What dreams are made of...

The first owner of the Saunderstown area was Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New York in 1664. His son, Captain Andrew Willet was the region's first resident from 1680 to his death in 1712. Until the late 1800's the area was known as Willettville. The was changed to Saunderstown to honor the Saunders family, a famous family of shipwrights and marine entrepreneurs who ran the Saunders shipyard.

The Literary Tradition

The literary tradition of Saunderstown began in 1875 when Francis W. Wharton, a well-known writer of her time, along with her coal-magnate husband and her father began to summer in this quiet seaside village. A frequent guest of the Wharton's was their famous cousin, Edith Wharton.

Across the street from the Whartons lived Owen Wister the author of America's first Western novel, "The Virginian.” One of Owen's best friends was Teddy Roosevelt who visited occasionally. Wister's biography of his friend was written largely in Saunderstown. Roosevelt was also a frequent guest of the LaFarge brothers, Christopher and Oliver, who were famous novelists and poets of their time. The Pulitzer Prize winning Oliver is also considered America's foremost American Indian ethnologist.

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