Welcome to East Passage Estates Lot Owner's Association website!

Situated on the northeastern part of Jamestown RI, East Passage Estates is a beautiful community of 97 lots surrounding Rainbow Upper & Lower ponds. Originally planned to be part of an oil refinery in the late 1950s and 1960s, local objection led to Commerce Oil Corporation abandonment of their plans and instead a residential housing development was established with the first official lots being sold in July of 1978. East Passage benefits from the large lot sizes, diverse housing design, underground utilities, mature landscaping, and 2 beautiful ponds as our centerpiece. All streets are uniquely named after America's Cup yacht racing winners except for America Way.

Commerce Oil Corporation, a shell corporation backed by Gulf Oil, attempted to build an oil refinery on the north end of Jamestown from 1956 to 1969. For several years the company quietly bought up a large portion of the north end, including the land that is today East Passage Estates. West Reach, and much of the land from Wright’s Lane north to East Passage Estates. Commerce Oil prevailed in a series of lawsuits that sought to stop the refinery. The project was backed by the state and the Town Council but opposed to a group living on the north end. Ultimately a change in the world price of crude oil made Gulf abandon the project. Left with land they did not need, they subdivided the property creating East Passage Estates, West Reach, and dozens of individual lots in the area. The full story of that struggle is told in the book Dismissed With Prejudice by Mary Steerns McGaugham and Terrance McGaugham, available at the Jamestown Philomena Library. https://jamestownhistoricalsociety.org/product/dismissed-with-prejudice/

The two developments Commerce Oil created included underground utilities which was unusual at the time. Electric was installed by Newport Electric Company which was in financial difficulties at the time and would soon file for bankruptcy protection and be purchased by today’s National Grid. Some of the electric infrastructure was not the best quality as Newport Electric tried to use any material they had on hand. Over the years much of this inferior equipment has been replaced. Telephone and cable was installed underground and are now 50 years old and is no longer state of the art.

The first 2 lots in East Passage Estates was sold in July 1978 to Paul and Linnea Petersen who still live in East Passage Estates.

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