USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > History of Providence County, Rhode Island, Volume I > Part 38
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The Rhode Island Historical Society building, on Waterman street, opposite Brown University, was erected in 1844. The build- ing is of stone and contains, in addition to 9,000 volumes and 20,000 pamphlets, a large collection of articles of historical value. A tran- sept in the rear was added in 1889.
Grace church was consecrated in 1846. The parish was organized in 1829, and held its first services in the old Tin Top church. In 1832 the Providence Theater, at the corner of Westminster and Mathewson streets, was purchased and altered over into a church. It was moved away, and on its site the present structure was built.
The Union passenger station on Exchange Place was erected in 1848. It is of brick and 625 feet in length.
The "Shelter," at No. 20 Olive street, was erected in 1849, upon land donated by Mrs. Maria Jenkins. It is of wood and is managed by the Providence Association for the Benefit of Colored Children, organized in 1838.
St. Francis Xavier Academy, at the corner of Broad and Claverick streets, was established in 1851, erected in part in 1854, and completed in 1865.
The Mathewson Street Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1848, as the Third Methodist Society, by members who drew away from the Power and Chestnut Street societies. The present edifice was dedicated May 28th, 1851, and prior to the erection the society worshipped in a hall on Westminster street.
The Central Congregational church on Benefit street, near Col- lege street, was erected in 1852, and is of brick and freestone.
The Central Baptist church was organized in 1805. The first edi- fice was erected on Pine street, in 1807, and destroyed by fire. Septem- ber 23d, 1815. A second building was erected at once, and used until the present brick structure on Broad street, near Burrill street, was built in 1857, at a cost of $65,000. In 1882 the interior was materially altered and beautified.
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
St. Aloysius Orphan Asylum, on Prairie avenue, in South Provi- dence, was erected in 1858. It is of brick, presents an imposing ap- pearance, is under the care of the Sisters of Mercy, and is supported by the Roman Catholic church in the diocese of Providence. Nearly 225 orphans find a home there.
In addition to the foregoing old buildings is the Tockwotten House, a description of which will be found further on, the long row of mercantile buildings on South Water street, the group of old build- ings next and adjoining the old custom house on South Water street, and the rickety structure next below the post office, on Weybosset street, facetiously designated as the "Grosvenor palace." There are two or three old structures on Christian hill, which formerly belonged to the late Major Dean. It is not known when they were bttilt, but one of them is said to have been drawn up the hill by men, from the neighborhood of Dorrance street. Some of the old mills in the sub- urbs date back about three-quarters of a century, but the date of their erection is a matter beyond the range of reasonable possibilities to find out at the present time.
History tells us that Roger Williams and his followers to these shores, first dwelt in the primitive tents of the Indians, then in log huts with clay between the logs, and that finally Providence began to grow to what it now is from a straggling village of about two score hottses, which were made of oak, the frames of which were hewn from the solid trees with the axes of their owners, architects and builders. The early colonists evidently had no glass to put in their windows. The foundations of these houses, and the huge chimneys, which were built at one end of the houses, were rough and unhewn, just as they came from the hillsides. From the meagre descriptions of these houses, which may be culled from the public records of the town, it is learned that they were one and one-half stories in height, with a lower room and chamber. John Whipple's house, which was at the foot of Constitution hill, was one of the first to be built after Philip's war. Thomas Olney, Sr .. could boast of better accommodations than his neighbors, for he had a parlor, kitchen and chamber. Late in the seventeenth century the houses are found to have had four apartments, with a chimney in the center of the structures. There were also a number of narrow houses, two stories in height, and with a garret. The "Gaol house," on Constitution hill, was of the latter mentioned type, as was also Nathaniel Brown's house, which stood at the corner of Church street, and was removed in 1842. Nathaniel Brown was the earliest ship- builder in the town, was a man of wealth and one of the founders of St. John's church. His house had a large stone chimney at its north end. After these came the houses of two stories, with two chambers in the attic. All of these old houses have passed away, and not a vestige of them is standing.
