USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 14
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In 1867 the board of engineers abandoned the last of the hand-engines (page 123) and established a complete steam fire department comprising eight fire engines, three hook-and- ladder trucks, four hose carriages, and a force of 117 officers and men. The office of Chief Engineer Dexter Gorton was in the City Building. Two stations of the old fire companies, located, respectively, on Exchange Street and Summer Street, were continued and new stations were erected on Haymarket Street (1863), South Main Street (1866), Benevolent Street (1866), North Main and Doyle Avenue (1866), Richmond Street (1866) and Harrison Street (1866).11
Water for fire-fighting purposes was stored in cisterns and reservoirs supplied from small ponds and brooks. The cisterns were built of brick, lined with cement, 75 to 100 feet in length, each divided into several compartments, with removable covers through which the hose could be dropped. They were discarded when the Providence water system was opened in 1871. In 1870 the Gamwell automatic fire alarm system was installed, including 50 street boxes and gongs for engine houses.12
8. Sampson, Davenport & Co., Providence Directory, 1870, P. 385.
9. Ibid, p. 382.
10. City Auditor's report, 1865-66.
II. The Exchange, Summer and Haymarket stations were vacated in 1880, the South Main "Pioneer" station in 1892 and the others in 1949-50. The Pioneer building was in commercial use in 1955 and the Benevolent Street station was altered as a library for Bryant College.
12. Report of Fire Department, 1870-71.
134
1860-1870
Pursuant to an act passed by the General Assembly in 1866,13 authorizing the city of Providence to convey to and through the city the waters of the Blackstone, Pawtuxet, Ten Mile, or Woonasquatucket rivers, a commission was appointed to examine into the sources of water supply. J. Herbert Shedd of Boston was retained as engineer for the project. The first report of the commission, submitted in October, 1868, was in the nature of a fact-finding survey to determine the amount of water required.14 Subsequently three alternate sources of supply were submitted by the commission, of which the Pawtuxet river was approved by the Council. Ground surveys were then undertaken by the engineer for introducing water into the city from that river above Pocasset pond, with a reservoir located on Sockanosset Hill in Cranston, 180 feet above tidewater.
Construction of the reservoir was started May 3, 1870. It was a pyriform earthwork, 860 by 1000 feet at the base, the inlet chamber at the south side and the outlet on the northeast, with a capacity of 51 million gallons. A filtration system was not at first installed, as the water commissioners had ascertained that "no city in the United States is supplied with filtered water, and no city of much size with water as pure as Pawtuxet."15 For the water works the Aldridge farm was acquired, a 96-acre estate located between Pontiac Road and Pawtuxet river. There the Pettaconsett Pumping Station was erected and equipped with steam pipes for raising the water through a force main line to Sockanosset Reservoir.16 New roads were laid out and old roads relocated in the vicinity of the pumping station and reservoir.
The water supply project was financed by a four million dollar loan, approved by the City Council May 2, 1870. By November, 1871, 30 miles of iron pipe had been laid from the reservoir to Providence; and on Thanksgiving Day, November 30 of that year, the water system was inaugurated with impressive ceremonies on Exchange Place. The first service line for consumers was opened in Providence Opera House (page 153) December Ist.
In 1868 the area of Providence was enlarged for the first time in IOI years when a portion of Cranston, aggregating 3.61 square miles, was re-annexed,17 increasing the territory of the city to 8.92 square miles. Under the city charter of 1832 Providence had been divided into six wards (page 100). Ward 6, located in the sparsely-settled western portion, had twice been divided as the population in that section increased; the area north of High (Westminster) Street was set off as Ward 7 in 1857, and the westerly parts of wards 6 and 7 became Ward 8 in 1863. The re-annexed area was identified as Ward 9; its bounds followed the railroad and Fenner (Niantic) Avenue southerly to Greenwich Street (Reservoir Avenue), turned easterly in a straight line to Narragansett bay at Montgomery Avenue, and continued to include Starve Goat Island. It included two miles of shore front, Field's Point, Robin Hill (page 52), Mashapaug, Benedict and Long ponds, Locust Grove Ceme- tery, five schoolhouses, and 54 miles of streets.
