The WPA Guide to Rhode Island by Federal Writers' Project

Author:Federal Writers' Project [Project, Federal Writers’]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781595342379
Publisher: Trinity University Press

TOUR 2 — 0.5 m.

E. from NE. corner College and Benefit Sts.

This point offers an excellent view of the buildings in the center of modern Providence, framed in the foreground by the northern end of the Providence County Courthouse (L) and the Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf Building of the Rhode Island School of Design.

College St. is one of the main arteries over College Hill to the east side residential section and tributary highways into Massachusetts. This street, and all the others going over the hill, become perilous with the first snowfall and are immediately sanded, day or night, by men in huge trucks that back up the hill to be sure of traction.

37. The Site of the Old Town House is now occupied by the northeast corner of the Providence County Court House. There is no marker to indicate the site. Here the First Congregational Society built a meeting-house in 1723. It became the property of the town in 1794 when the society moved to new quarters. The original building was demolished in 1860 to make way for the Superior Courthouse, which in turn was razed in 1929 prior to erection of the present structure. The land was part of the home lot of Chad Brown, one of the original settlers of Providence.

38. The Providence Athenœum (open weekdays 9–5), SE. cor. College and Benefit Sts., was incorporated in 1831. Five years later it was joined with the older Providence Library Association, founded in 1753, by virtue of which the Athenæum lays just claim to being one of the oldest libraries in the country. At the time of incorporation the combined libraries were installed on the second floor of the Arcade, but in July, 1838, they were moved to the present quarters on College Hill. This building was designed by Russell Warren and James C. Bucklin, and upholds with taste and restraint the traditions of the Greek Revival. Although its appearance is marred by a series of skylights on the low roof ridge, the façade, with its deep rectangular loggia supported by two fluted Doric columns, and its well-proportioned pedimented gable, presents a broad, solid, forthright appearance.

At first the Athenaeum shared space with the Franklin Society and the Rhode Island Historical Society, but in 1849, the library was left in full possession of its ivy-covered building. The institution is controlled by over 1000 shareholders and its aim is to furnish a home library ‘larger, better arranged, more useful and more attractive than that within the means of any individual shareholder.’ Loan privileges are reserved for shareholders, with special rates for students and teachers. Among the many treasures preserved here are about 50 books from the original library of 1753 which survived a fire by being out on loan. Some of these were purchased by Stephen Hopkins and Moses Brown. The literary courtship of Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Helen Whitman was very largely conducted within the corridors of this venerable building. The library preserves a December issue of Colton’s American Review

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