David Pancarowicz unloads bales of hay from his farm in Greene at the Summit General Store.

In the western end of Coventry, Summit and Greene, both former stops for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, remain village centers in a rural area that has seen increasing suburban development in recent years.

The Town of Coventry still requires a minimum of five acres per housing lot in this section of town, which should ensure that some rural flavor is retained in the future.

But from the perspective of Esther Finnerty, who has lived in her home on Log Bridge Road for “about 60 years,” since she moved there as a young bride, the change seems profound.

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“I’m one of the old-timers. I don’t know how it got to be that way,” Finnerty said with a smile. Finnerty, whose maiden name was Andrews, said she is a direct descendant of Samuel Gorton, “which is my claim to fame.” In 1643, Gorton, a religious leader persecuted by Massachusetts authorities for his beliefs, was one of a group that purchased much of present-day Warwick from the Narragansett Indians, a sale known as the Shawomet purchase.

Finnerty said her house is on land that was a present from her father when she was married, at 17, to her first husband. The house is oriented away from the street, and faces trees, a small pond and a large yard, where her grandchildren were playing on a sunny day last week.

Finnerty’s house is near the old village center of Summit, which in addition to a small number of historic houses, consists of the 1862 Summit Baptist Church, now owned by the Coventry Historical Society, a white clapboard building that is the former Summit Free Library, and the Summit General Store.

The store offers a little bit of everything, including groceries, garden, fishing and hunting supplies, and animal feeds. The current owners, the Skaling family, have run the store for about 40 years, according to Kevin Skaling, but the store has been operating continuously since the mid-1800s, he said. The Greene Post Office is even located at a counter in the store.

Last Tuesday, as two men were repainting the interior of the church building, which they said suffered smoke damage during a boiler fire during the winter, several women were walking past the church with two miniature horses.

Many people let their dogs roam free in the neighborhood, despite the automobile traffic that Finnerty said has increased dramatically since she was a child.

To Finnerty, an animal lover, fast drivers — especially those who play loud music — are a pet peeve. She worries about the wild animals as well as the neighborhood pets endangered by traffic. Finnerty and her husband, Lenny Finnerty, have six cats and three dogs, some adopted from friends who could no longer care for them.

Western Coventry is suited to people who like nature, open space, and animals. Most of the real-estate listings in Summit and Greene mention the multiple acres, barns and greenhouses that go along with the houses for sale. Greene listings last week ranged in price from $224,900, for a renovated 1800 Colonial with three bedrooms and one bath, to $750,000 for a Cape-style cottage built in 1940 with “61 acres of beautiful partially cleared land. Abundant wildlife, flora and fauna. Potential subdivide.”

That kind of potential is the kind of progress that residents such as Finnerty do not welcome. She prizes the privacy and quiet.

“My roots are here,” she said. “I go out to shop, and that’s pretty much it. I haven’t been to a mall in so many years. I’m not interested. I like quiet. I don’t like crowds. I’m an old Yankee.”

POPULATION:

(Coventry 2000) 35,072

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(Coventry, 2007) $250,000

INTERESTING FACT: Greene is named for Gen. Nathanael Greene, who was second in command to George Washington, but the Greene homestead is in the east Coventry village of Anthony.

cdunn@projo.com