The General Assembly, in 1869, authorized the city of Providence to establish a park
13. P.L., 1866, chapter 640.
14. The survey showed a total of 6,981 dwellings, 1,793 stores and shops, 16 hotels, 1 54 restaurants and saloons, 642 offices, 657 stables, 57 greenhouses, 53 churches, 27 schools, 8 printing offices, 26 steamboats, II bakeries, and 14 photographers' studios. Of the 3,143 wells charted in the city 599 were found to be bad or indifferent, 356 soft, and 2,787 hard and not suitable for washing purposes.
1 5. Report of Water Commissioners, January, 1870.
16. As an additional storage reservoir became necessary the water commissioners, in 1873, acquired a part of the Halsey estate and constructed Hope Reservoir and pumping station on an area between Hope, Olney, Brown and Barnes streets, completed in 1875.
17. A.&R., 1868, chapter 770. See page 42 and map page 130.
I35
WEYBOSSET SIDE
at Field's Point, and commissioners were appointed by the City Council for its layout. The project was abandoned when Roger Williams Park was acquired in 1871, but the city retained the land which subsequently was developed for municipal uses (page 219).
During the sixties the filling of the cove lands (page 115) was continued (see map, page 117), leaving a canal about 80 feet wide through which Woonasquatucket river flowed into the Cove basin.18 Promenade Street was constructed along the north shore of the river,
holran le Clerkter Revis
... ...
...
NATIONAL EXCHANGE BANK
CLOTHINGAXE
--
R.I.H.S.
View north from Turks Head c. 1867 showing (left to right) Exchange Bank Building, east end of Railroad Depot (in dis- tance), Hamilton Building (c. 1824) and Weeden Block.
west of Gaspee Street, and Park and Holden streets were built from Promenade Street to Smith. By resolution of the General Assembly in 1870 all state interest in the cove lands was conveyed to the city for the sum of $200,000.19
Among the important street improvements carried out in the downtown area under
18. A slight readjustment of the boundary between Providence and North Providence was effected by the General Assembly to comply with the revised waterways. (A.&R., 1866, chapter 618.)
19. C.D. No. 42, 1869-70.
I36
1860-1870
the highway act of 1854 (page 123) were the extension of Eddy Street20 northerly from Westminster in 1867, the extension of Friendship Street from Orange to Dyer,21 in 1867, the extension of Fountain Street22 northeasterly to Cove (West Exchange) Street in 1870 and the widening of the east side of Weybosset Street from Harkness Court to Turks Head, in 1870.
In 1864 a theatre was erected by C. N. Harrington and R. M. Larned on land leased to them by the city. This site, where the City Hall subsequently was erected (page 150), had been acquired by purchase from Elisha Dyer, Anson K. and Alfred K. Aldrich, Thomas Brown, and the heirs of Job Compton, between 1854 and 1857, and designated the City Hall Lot. The playhouse was opened January 4, 1865, as the "City Hall" and was the scene of concerts, lectures, pantomimes, historical productions, and an occasional stage show. Charles Dickens gave a reading from his works in the hall in 1868. The building was altered and rejuvenated, in 1871, as Harrington's Opera House and was reopened by Joseph Murray in "The Sea of Ice."2
The Immaculate Conception Church was built in an industrial section on West River Street and consecrated in 1858. A belfry and steeple rose above the front gable and a single-story vestibule projected from the facade.24
A new Saint Stephen's Church was erected on George Street as successor to the original edifice of the society (page III). The cornerstone was laid September 21, 1860 and the building, designed by Richard Upjohn, was consecrated February 27, 1862. The design is Gothic, with outside walls of Smithfield stone and brownstone trimmings, pierced by lancet windows, and a plan including a nave, choir, north and south aisles, and a Lady Chapel. Stone pillars, separating the nave from the aisles, support the roof and clerestory. The spire is a later addition, designed by Hoppin and Field.
Among other churches of that period were Roger Williams Baptist Church at Veazie Street and Woodward Road, erected 1866 and several times enlarged; and Jefferson Street Baptist Church (1868), more recently the Armenian Apostolic Church, the original steeple later replaced by a large cross.
The Home for Aged Women erected a four-story brick building at the corner of Tockwotton and East streets (now 180 George M. Cohan Boulevard, page 237) in 1864, succeeding a small wood building on the opposite side of Tockwotton Street which the Home had occupied since its establishment in 1856.
A charter incorporating Rhode Island Hospital was granted by the General Assembly in 1863 and in the same year a board of trustees was organized with Robert H. Ives as president. As a site for the building the trustees acquired from the city a tract of land on Pawtuxet Avenue (the former Pawtuxet Turnpike,25 now Eddy Street) on which was
20. The section of Eddy Street between Weybosset and Westminster was then known as Pleasant Street and the northerly extension was first called Baker Street.