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
Among the early houses in the eighteenth century, passing men- tion is made of that of Gabriel Bernon, erected in 1721, on the west side of "Towne " street, opposite St. John's church. Where Chad. Brown's homestead stood is now a portion of College street, and where Thomas street now cuts through was formerly the site of the Angell homestead. Next north of this last house was the dwelling of Thomas Olney, who succeeded Roger Williams after the disrup- tion of the religious society which he founded. At Howland street were the houses of Roger Williams and John Throckmorton, and at that point now known as Church street Joshua Verin's house stood. A little to the north and next to St. John's church lived Richard Scot, the first convert made by George Fox. Beyond Scot's house and up Constitution hill there were then no houses to speak of. At the opening of the eighteenth century Gregory Dexter resided in a house near Dexter lane, now Olney street. In the field east of the North Burial Ground for many decades were the cellars and stone foundations of five of the old houses which formerly stood in a row and were destroyed in Philip's war.
As early as 1784, and in January of that year, it is recorded that Providence experienced a severe freshet, during which many of the houses which stood near the town mill (Smith's grist mill) were swept away. In 1745 Daniel Rutenbridge erected a mill over the Wconas- quatucket river, which was the precurser of all the great manufac- turing enterprises and establishments of Rhode Island. He was a German, and died May 15th, 1754. The "County House " was voted to be built in 1729, was completed in October, 1731, and burned De- cember 24th, 1758. In 1720 Doctor Jabez Bowen's house was built on Bowen street. The first oyster house in the city was established by a colored slave named Emanuel Bernoon. It was located on Towne street, near the site of the first custom house, and proved so remun- erative a venture that when he died Bernoon left his wife a house and lot on Stampers street.
The history of no single institution is connected more intimately with that of the town than the history of its hostelries. It is familiar that the judgment of the world is passed on a community by the kind of a hotel that it maintains, as much as it is by its busi- ness aspect or its educational facilities. Yet while this intimate con- nection with the town's history can be claimed for the hostelry, the nature of that connection has radically altered. Thus, while the hostelry has followed the progress of this town, in a material sense, moving in the years from its original site far out on the Pawtucket pike to the present heart of the city, and while it has followed its growth in its business and commercial aspect, at periods perhaps being " behind " or " ahead " of the town, its relationship to the com- munity has undergone a radical change. It is a change, however, that only emphasizes the fact of that relationship inasmuch as it
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
marks the change wrought in the growing community itself, in its. business and social aspects.
The old inns, ordinaries or taverns, as they were variously styled, were originally strictly for the town; they were an important ele- ment in the internal life of the town, in which town meetings, gen- eral assemblies, even the courts were conducted, and the social and business life as well was intimately connected with them. They were the vital centers, in a word, of the town. The hotel of today, on the contrary, has little in common with the private life of the community; it has become the place set apart by the community for the welcome to strangers, and thousands are ignorant of even the proprietor's name. This change in its relationship has been a natural one; though perhaps it would be difficult to strictly dis- tinguish the cause from the effect-whether the town, finding the need of larger accommodation for the gathering of its representa- tives, drifted away from the tavern room to other more formal quar- ters, and so the public house opened its doors to the outside world for its business; or the development of the connections with other places, and the increasing demand for public accommodations, had the effect of separating the freemen and their inns, it might be hard to decide.
Reminiscences of the inns and taverns of the town are retained by its veteran citizens, who not only have personal recollections of the famous hostelries of the early part of the present century, but possess also the traditions of still older and no less remarkable inns that were famous, and died out in the time of their fathers and grand- fathers. Pleasant as are these reminiscences, the stories and tradi- tions of the old tavern rooms, the gay balls and the sober town meet- ings, the swinging signs and rattling stage coaches, the histories of all but a few lack accurate data, and are neither recorded nor can be offered with desirable exactness by even the oldest inhabitants.
For two generations after the settlement of the town all strangers coming to Providence were received in private houses. But the Pidge Tavern is believed to have been built in 1641 near the spot where the horse car barn now is on the Pawtucket road, near the " old Toll House." This was a favorable location, as the town was then laid out. One John Foster was the possible owner, and after him came John Morey and Philip Esten (1769) and Jeremiah Sayles. From the latter the estate passed to his daughter, who was the wife of Ira Pidge, from whom the tavern seems to have derived its permanent name, although it.is also known as the Jeremiah Sayles Tavern. James S. Pidge, a son, inherited it and conducted it. The tavern is particularly famed as having been the headquarters of Lafayette in Sayles' time, being situated hard by the " French camping grounds." The building still stands on its old site, and is in the possession of the Pidge family, of this city.
