USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33
109
WEYBOSSET SIDE
pedimented entablature with a large central portal with a grilled transom. Two wings were built in 1891 and a further addition was made in 1913 (illustration below). The society sold the building to Brown University in 1942 and moved its quarters to the John Brown house on Power Street (page 63).
The Washington Buildings (illustration, page 178), erected by the Providence Washing- ton Insurance Company in 1843 on Washington Row, in replacement of its former structure (page 62), constituted the most important business group of the period. Architect James
HISTORIUM
R.I.H.S.
Historical Society Cabinet, 1844, 68 Waterman Street.
C. Bucklin effected an interesting composition with a central pilastered unit of granite crowned by an entablature and pediment, flanked by two brick two-story wings, each with a wood cornice and balustrade.
The Roman Catholic church of Saints Peter and Paul, the first of that denomination in Providence, a small, gable-roofed edifice with walls of rough stone covered with stucco, was erected on High (Westminster) Street and consecrated November 4, 1838. The entrance, reached by two-way steps, was set in a central tower framed by corner piers and crowned by an ornamental balustrade and finials. It was enlarged in 1847 to become the Cathedral of Bishop Tyler and was demolished to make way for the present cathedral in 1878.19 Another
19. Field, II, 198.
IIO
1832-1845
Catholic church, Saint Patrick's, designed by Russell Warren, was built on State Street in 1842. Three bells were imported from a convent in Spain by Philip Allen, two of which were donated to these churches and the third hung in the tower of Allen's Print Works on Branch Avenue.20 Saint Patrick's was razed when the present church of that name was erected (page 226).
Among the Protestant churches established during the period, one was a remodeled theatre and two others later were converted into playhouses. Grace Church, organized in 1829, purchased the Providence Theatre21 which was altered in the Gothic style by Russell Warren, in 1832, and served the uses of the parish until the present edifice was built on its site in 1846 (page 126). Power Street Methodist Church was constituted in 1833 and services were held in a brick building at the corner of South Main and Power streets until 1874 when its name was changed to Hope Street Methodist Church and a new structure erected (page 152). The vacated South Main Street building was converted into Amateur Dramatic Hall, later identified as Talma Theatre, following the incorporation of the Talma Club, an amateur group, organized in 1887, which gave plays there during the ensuing twenty years. The building became the Providence Boys' Club in 1922. Saint Stephen's Church, established in 1833, erected its first building at the corner of Benefit and Transit streets in 1840 where services were held until the present church on George Street was consecrated in 1862 (page 137). The Benefit Street building subsequently became the Church of the Saviour and was finally acquired in 1932 by The Players and converted into Barker Playhouse (page 247).
A Quaker Meeting House was erected at the corner of Meeting and North Main streets in 1844, replacing the former edifice (page 26) which was moved to a lot on Hope Street and converted into a dwelling. The new meeting house was a frame structure with a low gable roof, reflecting Greek influence.22
The Providence Marine Corps of Artillery, a chartered command incorporated in 1801, erected an arsenal (illustration, page 112) on Benefit Street in 1840 which was acquired later by the state and served as the State Armory until the present Cranston Street Armory was opened in 1908. The massive walls of the building were built of chipped stone and covered with cement, the facade composed of a central portal of Gothic design, rising nearly the full height of the pedimented facade and flanked on either side by a square turreted tower. The arsenal was moved a short distance north to its present location at the corner of Meeting Street when the railroad tunnel was built in 1905 (page 201).
The domestic architecture of the Greek Revival period was marked by an increase in story heights and by bolder and heavier details than previously had been employed. The Joseph Carpenter house (c. 1843), a wood dwelling which stood on the site of the Providence Public Library on Washington Street, had a portico across the front with four full-height Corinthian columns crowned by an entablature and pediment. The more typical house of the period had a small projecting entrance porch, designed in one of the classic orders, in the center or the corner of the street front (illustration, page 113). Less academic was the house erected for Benjamin Harris at the corner of George and Megee streets, in 1835, one of the later designs by John Holden Greene. It was a single-story dwelling, its principal rooms grouped around a rotunda which contained a stairway leading to an attic; a Doric
20. Providence Visitor, April 11, 1915. See also page 171.
21. See page 60. Grace Church Cemetery was established in 1834 at the junction of Pawtuxet (Broad) and Greenwich Street (Elmwood Avenue) as a burial place for members of the church.
