and the surrounding acreage. In 1975, the property was purchased by developers who built the "Edgehill Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center" which opened in 1980. The facility operated until 1993 when it was purchased by the Independence Square Foundation and used for training and programming for the greater disabled community.
In 1998, the property was purchased, an extensive restoration was undertaken, and SVF Foundation commenced its preservation program for endangered breeds of livestock. |
