Barbara Lamanna and her great nephew Dominic DiBiase walk through Oak Hill Terrace in Cranston. Most of the houses — well-tended cottages, colonials, Capes and ranches — were built in the late 1940s.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig Kris Craig

It’s easy to pass by Cranston’s Oak Hill Terrace neighborhood. It is not a gated community, but the street layout usually ensures that only those people meaning to go there find their way in.

From New London Avenue, Hilltop Avenue, next to the Shalom Chapel, is one entrance, and from Oaklawn Avenue, Oak Hill Drive, near Del’s Lemonade, is the second.

Rachel McNally, who lives on Hilltop Drive, said her husband, Mike, grew up in Cranston but had never seen the neighborhood until they were house-hunting in 2004. McNally is from the Pawtuxet area in Warwick, and she said Oak Hill Terrace reminded her of home.

Most of the houses in Oak Hill Terrace were built in the late 1940s, and include well-tended cottages, colonials, Capes and ranches, most with one-car garages. Residents have built additions and made changes over the years, so every house has a different look. With spring in full bloom, the streets and bright green lawns are shaded by established trees.

McNally said residents think of the Oak Hill Terrace neighborhood as their private suburban oasis among the busy highways, office buildings and retail stores near Garden City Center and the John O. Pastore government complex. “We’re right near Warwick Mall, Garden City, Route 2, but we’re still not in the midst of all that,” she said.

The neighborhood includes residents of all ages, McNally said, but most people, when they buy, plan to stay for the long-term, and add on to and improve their houses rather than move on to a bigger house. McNally said she and her husband want to raise their family here; their first child, a son, Ben, was born earlier this year.

Lori Chartier has lived in Oak Hill Terrace for 10 years. She said she discovered the neighborhood through a nurse at Pawtucket Memorial Hospital, where she works part time as an emergency room registration clerk. The nurse was selling her house on her own, and told her about it. Chartier and her husband, Bob, were living in North Providence at the time with their son, Jacob, now 12. They bought the nurse’s house, and about five years ago, they built an addition that gave them a family room and an extra bedroom and bathroom.

“The neighborhood has just turned out to be so awesome,” Chartier said. Even her family’s dog, Frodo, has friends in Oak Hill Terrace, she said.

Chartier and McNally said neighborhood parents often enjoy a laugh and a chat at the elementary school bus stop in the mornings and afternoons. But the Internet also keeps neighbors connected, because most Oak Hill Terrace social events are posted online.

There are summer block parties and a holiday visit with Santa for the children every year, courtesy of neighbor Pat McMahon. McMahon said he bought a $250 Santa suit on sale for $25 at a shop at Providence Place a few years ago, as a treat for his young grandchildren. He began inviting the children of a few neighbors, and now it’s an annual tradition. He sits on a rocker on his front porch with a bag of candy, and parents take pictures of their children on Santa’s lap. “Even my own grandchildren don’t know it’s me,” he said. This past St. Patrick’s Day, several residents opened their homes for a neighborhood “pub crawl.”

Chartier said because she has a large backyard and a pool, her family hosts a lot of neighborhood parties. Chartier and McMahon said the Mulligan’s Island golf course is visible from their yards.

A proposal to build a large retail development, with space for two “big-box” stores, on the Mulligan’s Island site has raised concern about increased traffic among neighbors, McNally said, and the neighborhood recently held a meeting to discuss the proposal. “We’re not happy about it,” McMahon said.

Despite the slowdown in the Rhode Island real estate market, there were no “for sale” signs visible on a recent visit to Oak Hill Terrace. Prices for single-family houses listed for sale this month in the Oaklawn and Garden Hills sections of Cranston range from $199,900 to $429,900.

McNally said she knows someone who may be selling soon, but she says neighborhood houses usually don’t stay on the market for very long.

“We definitely want to stay in the neighborhood, and that’s how everyone seems to be on our street,” she said. “Once people are here, they’re here. Everyone is really welcoming and friendly. It’s just a great community.”

cdunn@projo.com