22. The Meeting House was razed in 1952 and a fire station erected on its site. A new meeting house was built at 89 Morris Avenue (Harkness and Geddes, architects).
III
WEYBOSSET SIDE
portico, with columns and a pediment, formed the entrance and a balustrade surrounded the roof. The house was torn down about 1916. Another distinguished house of the period, designed by Russell Warren, was erected for William Foster at 19 Charles Field Street
7 7 7
R.I.H.S.
Marine Corps Arsenal, 1840, Benefit Street.
about 1840. The facade was composed of heavy pilasters and a two-story recessed entrance porch with standing columns, all having capitals reminiscent both of Corinthian and Egyptian motives. A square cupola crowned the hipped roof (illustration, page 169). The house was razed in 1955 to make way for a Brown quadrangle.
II2
1832-1845
A struggle on the part of the people to secure extended suffrage in Rhode Island was climaxed in 1842 by the Dorr Rebellion. The state had never adopted a constitution and was governed by an Assembly, set up under the Charles II charter of 1663 (page 12), which had excessive powers and was elected by the freemen, constituting the landed aristocracy. While the system worked during the 17th and 18th centuries, it was regarded with increasing disfavor as the population increased and civic functions became more complex. Criticism was focused particularly on the inequality of the towns' representation in the General Assembly and on the voting restrictions imposed by that body. Following several ineffectual
R.I.H.S.
Early 19th century houses on Williams Street.
attempts to adopt a constitution the Rhode Island Suffrage Association was formed by certain inhabitants of Providence, soon to be followed by branches in the other towns of the state with the purpose of using the sovereign rights of the people to set up a new government. Failing to gain support of the General Assembly the association elected delegates to a People's Convention which was held October 4, 1841 at which a constitution was drafted, extending suffrage to every male citizen, 21 years or over, who had resided in the state one year or longer. This was submitted to the people at an election December 27 and, after the ballots had been counted at a re-assembled convention January 12, 1842, proclamation was made that the "People's Constitution" had been adopted. Meanwhile, a
II3
WEYBOSSET SIDE
second convention had been held under authority of the General Assembly in November, 1841, at which a "Landholder's Constitution" was framed and submitted, in March, 1842, to the freemen, by whom it was rejected.
The people's election was held April 18, 1842 and the regular state election on April 20. The people elected as governor Thomas W. Dorr, leader of the suffrage movement, a former member of the General Assembly, and chairman of the Providence School Committee. The freemen re-elected Samuel Ward King governor at the charter election.
Dorr was inaugurated governor May 3, 1842, in a factory building near the corner of Eddy and Weybosset streets, and on the following day Governor King was inaugurated in the State House at Newport. With hostilities imminent both parties commenced military preparations. Dorr established headquarters in the residence of Burrington Anthony on Atwells Avenue and, on the night of May 17, led an attack on the state armory, then established in a mill on Cranston Street adjacent to Dexter Training Ground. He was opposed by militia summoned by Governor King, including the Providence Marine Corps of Artillery and chartered commands from Newport, Bristol and Warren. At the armory Dorr was abandoned by many of his followers and the attack failed. He retreated to Connecticut to plan his further campaign and, on June 25, returned to Rhode Island and took up headquarters at Chepachet where his followers were entrenched at Acote Hill. The state militia marched there from Providence on June 28 and a "bloodless battle" was fought which ended in Dorr's flight and the charter forces in possession. On May 6, 1844 Dorr was found guilty of treason and was sentenced to prison for life.23
The efforts of the Rhode Island Suffrage Association were not in vain for the present state constitution was adopted at a convention held in November, 1842, was ratified by the freemen at an election held in the same month, and became operative May 2, 1843. Thomas W. Dorr was released from prison June 27, 1845 and was restored to his civil and political rights by the General Assembly in 1851. His portrait, painted by Wilfred Duphiney, was unveiled in the State House by Governor Theodore Francis Green May 4, 1943.
23 . Arthur May Mowry, The Dorr War or the Constitutional Struggle in Rhode Island (Providence, 1901).
II4
CHAPTER 11 1845 - 1860
A CIVIC project of major importance was the filling of a part of the cove waters and the construction of an elliptical cove basin, with axes 1300 feet long and 1180 feet wide, surrounded by a promenade (see map, page 117). The plan was proposed by the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company, incorporated in 1844, with the objective of establishing tracks, yards, and terminals near the civic center.
