USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 8
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14. Dorr, p. 238. See also page 1 5.
15. The Gray house, later Amasa Gray Tavern, has been demolished. The gambrel-roofed Dexter house (1754) was still standing in 1957 at the northeast corner of North Main Street and Rochambeau Avenue.
59
THE NECK
extremely convenient." In order to purchase the necessary land, and construct and pave the road, permission was acquired from the General Assembly in February, 1791, to raise the sum of £goo by means of a lottery.16 Stage coaches traveled this highway on the "Road from Providence to Boston, Newbury-Port and Portsmouth," charted in the North American Calendar for the year 1793.17
The plain on which the French army had encamped in 1781 (page 54), a tract of about 15 acres extending westerly from the present Plain Street, was developed into the West Burial Ground, composed of a number of independent cemeteries. The two Congregational societies - the First and the Beneficent - purchased from John Field adjacent tracts in 1785 to which the bodies from their former lot (page 26) were removed. The adjoining Proprietors' Burying Ground was laid out by Field in 1792, followed early in the 19th century by the Union, Hope, Manchester and Methodist cemeteries. All of these burial grounds were vacated between 1848 and 1888, following the removal of the bodies and stones to Swan Point Cemetery, North Burial Ground and other spots. The city established Hayward Park (page 165) on the Proprietors' ground and the remainder of the West Burial Ground was platted into streets and building lots.
The production of stage plays, interrupted by decree of the General Assembly in 1762 (page 41), was revived in 1792 when Joseph Harper and his company gave several perform- ances in the Court House. In 1794 Harper fitted up a building in the rear of the Coffee House as a theatre for a season of drama, culminating in the presentation of "The Beggar's Opera." The following year the Providence Theatre was built at the corner of Westminster and School (Mathewson) streets with funds subscribed by John Brown, T. L. Halsey, John Corliss, Cyprian Sterry, George and Jeremiah Olney, and others. The statute against theatrical entertainments was repealed as a result of Mr. Harper's efforts and the Providence Theatre was maintained for a number of years under his management.18 The building was purchased by Grace Church and altered, in 1832, and was demolished when the present church was built in 1845 (page 126).
Four new fire engines were imported from London in 1792 for operation by volunteer firemen under direction of the fire wards (page 36). These were housed in stations located, respectively, on North Main Street (opposite First Baptist Meeting House), Benefit Street (near Transit Street), Mill Street, and Broad (Weybosset) Street at Muddy Dock (page 35).19
The night watch, established in 1775 (page 54), was reorganized in 1797 in accordance with rules and regulations of the town council, and was financed by a direct tax on the property of citizens. Headquarters were in a small watch house on the Town Parade from which the men patrolled the streets of the compact part of the town nightly until the ringing of the sunrise bell. The patrols extended north to Benjamin Cozzens' house (North Main Street and Branch Avenue), south to India Point and west to Hoyle Tavern.20
The closing years of the 18th century were marked by a significant increase in manu- facturing, a prelude to the industrial era that was to come. In the 17th century, when Providence was a community of planters, the only industrial establishments were the grist
16. R.I.C.R., X, 413.
17. Wheeler's North-American Calendar or an Almanack for the year of our Lord 1793, printed at Providence and sold by B. Wheeler.
18. Providence Magazine, Oct., 1916, p. 647. A drop curtain, painted by Worrall and hung in the theatre in 1812, is owned by the Rhode Island Historical Society. It shows a view of the East Side of Providence about 1808 as seen from Federal Hill (illustration, page 72).
19. Greene, p. 122. 20. Ibid, p. 113.
60
1784-1800
mills, saw mills, lime kilns, leather tanneries, and blacksmith shops. In the early 18th century shipbuilding, brick manufacturing, weaving, and distilling plants were established in the town, followed in the middle of the century by iron works, cider mills, cheese presses and printing shops. The commencement of cotton spinning at Pawtucket by Samuel Slater and Moses Brown in 1790, and the manufacture of jewelry by Nehemiah Dodge in 1796, inaugurated what were to be two of the leading industries in northern Rhode Island.
As the number and size of the industrial plants increased the complexion of the town began to change, particularly along the water fronts where factories and shops gradually replaced the former dwellings whose owners removed to the newly developed areas converted from farm lands (see map, page 56).
