The old brick mill, at 650 Ten Rod Rd., about 2 miles west of Wickford, is the centerpiece of the area. Lafayette is a National Register Historic District.

Today, the sprawling farmhouse with the porch filled with rocking chairs at 751 Ten Rod Rd., in the Lafayette section of North Kingstown, is known as McKay’s Front Porch, a patio furniture retail shop. It’s also the former home of Robert Rodman, who in 1877 built a nearby woolen mill that was once the center of the village economy.

Rodman bought a cotton mill in Lafayette in 1847 but quickly converted to wool production, and later expanded and built another mill building. Rodman Manufacturing Company, which at one point also owned four other mills in the area, closed in the late 1940s, but at its peak it employed more than 500 people in Lafayette alone.

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Many of the buildings constructed during that time survive and are in use today. The mill itself is at 650 Ten Rod Rd., about 2 miles west of Wickford.

Today the mill is home to a yoga studio and a number of public and private social service agencies, according to Mike Baker, who bought the main building in 1980. He said his company, Bakeford Properties, has slowly rehabilitated it since then. He estimated that 125 to 150 people work in the complex today.

Baker said the mill building, which had been used as a lumber yard for a number of years, “was very rundown” when he bought it. But “having grown up in Wickford, I had always just admired the structure itself,” he said.

Some of the smaller mill buildings have different owners. One houses Wickford Gourmet’s outlet kitchen-goods store; another, a pizza parlor.

Local historian Tim Cranston said Lafayette is a National Register Historic District. In addition to several Rodman family houses (the large house next door to McKay’s was built for Rodman’s daughter), a boarding house, a schoolhouse (now Lafayette Antiques) and smaller single-family and duplex houses built for mill workers are located within walking distance of the mill.

The Lafayette Band, originally formed of Lafayette mill workers, recently began rehearsals for its 127th year as a musical group. Band members now live in a number of nearby communities, but they meet to rehearse at North Kingstown High School.

Cranston said although the village is named for the French soldier and statesman who supported and aided America during the Revolutionary War, there is no evidence that Lafayette ever visited the area.

Single-family houses on the market in Lafayette last week ranged in price from $230,000 to $444,900.

The lowest-price house is a cottage built in 1890 that had a “complete rehab” in 2004, including a new roof, windows, septic, electrical service and furnace, according to the listing information. The cottage at 16 King St. has 984 square feet of space, including three bedrooms and one bath, and comes with a 912-square-foot, 4-car garage.

The highest-price house is a 1980 Colonial at 15 Eden Court with four bedrooms, two full baths, two half baths, and 3,308 square feet of space.

Two condominiums on the market in Lafayette last week are in historic buildings that have been rehabilitated. One, at 868 Ten Rod Rd., is priced at $274,000, and is in a 1900 building. It has two bedrooms and two full bathrooms, and 1,200 square feet of space. Another, at 715 Ten Rod Rd., is a two-level condo in an 1864 building. Priced at $269,000, it also has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but has 1,407 square feet of space.

POPULATION: (North Kingstown, 2000) 26,326

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE: (North Kingstown, 2007) $376,000

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Fishing Cove Elementary School (K through grade 3); Hamilton Elementary School (grades 4 and 5); Wickford Middle School; North Kingstown High School

INTERESTING FACT: Fish are raised to stock local ponds and streams

at the Lafayette Trout Hatchery at 465 Hatchery Rd.

cdunn@projo.com