Construction work was undertaken by the railroad company, in accordance with a City Council resolution and an accompanying plat, approved January 29, 1846, providing for the erection of a stone retaining wall with openings in the easterly rim for receiving the waters of Moshassuck river and for discharging the waters of the basin into Providence river.1 The westerly segment of the wall was deferred (page 19).
The waters north, east and south of the retaining walls were filled and a promenade, 80 feet wide, was constructed around the ellipse, adjacent to the walls, with bridges over the river openings (see map, page 122). The filled lands, except those used for highways, were appropriated by the railroad for yards and buildings. Tracks were laid from Worcester, Massachusetts, on a road six rods wide, following Blackstone and Moshassuck valleys to Providence where they encircled the east and south borders of the Cove basin, outside the promenade. Construction work was far enough advanced to permit the operation of a passenger train from Providence to Millville, Massachusetts, September 27, 1847,2 at which time the railroad's merchandise depot, erected that year on Canal Street, was used tem- porarily as a passenger terminal.
Exchange Bridge was erected diagonally across Providence river in 1848, a short distance east of the Cove basin (see map, page 117). It was of wood construction, 80 feet wide, and provided additional access from Cove Street (Exchange Place) to Canal Street.
A petition by the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad to extend the tracks of the Stonington Line (page 105), to connect with the Worcester Railroad, was granted by the City Council September 17, 1847, upon that company's agreement to build retaining walls where its property extended through the south part of the cove, and to erect highway overpasses where the railroad intersected High (Westminster) Street, Broadway and Atwells Avenue.3 The new route branched from the Stonington road just south of the present Providence-Cranston line, west of Roger Williams Park, and ran northerly, by Mashapaug and Benedict ponds, over the present main road to Woonasquatucket valley which it followed to the Cove basin. Shortly afterward the Boston and Providence Railroad received authority to extend its tracks from East Junction, Massachusetts, to the Providence and Worcester line at Central Falls and to run its trains over the latter company's rails into Providence, abandoning the India Point terminal (page 104) for passenger traffic.
I. Report of the Commissioners of the Cove Lands, 1877, PP. 4-5.
2. Providence Journal, Sept. 28, 1847. "Two trains of cars went over the Worcester Railroad yesterday, as far as Millville, twenty miles from Providence, and returned. Quite a large number of passengers filled the cars, and crowds were at the stopping places. All were delighted with the road and with all the arrangements, so far as they are completed. The cars will now run regularly, and very soon they will go over the whole road."
3. Report of the Commissioners of the Cove Lands, 1877, PP. 97-99.
115
MALLO
R.I.H.S.
View of Cove basin and promenade, from an engraving by Mallory, c. 1860. State Prison (1838-1878) in right foreground; Railroad Depot in center distance.
1845-1860
The railroads were required by the City Council to put up fences between the tracks and the Cove Promenade, and on both sides of their rights of way, and to erect gates at grade crossings.
The Union Passenger Depot (illustration, page 118) was erected by the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1848,4 providing accommodations for all three companies, its north
Woonacquatucket
FRANCIS ST
SMITH
Rover
State
Prisen
NY,R &D Fre
GASPEE ST
CROSSING
P. 4 H Enque Houve
Car Ruse
157
Engine House
COVE PROMENADE
P.AV Verk Shey
COVE ST
The Cove Basin
HAYMARKET 3
MEETING ST
State House
CANAL
MEETING ST
ST
ST
WASHINGTON
5T
THOMAS ST
BENEFIT
A MAP
EXCHANGE PLACE
FULTON ST
OF THE CENTER OF PROVIDENCE
EDDY
DORRANCE
EXCHANGE ST
Washington Bldg
WASHINGTON
ST.
WESTMINSTER ST
MARKET SQ
Aur
Long
1856
ST.
Arcade
WEYBOSSET ST
Scale
2
Drawn by John Hutchins Cady 1945
side following the curve of the Cove basin and the south side facing Cove Street, which was re-named Exchange Place. The building was designed in the Romanesque manner by Thomas A. Tefft5 who made successful use of Lombard brick detail in various forms and
4. Authority for the erection of passenger and merchandise depots was provided in a City Council resolu- tion, passed March 8, 1847.
5. Thomas A. Tefft, (1826-1859) entered the office of Tallman and Bucklin in 1845 and retained his connection with that firm while a student at Brown, from which he was graduated in 1851. He maintained his own office during the next five years, then went to Europe and died in Florence, Italy.