The most industrialized area was along the Moshassuck river, separating the Neck from the lands to the northwest, the waters of which were utilized for power. Located in the area between the present Smith Street and Schley Square were Oliver Bowen's tanyard and slaughter house, Henry Smith and Company's distill house and cooper shop, and Michael Metcalf's slaughter house.21 Jere B. Howell's grist mill was at the falls of the Moshassuck, near the site of the original town mill (page 7), and Robert Newell's chocolate and fulling mills were near the corner of Charles and Nichols streets. Amasa Gray's slaughter house and Aaron Mason's tanyard were on the Neck side of the river, near the present Printery Street, and Thurber's paper mill (established about 1780) was on the present Livingston Street, not far from North Burial Ground. Bordered by such industries there is small wonder that Moshassuck river became polluted in the early years of the town, a condition that was destined to prevail into the 20th century.
The water lots on the west side of the present North Main and South Main streets, from Smith Street southerly to Fox Point, were used mostly for maritime trades and were built up with wharves and warehouses, interspaced here and there by dwellings and indus- trial plants. Zachariah Allen operated a distillery and sugar house near the original spring lot on North Main Street. Joseph Congdon opened an iron shop near the present corner of North Main and Steeple streets, about 1790, inaugurating the business to which Congdon, Carpenter and Company succeeded in 1860. In the same neighborhood Ezekiel and William Burr operated a silversmith shop, Seril Dodge made shoe buckles, and Nehemiah Dodge manufactured gold rings, fancy jewelry and silverware. Clark and Nightingale owned a cooper shop and a blockmaker's shop at the present corner of South Main and Power streets as well as a distill house near the location of Point Street Bridge.
The waterfront at Tockwotton was developed, about 1790, by John Brown22 who erected shops and warehouses for the trade which he established with China and the East Indies, giving the spot the name India Point. Mr. Brown also maintained a distill house on the shore, a spermaceti works (started a half-century earlier by Obadiah Brown) near the present corner of India and Ives streets, and an air furnace at the present Tockwotton Park. Rope walks were established by Rebecca Williams, John Pitman, William Holroyd and others in the area now bounded by Hope, Wickenden, Governor and Williams streets.
Meanwhile, commerce and industry were securing a foothold along the waterfront south of Weybosset Point. Long Wharf, owned jointly by B. and E. Aborn, Nathan Angell,
21. The maps in Chace's Owners and Occupants establish the locations of these industries and others to follow.
22. "Daniel Abbott ... laid out Tockwotton with the object of making that point the commercial center of the town, and bay, fifty years before John Brown was king of India Point." - Henry R. Chace ms. in Rhode Island Historical Society.
6I
THE NECK
Zephaniah Brown, Samuel Butler, Arnold Whipple, Simeon Aldrich, Amos Jenks and Stephen Harris, was located at the present Custom House Street (page 58). Stephen Harris' spermaceti works were on the shore, near the corner of Pine and Orange streets, Daniel Jackson's brass foundry (established 1762) was near the site of Narragansett Hotel on Weybosset Street, Augustus Winsor's slaughter house faced Potter's Ditch (Garnet Street), and John Innes Clark's distill house was located on Distill House Lane, now Page Street. Benjamin Tallman's shipyard was on the shore of Eddy's Point (near the junction of Dyer and Eddy streets).
The earliest industry on Woonasquatucket river was established about 1765 by David Rutenberg, a German immigrant, who erected a mill south of the present Atwells Avenue on Valley Street. Christopher Olney, who owned a 95-acre farm in that section and gave the name to Olneyville, established a grist mill and the Rising Sun Paper Mill, in the latter part of the century, on a wide section of the river north of the present Kossuth Street, then known as Olney's pond.
The Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1789 "for the purpose of promoting industry, and giving a just encouragement to ingenuity, that our own manufactures may be improved, to the general advantage not only of the manufacturers themselves, but of the state at large."23 One of the first activities of the association was an agitation, led by John Howland, to institute a public school system24 which culminated, in 1800, when the General Assembly passed an act for the establishment of free schools in every town. Thus was established "a great State triumph - not of long duration indeed, as the act was repealed in 1803 - but long enough to secure a permanent blessing to Providence."25
Under the school act the Town Council was invested with the general oversight, supervision and government of the schools. It appointed a school committee of ten members with Jonathan Maxcy as chairman. Four district schools were opened in the fall of 1800; two were in existing buildings - Whipple Hall and the Brick Schoolhouse (page 43) - and the others were built that year, namely the South Schoolhouse on Transit Street and the West Schoolhouse at the corner of Friendship and Claverick streets.26
The first financial institution of the town was the Providence Bank, organized by John and Moses Brown and opened October 10, 1791, following its incorporation by the General Assembly.27 It was originally located on the south side of Governor Hopkins' Lane (Hopkins Street) and was moved in 1801 to the Joseph Brown house on South Main Street.28 The Providence Insurance Company was founded in 1799 and the Providence Mutual Insurance Company in 1800, both having offices in the Exchange Coffee House (page 58). The Washington Insurance Company received a charter in 1800 and erected a building on Westminster Street in 1802 (page 72).29
23. R.I.C.R., X, 315.
24. A previous attempt had been made in 1767. See page 43.
25 . Stone, pp. 138-143.
