USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 7
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The plan is square, in New England Meeting House tradition, 80 by 80 feet, with doors on all four sides and a projecting vestibule on the front.16 Above the vestibule a steeple rises 185 feet above the ground, the design of which was adapted from a drawing taken from James Gibbs's Book of Architecture, published in London, 1728. The main auditorium, reached by a double stairway from the vestibule, has a central nave and two side aisles. Above the aisles are galleries, supported by Ionic columns. The nave is covered by an elliptical barrel vault, and the galleries by groined vaults. The seating capacity is 1400, large enough to accommodate more than one quarter of the town's population at the time of its erection. In view of the fact that the meeting house was erected "for the publick Worship of Almighty God; and also for holding Commencement in," and has ever since continued for both purposes, its size has been justified.17
Probably the finest of the pre-Revolutionary dwellings on the Neck was the one designed by Joseph Brown as his own residence, built in 1774, and still preserved at 50 South Main Street. The Field Garrison House (page 9), last survivor of the 17th century dwellings on the Towne street, was then standing on the lot.18 Nearly opposite was the three-story brick dwelling erected by Nicholas Brown about 1759 which stood until 1930 at 29 South Main Street, its site now incorporated in the park in front of the court house. Joseph Brown's house is brick, two and a half stories above a brownstone basement, its distin- guishing features including a curved baroque pediment, inspired by the works of Sir
13. A bronze tablet on the building records the masonic data.
14. Providence Deed Book, XIX, 240, 257; XX, 188, 391. The 1774 purchases did not include a lot of about 5600 square feet at the corner of King Street and Waterman's Lane; this was acquired by the society in 1857 (Deed Book CXLV, 296).
15. Norman M. Isham, The Meeting House of the First Baptist Church (Providence, 1925), p. I.
16. The rear wing is a later addition.
17. Bronson, p. 63. A smaller building was originally planned and the lottery was held to raise additional funds to accommodate the college. Since 1776 Brown commencements, with two exceptions, have been held in the meeting house.
18. Stone, p. 23. See also page 9.
50
1772-1784
Christopher Wren, and a wood cornice enriched with consoles and dentils. Originally the main entrance (now replaced by a window) was located in the center of the main story above the basement and was reached by a double flight of stone steps (illustration below). The stairway, mantels and other details of inside finish are very elaborate. From 1801 to 1929 it was the home of the Providence Bank (page 62), later owned and occupied by the Counting House Corporation.
During the years immediately preceding the Revolution thoughts of national liberty, and means for its attainment, took precedence over local matters in the minds of the colonists. The "first overt act of violence offered to the British authorities in America" occurred in Newport, July 19, 1769, when His Majesty's ship Liberty was burned.19 The people of Providence manifested their resistance to the Crown three years later by burning the British revenue schooner Gaspee where she had run aground off Namquit Point on the west shore of Narragansett bay. The group who accomplished that act assembled in the
R.I.H.S.
Joseph Brown house, 1774, 50 South Main Street, showing the original entrance and steps. Taken from Greene's Providence Plantations.
evening of June 9, 1772, at a dwelling on Water Street (South Main, northeast corner of Planet) where James Sabin kept a house of board and entertainment for gentlemen. Colonel Ephraim Bowen described the events of the evening, as follows: "About 9 o'clock I took my father's gun and my powder horn and bullets and went to Mr. Sabin's, and found the southeast room20 full of people, where I loaded my gun, and all remained there till about 10 o'clock, some casting bullets in the kitchen, and others making arrangements for departure, when orders were given to cross the street to Fenner's wharf and embark . . . "21 The group, under command of Captain Abraham Whipple, thereupon set off in boats provided by John Brown and accomplished the patriotic mission. In commemoration of the event the name Namquit Point later was changed to Gaspee Point.
19. Arnold, II, 297.
20. When the house was razed in 1891 the "Gaspee" room, so called, was moved and attached to the Talbot house at 209 Williams Street.