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IHISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
Benjamin Pidge kept a tavern on the north corner of Thurber's lane and Branch avenue, just this side of the North Burial Ground. This was known as the Benjamin Pidge Tavern, to distinguish it, and it flourished in the early part of this century.
The Bull's Head Tavern, or " old tavern house," as a later gener- ation came to call it, comes next in importance in date, and it had a long and honorable record. It was situated, of course, on the Paw- tucket turnpike on the east side, about a mile north of the Amasa Gray Tavern, which stands to-day at the junction of the turnpike and North Main street. Its signboard bore a bull's head that is remem- bered by not a few now living. It was built in 1672, and was used as a tavern down to 1837, after which, piece by piece, it was torn down and removed, and about 1875 the last of it disappeared. Major John Dexter, son of Gregory Dexter, owned it in the beginning of its career, and it remained in the Dexter family for more than a cen- tury. In the latter part of this period it was rented to parties out- side by Joseph and Moses, great-grandsons of Major John, who were unmarried and boarded with their tenants. At one time the old tav- ern was used as a slaughter house. Benjamin Gould was the landlord after Moses died (1825), and Ezekiel Emerson succeeded him in 1828, when the property became involved in a lawsuit; the property passed out of the hands of the family, and soon after ceased to be a tavern and suffered a gradual decline.
Half way up Constitution hill stood Whipple's Tavern. It was licensed to John Whipple in 1680 and stood, one of the most con- spicuous of the old taverns, to the middle of the eighteenth century - not a long life, but a notable one. "From its staid and sober char- acter, as well as its central position. Whipple's was the favorite place of meeting of the Council and Probate Court for two generations."
The Turpin House-the " Old Turpin House "-was situated in the rear of the house now No. 626 North Main street, the "town street," the site occupied by the late William G. Angell, directly opposite the Fourth Baptist church. William Turpin, who, it is recorded, was a schoolmaster, turned inn keeper, and seems to have proved himself a most agreeable and successful host. The house which bore his name was built in 1695, and it soon became the state house of the colony, where, too, the probate court, as well as the gen- eral assembly, were wont to meet. Turpin's son, also William, suc- ceeded him at his death, July 18th, 1709, until his own death in 1744; and the house seems to have gained and maintained a constantly widening influence, and became the largest in the town. and of a political importance which only ended when the present state house was built in 1762. And it still retained its popularity until the town drifted away from it and its fellows in the North End.
Olney's Tavern, which shared with Whipple's and Turpin's a celebrity that endured well into the last century, stood at the corner
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
of North Main and Olney streets, and was run by Epenetus Olney. Olney street was then known as Dexter's lane. The house enjoyed a longer life and greater celebrity than either of the other two. It was near the highway from Boston, and had the best traveling patronage; the town mill was hard by, and the site was eminently the commer- cial center of these Plantations. Its neighborhood, as the most public location, was made the scene of penal discipline, and the town stocks were set up there. The property passed to the descendants of Epe- netus Olney through several generations, and saw its rivals die while it continued its successful career as a hostelry well into the last years of the last century, being still a popular resort at the time of the revolutionary war, when Joseph Olney dedicated his big elm on the green in front of it as a "liberty tree." But in 1803, when the city was drifting away from it and it had seen its best days, Colonel Jere Olney built a house on the green before it, and it was a matter of a few years only before it passed away.
About the middle of the last century the number of taverns began to increase with the growth of the town, while the establishment of the state house and the increase of travellers tended to change their character and to give them a different sort of popularity and celeb- rity. In 1757 the "Sign of the White Horse" was kept by genial Cap- tain Adams and his son, on North Main street, just opposite the First Baptist church, and it was a great resort for mariners and merchants. Here all the marine news was learned and discussed, and its popu- larity kept pace with the times. It remained a tavern until 1825 or 1830; then was used as a dwelling; a portion for a museum was later annexed to the Earl House, and finally was absorbed by the Gorham Manufacturing Company. In 1760, too, flourished the Widow Kel- ton's, a two-story house of wood, that was located just above the "Sign of the White Horse," next north from the corner of Haymar- ket street, on North Main. The site of this, with that of the house that stood on the corner, are now occupied by the present brick block belonging to Mrs. Gammell; but the old tavern house was not taken down until 1879. The "Widow Kelton's," as well as the "White Horse," have an enduring fame as being the places of holding the first meetings of the venerable St. John's Lodge of Masons.
