A dock in Greenwich Bay outside a house on Charlotte Drive.

Separated from the rest of Warwick by Greenwich Bay, Potowomut could be mistaken for a part of East Greenwich. On land, the only way into Potowomut is through East Greenwich. From Post Road, Old Forge Road and then Ives Road form the path to this peninsula neighborhood. Sandy Point Beach is at the end of Ives Road.

The East Greenwich Fire Department protects the Potowomut neighborhood, and postal service is also delivered from East Greenwich. But the neighborhood has its own public elementary school that is operated by the Warwick School Department.

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Potowomut

Once past busy Post Road, the drive into Potowomut is more relaxing; it includes the open spaces of Goddard Memorial State Park, the Potowomut Country Club and Rocky Hill School.

“It’s very private down here,” said Paula Pinelli, a real estate agent with Remax Professionals of East Greenwich, who has lived in Potowomut for eight years. “It’s our own little community.” Single-family houses on smallish house lots predominate; Pinelli said most residents go to nearby Post Road to shop.

Pinelli said Potowomut is a former fishing village and summer home community now populated mostly by year-round residents. There is a wide variety of housing styles and sizes. Many of the newer houses are much taller and larger than the older, one-story cottages, with three stories and banks of windows. Many houses, both large and small, have boats parked in the driveways for the winter.

There is also a wide variety of housing prices. Last week, there were 10 houses listed for sale in Potowomut through the Statewide Multiple Listing Service. The lowest price was $209,900, for a 1950 ranch-style house with 720 square feet of living space, including two bedrooms, and according to the listing information, a new kitchen, bath, roof, and windows, and hardwood floors. Six more houses were priced in the 200s and 300s, and two houses were priced in the high 400s.

The highest-price house was listed at $1.75 million, for a raised ranch built in 1970 on the waterfront at 141 Charlotte Drive. The custom house has two kitchens, central air conditioning, a gym, a wraparound deck at the back of the house, facing the water, and a 110-foot dock with a hydraulic lift, according to Pinelli, the listing agent. “A lot of us here on the waterfront do have our own docks,” said Pinelli, who also lives on Charlotte Drive.

Pinelli’s clients, Michael and NiNa Galvin, bought the house in 1999 for $225,000. Michael Galvin said that although the house was in very bad shape at the time, and he has poured a lot of money into improving it, it’s “one of the best investments we ever made.” The Galvins own a group of hair salons and Paul Mitchell schools.

“Potowomut is one of the most underpriced areas on the water in Rhode Island,” he said. “It’s hidden. It’s like a little island. There’s no traffic; there’s only one way in, and one way out.”

POPULATION: (Warwick, 2000) 85,808

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(Warwick, 2006) $242,500

PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

Potowomut Elementary School

Tollgate High School

INTERESTING FACT:

Potowomut (a Narragansett Indian name meaning “land of fires”) was the birthplace of Nathanael Greene, a general in the Revolutionary War. He was born in 1742.

cdunn@projo.com