II7
ST
FOUNTAIN ST.
MATHEWSON
UNION
E PROMENADE
STEEPLE ST
NORTH MAIN ST
LS
WATERMAN ST
ANGELL ST
SHOWING THE COVE BASIN AND RAILROAD
Merchants
ST
DIP
VYPLA
SABIN ST
WEYBOSSET SIDE
patterns. The central motive of the facade was a broad central gable, set between tall towers, and the main block was flanked by two wings with arcaded fronts, terminating in octagonal pavilions. The depot was destroyed by fire in 1898 (page 180).
After the cove walls had been built it developed that mud flats were sometimes exposed within the basin at low tide. Accordingly, the City Council, in 1850, authorized the con- struction of a dam with flood gates near the outlet of the Cove basin, by means of which the waters of the basin were so impounded that the mud was no longer exposed. The dam
-
AODADE ADOM
R.I.H.S.
Union Passenger Depot, 1848-1896, Exchange Place.
was not a complete success, however; a lack of care of the tide gates often permitted the ebb and flow of the tide, and damage was done to nearby property in times of freshets. The dam was removed in 1878.6
In 1852 the City Council authorized the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad, incorporated that year, to lay its rails in Providence, entering the city from the southwest, near Benedict pond, and continuing from that point, parallel with the New York, Provi-
6. Report of City Engineer Nolan, included in City Plan Commission, Annual Report, 1933, PP. 25-27.
118
1845-1860
dence and Boston roadbed, to the Union Depot.7 Under terms of the agreement between the city and the railroad additional areas of the south side of the cove were filled and the westerly segment of the basin walls was completed, with a bridged opening for the flow of Woonasquatucket river into the basin (see map, page 117). The railroad was opened from Hartford, Connecticut, to Providence in 1854.
In order to provide direct connection between the railroads and the docks permission was granted the railroad companies to lay tracks on Canal, South Water, Dyer, India, and other streets, over which freight cars were drawn by strings of eight or more horses, a means of locomotion continued for more than a half-century.
The next railroad to enter the city was the Providence, Warren and Bristol, the rails of which were laid in a southerly extension of the Boston and Providence line on the east side of Seekonk river. It was opened in 1855 and for the first two years its trains were hauled from the depot on Exchange Place, by horse power, over the highway rails and the railroad bridge and thence were operated by steam to Bristol. In 1857 a passenger terminal was built on India Street, near the foot of Benefit Street, from which the steam line was operated until 1908 (page 201). The railroad was extended to Fall River in 1860.
In the extreme northeast corner of the city and adjacent land in North Providence, extending from the Neck Road (page 15) to Seekonk river, two institutions had their inception toward the middle of the century, namely, Butler Hospital and Swan Point Cemetery. The hospital was located on the Grotto Farm, so-called, a tract of 114 acres which included, among the farm buildings, the Richard Brown house (page 33). The cemetery was developed on a 60-acre tract in North Providence, adjoining the hospital grounds on the north, which later, in 1873, was re-annexed to Providence (page 149).
Nicholas Brown, Jr., who died in 1841, bequeathed the sum of $30,000 for the establish- ment of the hospital as a retreat for persons who were deprived of their reason. That amount was augmented by a number of donations, including $40,000 from Cyrus Butler, in whose honor the institution was named Butler Hospital. Following its incorporation in 1844 a brick building was erected, designed by James C. Bucklin in the Tudor Gothic style, and was opened December 1, 1847.8
Swan Point Cemetery was platted into burial lots and avenues by Atwater and Schubarth, and lots were drawn at a gathering of subscribers October 20, 1846. Under provisions of a charter granted in May, 1847, the proprietors of lots became trustees of the company with power to purchase and hold land and to erect such buildings and other structures as should be requisite.9 A receiving tomb and a cottage were erected, both designed by Thomas A. Tefft, driveways were built, and the grounds were consecrated July 2, 1847. In the following year the First Congregational Society purchased an oval tract for its members, near the center of the grounds, to which the remains formerly interred in the West Burial Ground (page 60) were transferred.
The first important auditorium in Providence was Howard Hall, a name perpetuated in three successive buildings on the same site at the corner of Westminster and Dorrance streets. The first was built in 1847 and destroyed by fire six years later. The second was
7. Report of the Commissioners of the Cove Lands, 1877, pp. 129-135. The road later became the Willimantic Branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
8. The hospital expanded in later years (pages 191, 229) but, by reason of mounting operating deficits, was closed September 1, 1955. It was re-opened on a limited scale as Butler Health Center in 1957.
