This classic house with a porch along Farnum Pike has the look of a house in an Edward Hopper painting.

Once famous for the manufacture of baby blankets that were known as the Esmond bunny blankets, the sprawling red-brick mill buildings that dominate the landscape in this historic village are now home to local retail giant Benny’s.

Benny’s, which operates 33 stores in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, has its headquarters and distribution center in this Smithfield neighborhood near the North Providence line.

Benny’s moved into the former Esmond mill buildings in the mid-1960s, according to Arnold Bromberg, one of the principals of the company. Bromberg said Benny’s, his family’s business, was founded in 1924 in Providence.

In addition to Benny’s, light manufacturing businesses also operate in the mill buildings that border the west bank of the Woonasquatucket River.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently conducting a cleanup of a site near the mills and off Oak Street, the former home of the Providence Barrel Co., which closed its doors in 1980. The land is privately owned, but the Town of Smithfield demolished the buildings because of safety concerns.

Esmond village is also a residential neighborhood, with newer housing mixed in among the older duplexes originally built here for mill workers.

Esmond Park, at the corner of Waterman Avenue (Route 104) and Esmond Street, is a popular spot for walkers and runners.

Esmond is less than 2 miles from the shopping in the Centredale section of North Providence, and it is less than 4 miles from Providence.

Many of the streets in Esmond are dead-ends, and most of the neighborhood is developed. Of the 16 houses listed for sale in Esmond last week, many were smaller Capes and ranches built in the mid-1900s.

The price range for the houses started at $142,500, for a 1900 Colonial that was listed as a “possible two-family” in need of “TLC/updating” that is an “as-is sale.” The top price was $313,900, for a 1925 Colonial at 16 Elizabeth Ave.

Asking prices were higher for the six multifamily properties on the market in Esmond.

Multifamily listings included a 1920 two-family at 4 Camp St. ($184,900);a 1930 two-family at 8 Oliver St. ($209,900); a 1922 two-family at 21 Penbryn Ave. ($264,900); a 1920 two-family at 19 High St. ($289,900); a 1910 four-unit at 2 Farnum Pike ($319,900); and a 1933 two-family at 26 Lincoln St. ($375,000).

The condominium listings include newer construction, although the lowest-price condo listed for sale last week, a two-bedroom at 2 Thornton Ave., is in a 1930 building. Other condominium listings in Esmond included a two-bedroom unit at the Meadow View complex at 63 Esmond St. ($199,500), which was built in 1986; a two-bedroom at the Hawkins Brook complex at 65 Esmond St. ($199,900), built in 1982; and a two-bedroom, two-bath, detached condo unit with a two-car garage at the Summerfield development, at 21 Cambridge Circle, built in 2003 and priced at $349,900.

POPULATION:

(Smithfield, 2000) 20,613

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(Smithfield, 2007) $286,000

INTERESTING FACT:

The village of Esmond had two previous names; it was first known as Allenville, and later, as Enfield.

cdunn@projo.com