26. Staples, p. 510. Whipple Hall (1768) was replaced by the Benefit Street School in 1840 (page 103). The Brick Schoolhouse and Transit Street School were still standing in 1950, the former leased to the Crippled Children and Adults of R. I. (inc. 1946), and the latter owned by The Players and used as an appendage to Barker Playhouse (page 247). The West Schoolhouse is no longer standing.
27. R.I.C.R., X, 458; R.I.H.S.C., XXXIV, 113.
28. See page 50. The two-way entrance steps were removed and replaced by a doorway in the basement story.
29. Charter of the Providence Washington Insurance Company (Providence, 1887). The Providence and the Washington insurance companies were merged in 1812.
62
1784-1800
During the Colonial period architectural design had followed rather closely a con- temporary English style, based upon the Italian Renaissance, which had been used by such architects as Jones, Wren, James Gibbs and Sir William Chambers. Although a change in style, influenced by Robert Adam's adaptation of Louis XVI motives for interior decoration, was evolved in England, about 1770, its effect was not noted in Providence before the early 19th century. It followed, therefore, that the buildings erected between the close of the war and 1800 closely resembled those of the Colonial period with an added richness of ornamentation and an emphasis on Classic precedent. During the years of the Early Republic a number of houses were built which were among the best ever produced in Providence.
The earliest of these dwellings, and in many respects the finest among the survivals, was erected by John Brown (illustration, page 65) in 1786 on an acre-and-a-half tract extending from Benefit Street to the present Brown Street, fronting on Power's Lane (now 52 Power Street). This project inaugurated a development of the lower part of the Neck that was to expand, in the next 20 years, to include a large part of the area bounded by Power, Brook, Wickenden and Benefit streets. Joseph Brown (page 57) designed the house and construction work was in charge of Zephaniah Andrews, the mason.
In his will made in 1802 John Brown described his house as "54 by 50 feet square, three stories high, with a deep cellar under the whole." The ell at the rear was not built until later and the kitchen and bathing facilities originally were located in outhouses. The plan conformed, in general, to that of contemporary houses of the central-hall type except that the chimneys were set in the exterior walls (see plan C, page 46), an arrangement which set a precedent for many later Providence dwellings. A distinctive feature of the facade, which followed English tradition but was new to Providence, is the slight projection in the center, crowned by a pediment. An open entrance porch is set in the projection, with brownstone columns crowned by a wooden entablature and a balustrade with twisted balusters, and over the porch is a Palladian or Venetian window. The walls have belt courses and are crowned by a fine cornice. The effect of dignity and repose which the outside gives repeats itself within the house. The stairway hall is very spacious and the doors opening to the rooms are finely treated with entablatures and broken-curved pediments with rich carving. The great mahogany staircase has twisted balusters, a beautiful scroll at the foot of the rail, an unusual wall scroll, and a curved string at the landing.30 The house was officially opened with the marriage of John Brown's daughter Abby to John Francis, January 1, 1788. Its most distinguished visitor was President Washington on August 19, 1790. It became the property of the Rhode Island Historical Society, in 1941, by gift of John Nicholas Brown.
John Innes Clark and Colonel Joseph Nightingale, shipping partners, built houses on Benefit Street, the former at the northeast corner of John Street, in 1789, and the latter at the northeast corner of Williams Street, in 1791, both wood houses, three stories, with hipped roofs. President Washington "drank wine and punch" at Mr. Clark's August 19, 1790, and Senator William Smith, who accompanied the presidential party, recorded in his diary "I slept that night at Mr. Clark's, a merchant who lately has built a handsome house and is a man of prosperity ... He treated me with much civility, having offered me a bed immediately on my arrival, though I had never seen him before."31 The house was