9. Cady, Swan Point Cemetery, A Centennial History (Providence, 1947). A new charter was granted in 1858, creating a non-profit sharing corporation under the name of The Proprietors of Swan Point Cemetery.
119
R.I.H.S.
View of Market Square, c. 1849. Market House (1773) in center, behind which Roger Williams Bank Building (1823-1912) and Franklin House (1823) are partly visible. Manufacturers Hotel (1750-1850) at left.
R.I.H.S.
View south from Market Square, c. 1865, showing South Water and Dyer streets, as widened in 1854, and Union Bank Building (right) after its eastern portion had been sliced off.
1845-1860
erected in 1856, after the city had taken a part of the land for the widening of Dorrance Street (page 124), and lasted only two years before going up in flames. The third Howard Building (illustration, page 208), erected in 1859, survived for nearly a century. Each of the buildings had a hall for public entertainment. Jenny Lind gave a concert, and William Lloyd Garrison and Sam Houston spoke, in the original building. Adelina Patti sang and Ole Bull performed on the violin in the second. The third building had an auditorium occupying the second and third floors, seating 1200 persons, and among the celebrities heard there were Wendell Phillips, Daniel Webster, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Sumner, Artemus Ward, John G. Saxe, George William Curtis, Bayard Taylor, Tom Thumb and Edgar Allen Poe.10 The building was altered in 1908, the hall converted into small offices, and a fifth floor added11.
Adjacent to the Howard Building Forbes Theatre was opened in 1854 and burned four years later. On its site the aptly-named "Phenix" Building was erected in 1860, on the second story of which the Academy of Music was established. The auditorium floor was pitched and a gallery occupied the third floor of the building. Among the performers in the academy were Booth, the elder Sothern, Mrs. Scott-Siddons, Miss Cushman, Maggie Mitchell, and the minstrel troupe of Morris Brothers, Pell and Trowbridge.12 The building was damaged by fire in 1873 and was rebuilt as an office building, still standing at 157 Westminster Street.
Swarts Hall, later known as the Pine Street Theatre, was opened in the former Pine Street Baptist Church (page 75) at the corner of Pine and Dorrance streets in 1854, where variety shows were given for a few years.13
In 1847 the Providence Gas Company was incorporated and commenced, in the follow- ing year, the manufacture and supply of gas in a plant located at the corner of Benefit and Pike streets. Mains were laid first in the principal downtown throughfares and, as the system was extended, gas superseded oil for highway illumination.
A map of Providence, published by Cushing and Walling in 1849,14 shows the awkward street pattern of Weybosset side well along in process of development. The radial highways, converging toward the bottle neck at Weybosset Bridge, formed the basis of the plan, to which secondary streets had been added from time to time as farm lands were platted for buildings lots and recorded by succeeding town and city councils. Owners of adjacent property seldom attempted to coordinate the highway lines of their respective plats and the results may still be observed in the large number of staggered and dead-end streets. As the city expanded westerly toward Olneyville (then a part of Johnston) the highway pattern took the form of an hourglass with Broadway and High Street converging from the east into the present Olneyville Square and the turnpikes to Connecticut spreading out toward the west.
The fundamental obstacles to an easy-flowing highway system were the hills, water- ways, swamps, and other elements of topography. Even on the Neck, where a more orderly
IO. Merchants National Bank, Old Providence (1908), p. 56.
II. The foundations of Howard Building were found to be in process of sinking in 1955, largely as a result of flooding in the 1938 and 1954 hurricanes (pages 270, 274). Accordingly the building was razed and construction of the fourth Howard Building (Harkness and Geddes, architects) was started in 1957.
I2. Providence Magazine, October, 1916, p. 649. 13. Greene, p. 360
I4. The map on page 122 is based upon the Cushing and Walling map. Spotted on the latter are 14 hotels, eight of which are identified on page 102, the others including Weybosset House, corner of Weybosset and Orange streets; Foster's, Broad (Weybosset) Street, near Eddy; Earl House, 67 North Main Street; Exchange Hotel, corner of Washington and Eddy; Tockwotton Hotel (page 105); and Washington Hotel, Weybosset Street at Dunnell's Gangway.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.