21. Friendship Street ran from Orange to Richmond, in 1805, and was extended southwesterly to Plain Street in 1824 and to Broad Street in 18 50.
22. Fountain Street ran from Mathewson Street to Tanyard Lane (Dean Street) in 1824 and was extended to Knight Street about 18 50.
24. Final services were held in the church June 2, 1957, prior to its demolition for a redevelopment project. 23. Providence Magazine, October, 1916, p. 649.
25. See page 84. The area had undergone considerable development over a period of 30 years. Allen's Avenue was partly laid out on filled land and in the triangle between that highway, Pawtuxet Avenue and the Cranston line (Public Street) were located the Providence Machine Company (est. 1834), the New England Screw Company (est. 1840), and the Rhode Island Bleachery Company. A number of houses were standing on Lockwood Street, including the large estate of Thomas J. Hill, owner of Hill's Wharf at the foot of Allen (Crary) Street and the Providence Machine Company.
I37
WEYBOSSET SIDE
standing the Marine Hospital. Subsequently about two acres were donated, adjoining the city tract on the west, increasing the property to about 15 acres. The hospital was designed by Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia, in association with Alpheus C. Morse,26 and was erected at a cost of $400,000, raised by private subscriptions. The main building comprised a four-story central block, connected by corridors to two wings, each three stories high, with a projecting tower and an end-corner pavilion (illustration below). The central unit was designed for offices, operating rooms, instrument rooms, a library, museum, and chapel, and the wings for wards and rooms. The building was in the style of Italian Gothic, with
R.I.H.S.
Rhode Island Hospital, 1868, Eddy Street.
pressed brick walls over a red granite base, pointed arched windows with alternating brick and stone voussoirs, a corbeled cornice, and a hipped slated roof. The hospital was opened October 1, 1868, and was continued in use until completion of a new ten-story building in 1956 (Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott of Boston, architects).
The cause of education was stimulated in 1869 by passage of a bill by the General Assembly establishing a State Board of Education consisting of the governor, the lieutenant
26. Alpheus C. Morse (1818-93) was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and founder and first president of the Rhode Island Chapter, 1876.
I38
1860-1870
governor, two members from Providence County, and one member from each of the other counties. Daniel Leach was superintendent of schools in Providence at that time with jurisdiction over the high school, nine grammar schools, and 23 primary and elementary schools. The most modern in design and equipment was Thayer Street Grammar School (illustration below), designed by Alfred Stone,27 and dedicated January 2, 1868. It was a square, four-story French-roof building, having walls of pressed brick with trimmings of brownstone, sandstone and granite, and an ornamental cornice of corbeled brickwork. A bell tower originally rose above a corner pavilion.28 The building was razed in 1950.
R.I.H.S.
Thayer Street Grammar School, 1868-1950.
A number of large three-story houses were built during the late fifties and the sixties reflecting the wealth and culture of their owners. These dwellings have certain charac-
27. Alfred Stone was born in East Machias, Maine, July 29, 1843 and died in Providence September 8, 1908. He received his early architectural training in Boston offices and entered the office of Alpheus C. Morse in 1859. A few years later he commenced private practice, and entered into partnership with Charles E. Carpenter of Pawtucket in 1873. Edmund R. Willson was taken into the firm in 1882. Mr. Stone was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, its secretary 1893-98, and for 13 years president of the Rhode Island Chapter.
28. Report of School Committee, 1868-70.
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WEYBOSSET SIDE
teristics in common - a rectangular plan with center hall, brick walls with brownstone trimmings, large windows symmetrically spaced, heavy cornices of brownstone or wood, often ornamented with consoles and dentils, and low hipped roofs. Their differences are confined principally to the entrances, belt courses and window trimming. The entrance porches as a rule are square and in the style of one of the Roman orders, some having turned balusters both at the floor line and at the roof. The Doric order is seen at 193 Hope Street (Christopher Lippitt, c. 1857), 79 Prospect Street (Smith Owen, Alpheus C. Morse, architect, 1861), and 72 Prospect Street (William Binney, Alpheus C. Morse, architect, c. 1860, now Tuller School). The entrance is Ionic at I Megee Street (Zachariah Allen, c. 1868, now the Faculty Club) and the curved porch at 199 Hope Street (Governor Henry Lippitt, Henry Childs, architect, c. 1860) is Corinthian (illustration below). The steps are in straight runs, except that two-way steps curve away from the entrance at 2 Angell Street (Thomas A. Jenckes, c. 1860).
