The grounds were once the estate of Civil War officer and Rhode Island politician Robert Goddard, whose children gave the land to the state in 1927 as a memorial to their father.
After the war Goddard was engaged in textile manufacturing as president of the Goddard Brothers Company, known as Goddard Mills in Lonsdale, Rhode Island.
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The ensuing contest between Colt, Wetmore and Democrat Robert Hale Ives Goddard resulted in 81 deadlocked ballots cast by the General Assembly over the course of four months in 1907 and a vacant seat in Rhode Island's delegation to the 60th Congress.