21. Arnold, II, 319.
51
THE NECK
In December, 1774, the General Assembly appointed Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward Rhode Island delegates to the Continental Congress. British tea was burned near the Market House, March 2, 1775.22 A military company, known as the United Company of the Train of Artillery, was established in Providence April 22d of that year, three days after the Battle of Lexington. Other events of the year included the capture of the tender of the British frigate Rose by the armed sloop Katy, chartered by the colony from John Brown and commanded by Captain Whipple who had, by that act, the distinction of firing the first authorized naval shot of the Revolution;23 the Colonial appointment of Nathanael Greene as Brigadier General of the Army of Observation; and the Congressional appoint- ment of Esek Hopkins as Commander-in-Chief of the American Navy. On May 4, 1776, the General Assembly met in the Colony House in Newport and formally renounced its allegiance to Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Conti- nental Congress at Philadelphia July 4th and, upon its ratification by the General Assembly two weeks later, the Colony of Rhode Island became the State of Rhode Island and the Colony House was known thenceforth as the State House.
Preparations for war had been under way since the Battle of Lexington; cannon were cast at Hope Furnace (page 37) in Scituate,24 guns, muskets, swords and gunpowder were manufactured in the environs of Providence; shipyards were busy building warships, among which were the Providence and Warren, launched in Providence in May, 1776;25 and troops were being recruited throughout Rhode Island. Meanwhile a number of Providence merchants were engaged in privateering and brought back rich prizes to their home port.26
In December, 1776, a British fleet entered Rhode Island waters, closed Narragansett bay to shipping, and landed troops who proceeded to occupy Newport. Many citizens of that town fled to Providence where the opportunity was taken to repay the hospitality extended to its own people by Newport 100 years earlier in the Indian war.27 Exercises at the college were suspended, the College Edifice was appropriated as a barracks and hospital for troops,28 and the Brick Schoolhouse (page 43) was converted into an arsenal for storing ammunition. Beacons were erected on Prospect Hill,29 near the present corner of Prospect and Meeting streets, and on Weybosset side, near the corner of Beacon and Point streets, to alarm the inhabitants in case of an enemy's approach. Fortifications were built and batteries established at Foxes Hill (page 4), Robin Hill,30 Field's Point,31 Prospect Hill,32 Fort Hill,33 and on a tract of high land, bounded by the present Broad, Foster,
22. A tablet on the Market House records the event.
23. George L. Miner, "John Brown's Katy," R. I. Hist., II, 75.
25. Greene, p. 61. 26. Stone, p. 82.
24. Field, III, 371.
27. Howard W. Preston, The Battle of Rhode Island (Providence, 1928), p. 10. See also page 12.
28. Bronson, p. 67. See also page 45.
29. Edward Field, Revolutionary Defenses in Rhode Island (Providence, 1896), p. 43. A beacon had been erected on the same spot, in 1667, as a warning against an attack by Indians.
30. Ibid, p. 58. Robin Hill, now largely obliterated, was located a short distance west from the shore of Providence river between Sassafras Point and Field's Point. A municipal quay wall was erected along the harbor line, 1912-14 (page 219).
31. Ibid, p. 62. This fort, later known as Fort Independence, stood on a high bluff on the southerly part of Robin Hill, at the west end of the present Georgia Avenue. See page 222.
32. Ibid, p. 73. The fortifications were on the brow of the hill, surrounding the beacon, enclosing an area bounded, approximately, by Prospect, Meeting, Congdon and Bowen streets.
33. Ibid, p. 76. The hill, rising from Hog Pen Point at the entrance to Seekonk river, was a part of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, at the time of the Revolution.
52
1772-1784
Chestnut and Friendship streets, named Fort Sullivan,34 and redoubts were constructed on Ferry Lane (Angell Street).35
Although the commerce of Providence was crippled by the blockade of Narragansett bay, its farms uncultivated for lack of men, and many of its people destitute, the town escaped enemy occupation. Newport, on the other hand, was in enemy hands for nearly three years and before the British had evacuated in October, 1779, many of its houses had been destroyed and its prosperity crushed.