Some of the houses of the period have distinguishing characteristics. At 62 Prospect
Thomas F. Hoppin house, c. 1853, 363 Benefit Street.
Henry Lippitt house, c. 1860, 199 Hope Street.
Street (Marshall Woods, Richard Upjohn, architect, c. 1863) a driveway leads to an off- street entrance and the street facade has a full-height bow window. The house at 650 Westminster Street (Edmund Davis, c. 1860, now a warehouse) has a pair of two-story brownstone bay windows flanking the entrance, a heavy bracketed roof cornice, and a tower rising above an end projection. A large ornamental brownstone porch and round- topped mullioned windows are features at 151 Waterman Street (Thomas A. Tefft, architect, c. 1857).
It was during this period that the French or Mansard roof made its appearance. This was an adaptation of the form developed by Francois Mansard, a 17th century French architect, and provided a full story above the cornice in place of the half-story to which gabled and hipped roofs were confined. Roofs of this type rise steeply from a wide bracketed cornice and are capped by a smaller cornice with a flat tinned roof deck above it. One of the most ornate brick French roof houses was erected by B. B. Knight at the corner of Broad and Claverick streets (William R. Walker, architect, c. 1865, illustration, page 141); it was razed in 1915 and replaced by the Auto Sales Building. Another, built by General Ambrose E. Burnside (Alfred Stone, architect, c. 1865) is still standing at 314 Benefit Street;
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1860-1870
it is brick-walled, irregular in plan, and has a curved entrance porch at the acute-angled Planet Street corner. Most French roof houses were of wood construction and many are still standing in Providence, both single and semi-detached dwellings.
Another architectural feature of the period was the cupola, placed usually in the center of the roof, the original purpose of which, according to legend, was to permit a mariner's wife to keep an eye out for the departure and return of his ship. These cupolas were either square or octagonal in form and their designs followed a considerable range in detail and embellishment.
A few houses were built in the shape of an octagon, the plan having a central hall, two square side rooms, and the others triangular in shape. These dwellings were two and three stories in height and of varying roof designs. Survivors were standing in 1956 at 241 Ives Street, 63 Elmwood Avenue and 669 Public Street.
From scrapbook of Frank W. Angell
B. B. Knight house, c. 1865-1915, 159 Broad Street.
Thomas Davis erected a suburban house in 1869, designed by James C. Bucklin, on a 30-acre estate in North Providence. The walls were coursed ashlar with brownstone trim- ming, and the roof was composed of steep gables, crowned by a cupola. A wide central hall with an oak staircase extended from the main entrance to the service wing. The house stood on a high elevation from which a steep wooded hillside, rich in trailing arbutus, descended to Woonasquatucket valley. A stable yard, enclosed by a stone wall with a tower and gateway, stood at the rear of the house and porters' lodges were erected at the driveway entrances on Chalkstone Avenue and Valley Street. Driveways and paths were built, a stone bridge was constructed across a brook flowing through the estate, and gardens were laid out with roses, lilies of the valley, berries, fruit trees, magnolias, vegetables, and a cranberry bog.29 The estate was included in the part of North Providence which was re-annexed to Providence in 1874 (page 49). It was purchased by the city, in 1891, and subsequently developed as Davis Park (page 185). The house was demolished when the Veterans' Hospital was erected on the site in 1947 (page 279).
29. Recollections by Mrs. Theodore Foster to the author in 1939.
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CHAPTER 13 1870 - 1880
I T has been recorded (page 121) that the awkward street pattern of Providence is the result of arbitrary and unrestrained platting of undeveloped lands by their owners. Mayor Doyle had something to say on that subject in his inaugural address in 1872, criticizing the policy pursued by owners of real estate, "each platting his own land with reference to the number of building lots he could make on his own tract, and without the slightest reference to the direction in which his streets were laid, or whether they led into other streets platted by neighborhood owners; .. . he has realized large sums from the sale of his lands, and the city treasury must now pay to connect his streets with other streets and to widen and straighten his narrow thoroughfares." The mayor proposed that the city revise the badly-platted tracts that had been recorded but not yet developed. In the same year Charles E. Paine, city engineer since that office was created in 1869, urged the preparation of "a carefully prepared and well digested plan, making ample provision for the future with due regard to economy" and the appointment of a commission "consisting of men eminently qualified by experience, judgment and taste, and elected for a term of years, who should examine and report upon all plans that might be presented to the City Council for street improvements."" The recommendations of the mayor and city engineer were unheeded by a skeptical council and the city continued its haphazard growth.
