By MARTHA SMITH
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

WARWICK -- In terms of personality, Julia Lippitt Mauran's cousin, Adelaide Knight, could not have been more different.

A shy, self-effacing woman, she led a quiet life on the 125-acre Warwick farm where her father, the industrial titan Webster Knight, raised champion Ayrshire cattle and Morgan horses.

Born to Webster and Sarah Lippitt Knight on Oct. 8, 1885, Adelaide would grow up to bear a striking resemblance to Eleanor Roosevelt. Similarities can be seen in her prominent teeth, haired pulled back into a bun at the nape of the neck, and a fondness for large, concealing hats.

Adelaide, who never married, but was a prominent horticulturist, grower of hothouse orchids and benefactress of charity. "The story handed down was that she fell deeply in love with a lawyer but the family didn't think he was good enough for her so they stopped the romance," says her great-niece and namesake, Adelaide Knight, who lives on the Lippitt family farm in Western Cranston.

The Knight family farm, which the first Adelaide ran after her father died, was situated where the Community College of Rhode Island now stands. In its heyday, the gentleman's -- and, later, gentlewoman's -- estate, was considered one of the showplaces of the state. Its expenses were underwritten by the lucrative textile mills that turned out products under the Fruit of the Loom label.

Under Adelaide's stewardship the estate was a place of great beauty, famous for its bluestone walls, windmill, fabulous flowering shrubs and greenhouses where she often entertained touring garden club members. The farm also had a horse-powered cider press, elegant carriage house and artesian well.

Sixteen years after Adelaide's death, in 1948, her nephew, Royal Webster Knight, gave the land to CCRI, having already sold a large adjacent parcel to the developers of what is now Rhode Island Mall.

Mildred Longo, one of Warwick's foremost amateur historian, says, "I remember the farm before the mall. There were beautiful hills and a pine forest. The Girl Scouts would go out there on field trips."

Betsy Fitzgerald, a reference librarian at the Providence Public Library, has similar recollections.

"I remember the paddocks, driving by. And that white house with black shutters sitting atop an incredibly beautiful hill. I thought it was Tara. My fantasy was to live there."

Adelaide Knight lived there all her life, pursuing her keen interest in flowers and animals. Nearly every photograph in the family album shows her holding puppies or kittens in her lap.

"On the outside she seemed very quiet, introverted," says Adelaide Knight of her great-aunt. "But she was a hot ticket. She was very independent. She ran the farm and didn't require any help from my grandfather."

Tony Caniglia, who works at Bald Hill Subaru, says, "During my early childhood I was a member of the Natick Baptist Church. Miss Knight was a member, someone who gave a lot of anonymous donations. She donated the church organ. She always took the bus to Providence, wore dark clothes and big hats.

"She was quite a lady."