On August 2, 1778, a few months after the signing of the French treaty of alliance, the Marquis de Lafayette visited Providence.36 Two years later French troops, under command
HOYLE TAVERN.
RE
R.I.II.S.
Hoyle Tavern, 1783-1890, junction of Westminster and Cranston streets, established by Obadiah Brown, 1739.
of the Comte de Rochambeau, arrived in Rhode Island and, on June 25th, appropriated the College Edifice which had been evacuated by Federal troops.37 Rochambeau was in Providence that summer as guest of Deputy Governor Jabez Bowen at his home on the Town Parade (page 48) and General Washington was a visitor at the same house in March, 1781, and was entertained also at the State House. In June, 1781, the French army spent several days in Providence on its way to join Washington's army at Yorktown, camped
34. Field, Revolutionary Defenses in Rhode Island, p. 75. Named for General John Sullivan who adminis- tered the military affairs of the state in 1778. The fortifications were removed in 1784 when part of the hill was dug away and the material used to fill the low marshland along the river at its base.
35. Ibid, p. 67.
36. Howard W. Preston, "Lafayette's Visits to Rhode Island," R.I.H.S.C., XIX, 3.
37. Bronson, p. 71.
53
THE NECK
on a plain near the present Hayward Park (Plain Street takes its name), and used the Market House for the storage of baggage.38 Rochambeau again visited Governor Bowen, and his aides were guests at the homes of Nicholas Brown, Joseph Brown (page 50), Joseph Nightingale, Joseph Russell, Benjamin Cushing, and other citizens.39 In the fall of 1782 the French troops, on their return march, camped on a plain north of the present Rochambeau Avenue between North Main and Hope streets.40 Before making his adieux Rochambeau gave "a very splendid ball at Hacker's Hall to the ladies and gentlemen of the town."41 Hostilities with Great Britain were discontinued January 20, 1783 and the treaty of peace was signed in Paris September 3rd. General Washington was elected President of the United States May 25, 1787 and the Constitution was signed the following September 27th, and approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly May 29, 1790.
R.I.H.S.
Golden Ball Inn, 1784-1941, Benefit Street.
During the Revolutionary period the office of town constable (page 8) was supple- mented by the establishment of a night watch, consisting of four men, two of whom were on duty each night.42
In 1783, shortly after the cessation of hostilities, Joseph Hoyle purchased an inn, at the junction of the Plainfield and Cranston roads,43 which had been established by Obadiah
38. Howard W. Preston, "Rochambeau and the French Troops," R.I.H.S.C., XVII, I.
39. Ibid, pp. 12-13. Joseph Nightingale resided near the present street railway tunnel portal on North Main Street before erecting his house on Benefit Street in 1791 (page 64). Benjamin Cushing's house was built on the Towne street (North Main) about 1731 and was moved up the hill to the rear of 38 North Court Street about 1860, where it still stands. The Russell house (page 45) survives at 118 North Main Street.
40. Ibid, p. 19. Rochambeau Avenue, originally laid out in 1685 (page 15) and known successively as Hearnden's Lane, Harrington's Lane and North Street, was re-named in honor of the count about 1895. In 1791 Horse Pasture Lane was constructed from Hearnden's Lane to Olney Street and was later named Camp Street in recognition of the French encampment. A monument to the French army was erected at the corner of Summit Avenue and Brewster Street in 1907 by the Rhode Island Society, Sons of the American Revolution (page 222).
41. Providence Gazette, Nov. 25, 1782. See also page 37.
42. Greene, p. 113.
43. See page 23. The intersection, known for many years as Hoyle Square, is now identified as Canonicus Square. The Citizens Savings Bank was built on the site in 1921 (page 245).