In the period between 1864 and 1880 the city expended over $1,200,000 in opening, widening and straightening highways, a considerable part of which was necessitated by the failure to plan adequately in earlier years. Among the more important projects were the widening of sections of Broad, South Main, College and Canal streets.
The more heavily traveled highways of the city were paved with cobble stones, and the others with screened gravel or macadam. Granite slabs were set in the roadways for crosswalks at street intersections, and stone gutters and curbings were laid at the side- walks.2 Of 600 miles of platted streets recorded up to 1878 about 350 miles had been officially received.3 In 1880 the highways were lighted by over 4000 public lamps, two-thirds of which were gas and the others oil.
The two toll bridges spanning Seekonk river (pages 58, 83) were badly damaged in the great gale of September 8, 1869.4 The reconstruction of Central Bridge had been authorized by act of the General Assembly May 25 of that year and, immediately after the storm, its proprietors voted to surrender all rights in the bridge provided a new one were erected
I. C.E., Report, 1872.
2. Reports of Highway Commissioners, 1875-80.
3. C.M., 1878, p. II.
4. Tillinghast and Mason, The Great September Gale of Providence and Vicinity (Providence, 1869): "Our city has again been visited by a flood and gale, outrivaling in fury and destructiveness the terrible storm of September, 1815 [page 81] . . . The water in the harbor rose to a great height, and poured over the wharves and into the streets, in the lower part of the city, with appalling swiftness. Mighty trees bent and bowed before the tempest . . . Massive buildings rocked like toys . . . Steeples rocked and fell . .. An editorial in the Press of Thursday says: 'The water mark in the room where we write [the site of the present Amica Building] is eighteen inches from the floor and all around are indications of a great flood, beaten in history only by Noah's celebrated deluge and the great gale of 1815!' "
I43
L
1
Long 1 Church
I
1711
Benefit St 1758
17.44
Benefit St
1792
Town
1
Original
home
lots
1
1
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Street
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The
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Whitman
Weybosset
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Weybosset Hill
Pawtuxet
L
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1816
Benefit St
1844
Benefit St
1891
Thomas SE
President St
RW. Bank Bid
Franklin H
75
1843
Thomas St
Waterman St
What Cheer
Block 1850
South Main St
SE
North Main St
North Main St
North
Main St
Steeple St
Granite Black
South Water St
Canal St
Jeyboss
Providence River
Canal St
Weybossed
Br 1873 Crawford
Weyhasset
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-- Crawford Or ext. 1873
Crawford Br ext. 1930
Dyer St
Dyer St
aside1
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Exchange St
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St
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Scale
0 100 200 300
WEYBOSSET
BRIDGE AND
VICINITY
1711 - 1940
Drawn by J.H.C. 1948
1
1
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1743
Angels Lane
President St
Jabez Bowen
Jos. Jenckes
JEph Bowen.
Hanover St
Thomas St
President St
College St
Dank Lane
Main St
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St.
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St.
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Warehouse
lots
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House
Still House
1773
1744
176!
Provident
Market St.
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Union
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Bank Blag
The
Cove
The Core
Weybosset
Westminster St
College 'St
Hopkins St
1890
R. I.S.D
Court House 1933
Court House 1877
1936
College St
Hopkins St.
South Main
St
Crawford SE
Steeple St
South Water St. Crawford Br ext 1873
Waterman
RISDI
Audit
1940
Market Sq ____
South Water St. Crawford Br ext 1930
Crawford
-
1
West Water JE
Bridge ,1827
Platform Bridge 1829
Market St
Long Whart
Prov and Worcester
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House
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1940
Federal Bldg 1908
Ind Tr Bldg. 1892
Westminster
Weybosset St
70
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Exchange Place
Westminster St
Waybosset
1838
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Memorial Square
10
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Br 1898
Cove
-
Washington Bild
Si Post Office Br 1904/00
The Core
Core St
Weybosset
Westminster St
1
Rosemary Lane 1720
1723
-
1791
House
1815
Ist Bapt 1775
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