Town file
Foster, Rhode Island
Foster, Rhode Island (Providence County, Rhode Island) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 395, "Not Answering The Call Of Duty" (8 June 2023). Foster, Rhode Island, is a farming town of 4,505 people in Providence County, in the northern part of the state and close to the Connecticut line.
- Town
- Foster
- County
- Providence County
- State
- Rhode Island
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 395
- Approximate location
- 41.789, -71.735
Episode 395 / 8 June 2023 / 172 min / full
Not Answering The Call Of Duty
"This is Foster Rhode Island. It is northern Rhode Island, very close to Connecticut... This is in Providence County, in the main county" about 0:04:42
The case: Foster garage murders (April 13, 1993). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2023
- Population
- 4,505
- Median age
- 48.7
- Median household income
- $80,720
- Median home value
- $447,800
- Two-bedroom rent
- $1,460
- Cost of living
- 132
- Religious
- 54.4%
- Property crime
- ▼ about half the national average
- Violent crime
- ▼ less than half the national average
History, in brief
- Settled in the 17th century by British colonists as a farming community, with land set aside for farming in 1662. about 0:05:27
- Wescott purchased a large tract called West Quanog from the local Indian tribe, taking in nearly the whole southern half of the town of Foster. about 0:06:07
- Foster was incorporated as the western part of Scituate in 1730 and remained part of it until 1781, when it split off and became its own town. about 0:06:26
- Named for U.S. Senator Theodore Foster. about 0:06:36
- The Klan was active in the area in the 1920s; the largest Klan rally ever held north of the Mason-Dixon line took place on the Old Home Day grounds in 1924, with 8,000 people there. about 0:07:51
- The main speaker at the 1924 rally was U.S. Senator J. Thomas Heflin of Alabama. about 0:08:03
- Old Home Days was started in 1904 by the Old Home Association to raise funds to repair the town's buildings. about 0:18:42
The reviews read out
5 stars
"Beautiful; five-acre minimum zoning keeps neighbours at bay; small town where most people know one another; property maintained; no litter, no crime; quiet traditional New England town; Old Home Days in July with a supper, tractor pulls and a pie eating contest; the opposite of city life."about 0:08:36
4 stars
"Properties are well taken care of and all different, with enough land to keep everyone fairly far from each other."about 0:09:33
3 stars
"The food is not terrible but the quality is not going to rise; things have been done this way for so long and show no sign of changing."about 0:09:49
3 stars
"Really likes the trash pickup, which the surrounding towns do not have."about 0:10:29
2 stars
"Lives in a secluded area where it is next to impossible to gather needed items; you must order online or travel 15 to 20 minutes to the nearest shopping centre."about 0:11:10
1 star
"The town has more corruption than any other in Rhode Island and does not enforce its own ordinances; a neighbour was allowed to install culverts in a gravel road, does not maintain them, the road washes away every rainstorm and the town will not act because he is one of their friends."about 0:11:45
1 star
"I hate snow; there is so much snow that the writer has been thinking of moving to California."about 0:12:51
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Cranston, Rhode Island13 miles
- North Smithfield, Rhode Island16 miles
- Woonsocket, Rhode Island19 miles
- East Providence, Rhode Island19 miles
- Pawtucket, Rhode Island20 miles
- Barrington, Rhode Island22 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.