54
1772-1784
Brown in 1739,44 and made it the leading tavern on Weybosset side. It was frequented by drovers and farmers as well as by "jovial parties of young men and women [who had to go] far around in the country in their excursions to wind up in a dance and a good time."45 It continued as Hoyle Tavern, (see illustration, page 53) under a succession of landlords, until 1886, and was torn down in 1890.
In 1784 Henry Rice opened the Golden Ball Inn (illustration, page 54) on Benefit Street, near the State House, a large four-story building with a double balcony extending along the front. Among its distinguished guests were the Marquis de Lafayette in 1784, Mrs. John Adams in 1789, and President Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson in 1790.46
44. Horace G. Belcher, "The Old Hoyle Tavern," R.I.H.S.C., XXVIII, 41.
45. Richard M. Bayles, History of Providence County (New York, 1891), I, 307.
46. R.I.H.S.C., XIX, 8-10; R. I. Hist., I, 99. In later years the building was extensively altered and its balconies were removed. It was known, successively, as Daggett's Tavern, Roger Williams Hotel, Alpheus Ammadon's Inn, Globe Tavern and, finally, Mansion House. It was demolished in 1941.
Betsey Williams Cottage, 1778, Roger Williams Park.
55
THE NECK
Turpin
Tavern
Houses
Road to Killingly 1722
i closeph whipple
21 Tilling hast
3 John Crawford
22. Sol. Drawn
3 Wm. Antrim
13. Daniel Abbott
Hatched sections indicate Second Division of Home Lots, 1717-1818
4 Daniel Smith
24 Dan' Tillinghast
5. Wm Crawford
25. Capt. Brown
Olney Tavern
6 Whitman
2. Stephen, Hopkins
7. Metcal+
27. Capt Potter
& Nat'l Brown
28. Widow Yeats
Dexter's Lane
9 Gabriel Bernon
29. James Mitchell
10 fearnot Rickard
30. Joseph Crawford
Il Jabez Bowen
31 Nicholas Tower
IL Pc'en Dester
32 Joseph Power
13 Thomas Kelton
33. Christopher Arnold
14 Berg Cushing
34 Cha's Tilling hast
15 Wm Smith
35. Simon Smith
16 Wn Page
36. Dr. Henry Sweeting
17 Dexter
37 Timothy Carpenter
11 James Ange !!
3 Zach. Mathewson
Baptist Church
19 Chadian Brown
39 Descon Snow
7.7
20 Henry Burdon
40 Capt John Fielt
Aotrin:014
King's Church
,
Bowen's
10
Warehouse
SchoolI
5
Friends, Meeting House
15
inty House
County
Goal
Great Salt Cave
Country House Way (Goal Lane) 1731
20
Way posset Point
Bridge 1744
Prest
ertan 1720
Waterman's Marsh
Wharf
Upper firmy
Ship Ya
Crawfords Warehouse
Gill'
Warehouse
39
Meeting Housey
J
Burroughs Still House
32
Power's Lane (1738)
40
3.
1710
Providence River
14
PROVIDENCE
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
Foxes Hill
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Scale
500 1000
Lower Ferry
Drawn by John Hutchins Cady
Fox Point
R.I.H.S.
From "The Divisions of the Home Lots of Providence," R.I.H.S.C., XXXI, 103.
56
Them
House
Wall Brown's
Abbotts W
3
Road to Plainfield 1714
Muddy Dock
Ferry Lane
Highway to Compen Point
ne
9| Congregational Church
Angelis with
6
CHAPTER 6 1784 - 1800
T HE town soon recovered from the effects of the war and attained such a degree of wealth that property valuations nearly trebled between 1782 and the end of the century. Newport was surpassed in the number of inhabitants and, by the year 1800, Providence had become the largest town of the state with a population of 7,614. The town's growth and development during that period were influenced by the activities of its commercial and industrial leaders, among whom were Nicholas and John Brown, Joseph Nightingale, Welcome Arnold, Thomas Lloyd Halsey, John Innes Clark, Philip and Zachariah Allen, Joseph and William Russell, and John Corliss.
