Cat’s Pajamas is one of the stores on Kingstown Road. A market, a bakery and a food pantry are also in the village.

Just a couple of miles away from Main Street in Wakefield, the commercial center of South Kingstown, is the small village of Peace Dale, framed by the imposing granite edifices built by the Hazard family, which established a woolen mill, the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, in the early 19th century.

The buildings include the Neighborhood Guild at 325 Columbia St., a gift from Augusta C. Hazard in 1908 to teach domestic arts to local women, and which is still used as a community center; the public library at 1057 Kingstown Rd., built by the sons of Rowland Hazard II in his honor; and the Peace Dale Office Building at 105 Kingstown Rd., which today is the home of the Museum of Primitive Art and Culture. The Office Building originally housed the mill’s company store, post office and housing for mill workers.

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The Village Green, a playground and park in front of the Neighborhood Guild, is a popular spot with children and walkers, and in the warm weather, it’s often used for picnics, reading and sunbathing, as well as public concerts and celebrations.

And Peace Dale has its own commercial center, a cluster of stores and businesses near a small rotary on Kingstown Road, including the Village Market, the Sweet Cakes cafÉ and bakery, and the Jonnycake Center’s busy thrift store, where proceeds from secondhand clothing sales are used to run a food pantry. The nonprofit Jonnycake Center, which was founded by four local women in 1973, also runs a school-vacation meal program and provides holiday meals to families in need.

A few years ago, many of these storefronts were empty. But an effort, started in 2001, to attract business and residential investment to Peace Dale, led by the Peace Dale Neighborhood Revitalization Committee, has led to change, according to South Kingstown planner Vincent Murray. “It’s been a very successful, community-based, grass-roots effort,” he said.

One of the newer businesses in Peace Dale is Finnegan Fitness, located in the former Peace Dale Elementary School on Kersey Road. Owners Ritch and Mia Finnegan bought the building three years ago — it had been used as an antique and furniture-refinishing business for many years — and opened their fitness center two years ago. The lobby includes photos of Finnegan with Joe Montana and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who were among the clients he personally trained in California, where he lived for 18 years.

Kingstown Road (Route 108) links Peace Dale to Kingston and the University of Rhode Island, about three miles away, and it is also a short drive to Narragansett, Point Judith and a number of beaches. The Saugatucket River runs through Peace Dale. This location attracts an eclectic mix of residents, including professors and other university employees, students, artists, young families, professionals, and retirees and second-home owners.

Because the village was founded in the middle of the mill complex, it’s always been a “walkable, compact” neighborhood, Murray said. “It had some hard times in recent days, but … the citizen-led efforts have proved to be a real motivation toward revival and rebirth. There’s been a fair amount of new investment; hopefully that trend will continue.”

Only two single-family houses were listed for sale in Peace Dale last week: a 1979 ranch, built on a slab on a lot off Church Street, with 1,150 square feet of living space, including 3 bedrooms, 1 full bath and 1 half bath, asking price $254,900; and an 1870 Cape-style house with almost 2,000 square feet of living space, including 5 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms and 1 half bathroom, listed at $299,900.

There is also a group of eight new townhouses on Green Street, all with two bedrooms, one full bath and one half bath, central air conditioning, hardwood floors, granite-counter, stainless-steel applianced kitchens, and individual decks and garages, all priced at $254,900. Four of the units have sold, according to listing agent Bonnie Begos, of Landmark Realty in Wakefield.

She said the townhouses are all new construction, built after the teardown of an existing multifamily building by Shoreline Builders of Warwick. Begos said the townhouse project was part of the effort to renew Peace Dale, and special financing is available for first-time buyers through Rhode Island Housing.

Begos said the revitalization of Peace Dale has brought a “positive buzz,” and some of the new investment has prompted longtime residents to fix up their older properties.

“I think it gave the neighborhood quite a bit of pride,” she said.

POPULATION:

(South Kingstown, 2000) 27,921

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(South Kingstown, 2006) $365,000

PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

Peace Dale Elementary School

South Kingstown High School

INTERESTING FACT: Peace Dale was named by Rowland Hazard, who settled in the area in 1804, to honor his wife, Mary Peace, who was from Charleston, S.C..

cdunn@projo.com