In the latter part of the last century a tavern, the "Two Crowns," flourished. Its name seems to have been handed down, and some- thing of its fame; also that Captain John Waterman was one of its early landlords- at which time it took the name of its host-and then Noah Mason. But the exact location of the " Two Crowns " is in- volved in considerable obscurity. It was doubtless somewhere in the lower part of North Main street, where all the prominent inns of the period flourished; but the site of the old Providence Hotel, of the Whatcheer Building, or on Market Square itself, are variously claimed. Its name is left behind with but little of its history. The
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
" Bunch of Grapes" was another inn whose picturesque name sur- vives all other reliable information of it or its location.
The Montgomery Hotel stood on the triangular lot at the head of Constitution hill, where the fire alarm tower now stands, and was built in 1781 by General Simeon Thayer. (The date of building is also given as 1768 by Staples's annals, but the less ancient date is one more generally received and possibly on more reliable authority.) It was kept at one time by James Hidden, and was the headquarters of the Boston coach, which used to depart from its doors every Monday. The tavern was torn down about 1808.
There are two inns now standing in the city and still adapted more or less strictly to their original function, which date back into the eighteenth century: The Hoyle Tavern, the familiar house at the junction of High and Cranston streets, which is believed to have been established in 1782 (the legend on a picture of the house hanging in the sitting room claims its erection in 1724), and the Mansion House, more generally cited as the oldest hotel in Providence, which was opened in 1784 under the name of the Golden Ball Inn, and which stands at the corner of Benefit and South Court streets, nearly oppo- site the state house. Its sign in the old days was adorned by a golden globe in keeping with its name. Here in the Golden Ball Inn were entertained Washington, Monroe and Lafayette, and it seems to have been a famous and richly honored hotel in the old days. The Hoyle 'was named after its builder, who also ran a Hoyle Hotel out in Trip- town. It was in its early days more of a dancing house and place of entertainment, that was in wide favor with the young people. Situ- ated as it was far out in the country. with no bridge to cross the river from the east side, the jovial parties of young men and women had to go far around in the country in their excursions to wind up in a dance and a good time at the Hoyle. It was the earliest tavern on the west side.
Probably prior to 1800, perhaps in 1798 or 1799, the famous, later notorious, Bull Dog Tavern, was built. Its history is that of a house and locality of the highest repute that descended through the years to bear only a hard name and unenviable notoriety. Still it has left a good legacy as the fruit of its early staidness, virtue and piety in no less a form than the society and building of the Fourth Baptist church. Bull Dog square, the name by which its location, Randall square, is known, has now only a sinister meaning. The tavern stands on the west side of Charles street and was contemporaneous in its glory with two other famous hostelries, the Manufacturers'and the Washington Hotels. Although there appears to be opportunity for discussion as to who built it, reliable authority credits Doctor Thomas Green with being its founder. The lot was originally owned by Job Smith, a landlord of later repute, and in 1797 was conveyed to Joseph Snow and then in 1800 lot and buildings were transferred to
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HISTORY OF PROVIDENCE COUNTY.
Fenner Angell, of the Fenner Angell Tavern at the corner of Orms and Davis streets. Calvin Dean, who was a mortgagee, took possession in 1808: Richard Smith came into possession in 1820; Joseph Tierney in 1840; Mary Ann Madden, 1842; John N. Smith was another proprie- tor: and a man by the name of Godfrey ran it about 1860. Doctor Green, its original owner, was a staid old gentleman described in Quaker garb, and the Bull Dog doubtless preserved the staidness and repute of its proprietor for some years. But its chief repute, perhaps, should be connected with the period of Richard Smith's landlordship. Smith. who afterward became the popular landlord of the Franklin House and Eagle House, appears to have earned the staid inn-keeper's traits of Doctor Green to the extreme. He was from Glocester, and a young man when he took possession of the Bull Dog, and in his time the hall of the tavern was devoted, on Sundays, to religious meetings. On alternate Sundays, the Reverend Henry Tatem and the Reverend Benjamin Porter held services there with constantly increasing congregations. Baptisms were conducted in the (then) pure and undefiled Moshassuck, whose waters flowed conveniently near. The meetings in the old Bull Dog gathered many into the Christian fold, and their efforts and results formed the nucleus of the Fourth Baptist Church Society.