The firm of Nicholas Brown and Company (page 37) had dissolved in 1774.1 Moses retired from worldly pursuits in that year, joined the Quakers, and became an abolitionist; he resumed activities later in the century, founding the Providence Bank (page 62) and launching cotton manufacturing in the state (page 61). Nicholas, Joseph and John continued their mercantile pursuits individually, all retaining an interest in the spermaceti works and the furnace (page 37). Joseph Brown, despite his business connections, was essentially a scientist and became a member of the college faculty in 1784.2 He continued his archi- tectural work in the design of John Brown's house (page 63), but died in 1785 before its completion. John Brown was active in the development of the south shore of the Neck, at the foot of Tockwotton Hill (page 61) from which point he established trade with the East Indies in 1787, operating a fleet of ships including the General Washington, Warren, and President Washington, the latter launched in a shipyard near Fox Point in 1791.3 About this time he entered into partnership with his son-in-law, John Francis (page 63). Nicholas Brown had taken George Benson as partner in 1783, a firm to which Nicholas, Jr. and Thomas Poynton Ives later were admitted. Mr. Ives married Hope Brown, daughter of Nicholas, Sr. shortly after the latter's death in 1791. In that year the firm name became Brown, Benson and Ives; and on Mr. Benson's retirement in 1796 the partnership of Brown and Ives entered upon its long history which continued until 1952.4 The firm followed Brown and Francis in trade with the East Indies in the Rising Sun, John Jay, Ann and Hope, and other merchant ships.5
Following the passage by the Congress, August 4, 1790, of an act in relation to duties payable for imports, Rhode Island was divided into two customs districts located, respec- tively, at Providence and Newport. The office at Providence was established on Water Street (South Main, corner of Custom Avenue) where it was continued until 1857. A total of 129 sailing vessels belonging to the port of Providence was listed in 1791, including II ships, 35 brigs, one snow, one polacca, 25 schooners, and 56 sloops.6 By the end of the century 58 wharves had been erected along the water front, most of which were on the shore of the Neck from India Point to Smith Street.
In 1792 the first steamboat made its appearance in Rhode Island waters, the Experi-
I. James B. Hedges, The Browns of Providence Plantations, p. 18. John withdrew from the firm in 1771, Moses in 1773.
2. Bronson, p. 81.
Field, II, 465.
4. Hedges, pp. 19, 20. 5. Field, II, 465. 6. R.I.H.S.P., VI, 196.
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THE NECK
ment, Elijah Ormsbee, captain, builder, and owner.7 It was not a complete success, however, and 25 years elapsed before another was seen in Narragansett bay (page 85).
Pursuant to an act by the General Assembly in 1790, granting a lottery to raise £3000, Weybosset Bridge was again rebuilt in 1792, 120 feet long between abutment walls and 56 feet wide, with a draw of the lift type.8 The east abutment was built into the river, about 40 feet west of the shore line which then followed, approximately, the present east line of Canal Street; the wall was extended northerly as far as the present Steeple Street and a new waterfront street was constructed on filled land. The west abutment was nearly in line with the present west line of Washington Row, as in the case of the 1764 bridge, and the wall was extended southerly in the river, about 50 feet east of the present west line of Dyer Street, terminating at a slip located between the present Post Office Court and Custom House Street.9 South of the slip was Long Wharf (see map, page 144) which extended from Weybosset Street to the river, its end in alignment with the river wall.10 Below Long Wharf the original shore line, running nearly midway between Weybosset and Pine streets as far as Muddy Dock (Dorrance and Weybosset streets), was practically unchanged (see map, page 70).