30. This description of the John Brown house is based upon an unpublished manuscript by Norman M. Isham.
31. Howard W. Preston, Washington's Visits to Rhode Island (Providence, 1932), p. 22.
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THE NECK
destroyed by fire a few years later. The Nightingale house (illustration, page 65), still standing at 357 Benefit Street, has a pedimented projection in the facade similar to that noted on the John Brown house. There are heavy beveled quoins at the corners and the windows, the latter having rusticated voussoirs and moulded cornices. The front porch is in the Roman Doric order with brownstone steps, and the entrance door has sidelights and a curved toplight. The interior is characterized by spaciousness and fine wood finish, and the chimneys are located in the partitions with two fireplaces in each chimney on each floor. Colonel Nightingale died a few years after erecting the house and it was purchased by John Carter Brown, nephew of John Brown, and has since remained in possession of his descendants.
Somewhat smaller are the wood two-story hipped roof houses of Captain George Benson (1796) and Edward Dexter (1799). The Benson lot is on the hilltop (now 64 Angell Street) and is a part of the original Weston home lot which was acquired by Thomas Angell in 1645 (see map, page 10). The Angell family continued its ownership until 1780 when they commenced the sale of tracts on Angell Street to Moses Brown and others for real estate development. The first house on Angell Street was erected in 1782 by Jonathan Congdon, for whom Congdon Street was later named. Captain Benson bought his lot from Moses Brown in 1792. The house plan conforms to the Colonial central-hall type (see plan B, page 46), and a distinguishing feature of its exterior is the Doric Entrance porch with its curved pediment. Edward Dexter built his house on George Street, south of the college,32 in spite of a warning by John Brown that "the Street too it will Ever be a whet Muddy Way, the Natural Springs being Such that Can not be Got Clear of Neither above nor below Ground."33 The house was moved, in 1860, to 72 Waterman Street, its present location (illustration, page 66), where for many years it was the residence of Charles L. Pendleton; his collection of 18th century furniture and decorative arts was acquired subsequently by the Rhode Island School of Design.34 The house has brick ends with outside chimneys set in the walls, and in the center of the facade is a Doric entrance porch with a modified Palladian window above it, all framed by full-length pilasters and a pediment. The interior has very fine wood finish.
The Colonial type of gable roof continued in use for most of the smaller wood houses of the period. Two of these were built on Angell's Lane (Thomas Street), opposite the First Baptist Meeting House, about 1789, and are still standing (illustration, page 66). Deacon Edward Taylor erected the 372-story house at 9 Thomas Street and Seril Dodge the one adjoining at No. 10, the latter originally 212-stories and later raised to provide for a shop in the ground floor. Both are of the two-chimney type35 and have pedimented sidewalk entrances. Mr. Dodge built a 3-story house (II Thomas Street) of brick veneer over wood construction about 1791 (later considerably altered) and sold his other house that year to Hope Brown (daughter of Nicholas) and her stepmother Avis Brown, and there Hope was married to Thomas Poynton Ives in 1792. Both Dodge houses are now the property of the Providence Art Club.36
32. The original south line of the college property was about 125 feet north of George Street and was extended to that street by purchases of land between 1815 and 1860 (Edwin A. Burlingame, Plats of Brown University and their History, Providence, 1938). See also page 109.
33. From a letter written March 16, 1796, in possession of the R. I. Historical Society. Mr. Brown tried to persuade Mr. Dexter to build near India Point, an area he was interested in developing.
34. A unit of the Rhode Island School of Design, known as Pendleton House, was erected in 1908 to house the Pendleton collection. See page 207.
35. See plan B, page 46. The Dodge chimneys have been removed.
36. Consult George L. Miner, Angell's Lane (Providence, 1948).
64
1784-1800
R.I.H.S.
John Brown House, 1786, 52 Power Street, home of the Rhode Island Historical Society.
R.I.H.S.
Joseph Nightingale House, 1791, 357 Benefit Street.
65
THE NECK
R.I.H.S.
Edward Dexter House, 1799, 72 Waterman Street.
-
Houses on Thomas Street, 1789-1791.
66
1784-1800
Aside from the dwellings the most monumental work of the Early Republican period was the First Congregational Church (illustration below), erected by the Benevolent Congregational Society at the corner of Benefit and Benevolent streets in 1795 from the design of Caleb Ormsbee, the only 18th century Providence architect37 of record beside Joseph Brown. The church was built of wood and its design was influenced by the west facade of Saint Paul's in London and Charles Bulfinch's recently completed (1788) Hollis Street Church in Boston. A Doric portico, flanked by twin towers, framed the facade. The building was destroyed by fire, in 1814, and was replaced by the present edifice (page 85).