The Fenner Angell Tavern was contemporaneous with the Bull Dog, and the old two-story gamble roofed building still stands at the corner of Orms and Davis streets. It was subsequently known as the Commodore Perry Tavern and later still as the Tinker Tavern, when Henry Tinker kept it. It has a notoriety in common with the Bull Dog for a hard character and dog fights, cock fights and prize fights are said to be among the memories of its Sunday pastimes. It was, however, chiefly famed as the headquarters for horse racing, a sport that had a splendid field for development in that vicinity in the days of its career.
To mention the Old Manufacturers' Hotel and the Washington Hotel is to call nanies familiar to those of even the present genera- tion whose ancestry were resident Rhode Islanders, in the period when they flourished. These contemporaneous hostelries rival each other in their enduring fame and in the wealth of reminiscences which fire the heart and bring a glow to the cheek.
The Manufacturers' Hotel was originally the private residence of Deputy Governor Jabez Bowen. As a hotel it belonged to Governor Arthur Fenner, and at his death in 1805, it passed to his son James Fenner. From the platform erected in front of it were read the pub- lic proclamations of the time in 1776 of the declaration of inde- pendence, the announcement of peace, and the adoption of the con- stitution of Rhode Island. A great horse-chestnut tree stood before its entrance on the square. It was the headquarters of stage lines in all directions and was altogether a public house of eminent importance
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and preference, and reminiscences of its days are familiar, numerous and inspiring.
The Washington Hotel will be ever famous as the scene of the grand balls and festivities of the èlite of the town and city half a cen- tury ago. It was built about the year 1800 by Esek Aldrich, who had many successors and the hotel as many proprietors. John Andrews and wife took possession about the year 1859 and held it for a period of 15 years, when it was sold to Christopher Johnson. During Andrews' proprietorship the hotel was the headquarters for George Scott's stage to Warwick and John Babcock's to South Kingstown; and during this time, although in the decade 1820-30, it reached the summit of its social glory. It was a great " society" resort, the scene of the most fashionable of the fashionable balls and grand parties, and the place of holding the far-famed "Washington Assemblies;" and the name of Hannah Andrews, the hostess, will be treasured in memory in connection with the pleasant reminiscences associated with the famous old tavern. The annual Washington ball of the First Light Infantry, which continues a leading social event, may claim to be the existing descendant from the select old "assemblies" of Mrs. Andrews' time.
About 1818 or 1820 Nicholas R. Gardiner, her father, kept a tavern in the homestead where stands the Jones building on Westminster street, and his tavern in its day was a great rendezvous of the nota- bles of the state for ten or twelve years. This, the Gardiner Tavern, was kept after Mr. Gardiner died by the Messrs. Waite, who, after its removal, kept tavern in the building now occupied by the Rhode Island News Company. The Gardiner Tavern, when removed in 1837 to give place to the Jones Building, was taken to 105 Clifford street, where it now stands recuperated by a new roof and front.
At the other end of the city, out on High street, from the Olney- ville district to the Hoyle Tavern, a number of inns and taverns of more or less repute flourished from the early part of the present cen- tury until recent years. Out by the old Tar bridge, now replaced by a neat iron structure, stood the Samuel Randall Tavern. The Par- don and John Angell and Fox taverns were located farther down, the latter down to Knight street. The Farmer's Home was kept by Doc- ton Gideon Spencer in 1822 and removed by Perry Davis, Esq .. for the " Pain Killer " building. All of these were on the south side of the highway. On the north side were Field's, Round's and Hopkins's taverns, and at the corner of High and Battey streets stood that of Nehemiah Angell, built in 1830. Of these old inns the Fox Tavern, which stood at the corner of Knight street, on the site of the Roger Williams Free Baptist church, was built about 1820, and kept by Cap- tain Fox. It was notable as the headquarters of the farmers from the district about and from Connecticut; they came from Windham county and Killingly, as well as from Scituate and the Rhode Island
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