At about the time that the bridge was constructed the Exchange Coffee House (illustration, page 59) was built near its easterly end, at the corner of the Parade and the new waterfront street (now Canal Street). It was planned and erected by David McLane and Paul Draper and is reported to have been the first wood building in the town in which modern framing methods were used, abandoning the traditional mortises and tenons (page 30). The establishment provided food, refreshments and entertainment for a few years and later the building was occupied by insurance companies, newspaper offices and other business concerns.11 It was demolished in the middle of the 19th century.
Acts were passed by the General Assembly in May, 1792, granting the erection of two toll bridges over Seekonk river. Up to that time no bridge had spanned that waterway at Providence and the only means of crossing to Rehoboth, Massachusetts, were by the upper ferry at Narrow Passage and Fuller's ferry at Tockwotton Point, established in 1679 and 1739, respectively (pages 13, 33). Authority for the erection of the bridges was granted to two groups of citizens who had subscribed sums of money for the purpose and were incorporated, respectively, as "The Proprietors of the Central Bridge, leading to and from Providence" and "The Providence South Bridge Society in the town of Provi- dence." Each corporation was required to install in its bridge, and to maintain at all times "a convenient draw, twenty-four feet wide" and to appoint as toll collector "an able- bodied man, to aid and assist in raising the said draw, for the purpose of vessels passing, and in lowering the same." It was provided, in each case, that the toll should "not exceed the present rate of ferriage, established by law" and that "whenever the said toll shall amount in value to all costs, charges and expenses, in the erecting and keeping in repair the same bridge, with interest thereon, together with . . . a reasonable allowance . .. the said
7. Greene, p. 68.
8. R.I.C.R., X, 395; Staples, p. 359. It will be noted that successive bridges at Weybosset increased in width (14 feet in 1711, 18 feet in 1744, 22 feet in 1764, 56 feet in 1792), and decreased in length as abutment walls were built closer together. See pages 21, 33, and 39 and map page 144.
9. Record Book No. 7, p. 238. The area was filled and graded a few years later and West Water (Dyer) Street constructed. See map, page 93.
IO. C.E., Harbor Dept., Chart of Providence River from Weybosset Bridge to the Crook, No. 0109, 1834.
II. W. R. Danforth, "Pictures of Providence in the Past," R. I. Hist., X, 95. The site is occupied by the west end of the School of Design Auditorium.
58
1784-1800
toll shall be subject to be regulated by this Assembly."12 Central Bridge, as erected in 1793, was a predecessor of the present Red Bridge and the South, or India Bridge spanned the river a short distance south of the present Washington Bridge13 (see map, page 70).
The old country road to Pawtucket, established before 1684 as a northerly extension of the Towne street, curved westerly around and over a sand hill east of North Burial Ground before continuing its rather crooked way to the north.14 A committee appointed by the Town Council "to examine the land eastward of the highway ... and see if an eligible route for a road is therein contained" reported that "a straight, handsome and convenient street may be had from the house where Amasa Gray now lives [the junction of North Main Street and Branch Avenue] to the corner of Jeremiah Dexter's stone wall
( 2)
EXPRESS
R.I.H.S.
Coffee House, c. 1792 - c. 1850, Market Square, taken from Greene's Providence Plantations.
[the corner of North Main Street and Rochambeau Avenue]15 ... and that the same direc- tion may be continued towards Pawtucket nearly straight for about two miles; and that the same will greatly accommodate and beautify the north end of said town, as well as be
12. R.I.C.R., X, 491-492. Moses and Nicholas Brown and 25 others were subscribers for Central Bridge; John and Nicholas Brown, Welcome Arnold, Joseph Nightingale, John Innes Clark and others for South Bridge.
13. Both bridges were rebuilt following a freshet February 15, 1807. India Bridge was carried away in the great gale of 1815 and replaced by a new span and Central Bridge was damaged in the same storm and repaired. Both were conveyed by their owners to the city of Providence, the former in 1860 and the latter in 1869. See pages 83, 143.
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