R.I.H.S.
First Congregational Church, 1795-1814, corner of Benefit and Benevolent streets, from an engraving by William Hamlin.
The original Congregational Church, erected at the present corner of College and Benefit streets in 1723 (page 26), was sold to the town when the new meeting house was built, and was known thenceforth as the Town House (illustration, page 68). It provided
37. The word is used in its literal meaning "a person skilled in the art of building" (Webster) rather than in its professional sense. Brown was a scholar of scientific attainment as well as a man of taste and cul- ture, and acquired his knowledge of architecture through the study of books on the subject. Ormsbee was a master builder, self-taught in the art of design.
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THE NECK
quarters for the various public offices and departments, except the town clerk's office and council chamber which were continued in the Market House (page 50).
As the 18th century closed the Neck still dominated the town of Providence. Located within its territory were the state and municipal seats of government, the market, the principal financial institutions and industries, and most of the homes. The town was expanding westerly across the river, however, where already a significant development was under way (see map, page 70), and it was there, on Weybosset side, that a new civic and commercial center was to materialize in the next century.
R.I.H.S.
The Town House, 1795 - c. 1870, corner of Benefit and College streets, originally the Congregational Church (1723), from an oil painting by George W. Harris owned by Rhode Island Historical Society.
68
MASSACHUSETTS
Wallum Pond
ch Biv
Buck 2 Hill
Herting Pondo
Brø
CUMBERLAND
Woonsocket Hill
BURRELLVILLE Taken from GIOCESTER 1806
showing
sean
her R.
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chstone
STERRITORIAL2 BouNDS for the Years 1750-1806
Chepa GLOCESTER
Noshassuch Rider
CE
John H.Cady - Consultant 1936
Ponaganset Pond'S
PROVIDE
JonEsowook
NORTH PROVIDENCE Taken from
Court
PROVIDENCE 1765
JOHNSTON Taken from PROVIDENCE 1759
Solitary Hill PROVIDEN
Reannexation to PROVIDENCE 1767
MIT
Hawkin's
FOSTER Taken from SCITUATE 1781
River
Rive
Field's Pt.
CRANSTON FAWTUXEN Taken from PROVIDENCE
Biner
BARRINGTON Jahen from WARREN
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KAUSAUKET
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SAKOXNET
LITTLE COMPTON
WASHINGTON Name changed 1781
RT
RICHMOND
HOPKINTON Jaken from WESTERLY
1757
Wood
Beaver Tail
Brentons Reef
catuck
River
CHARLESTOWN Watchaug Pond
Chapman Pond
WESTERLY
Minigrets Pond
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NEW
Babcock Pond
SHOREHAM $
Watch Hill
Part of Newport County
From Rhode Island Boundaries, 1636-1936
CONNECTICUT
1754
177
WARWICK
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Warwick
BRISTOL
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SOUTH KINGSTOWN
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TOWOMUT
MASSACHUSETTS
Run
River
Prepared by the State Planning Board
Ponaganset
SCITUATE
Mashapaug Pond
Bullo
Berrington BRISTOL
AY
A Map of the State of RHODE ISLAND
MAP of the TOWN of PROVIDENCE From Actual Survey Daniel Anthony 1803
Warth Burial Ground
2
RIVER
Searenk
Love
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Pars of North TroviDEyer
COVE above the Bridge
Prep rinces
College Church
Court House
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2
South D"
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Academy P Bank
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Paint
-
Fax Point
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Scale of 300 Rires
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FAC SIMILE. PUBLISHED BYJC THOMPSON, 269 WESTMINSTER ST PROVIDENCE, R 1. 1887
A map of Providence by Daniel Anthony, 1803.
JOHNSTON LINK
PART
OF
SI LASAHJUSSUHL"
Poli
PART II Weybosset Side
CHAPTER 7 1800 - 1812
T HE section of Providence west of Great Salt river, upon which meadows and pasture land were allotted to the early settlers, was identified, in the 17th century, as Weybosset Side.1 In contrast to the firm, well-defined beach bordering the Neck, the shores above and below Weybosset Point were swampy. Cove waters covered the present Exchange Place and Memorial Square and the shore of the river, below the point, followed the curve of Weybosset Street in distances ranging from 80 to 160 feet south of that highway. A creek, known as Muddy Dock, extended inland at Dorrance Street as far as Weybosset, and Waterman's Marsh covered a part of lower Westminster Street and the area north- ward to the cove.
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