DIRECTIONS BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY NATIONAL HERITAGE CORRIDOR PROVIDENCE, RI Traveling North or South 190 290 on I-95, take exit 22 495 290 Walking Tour of Churches on College Hill (Providence–Downtown) WORCESTER 9 9 and proceed onto Memorial Leicester 122 90 Boulevard. At fourth light Grafton 90 Upton turn left onto Waterman Millbury

395 146 Street. Take first left onto North Sutton Northbridge Hopedale

16 495 Main Street. At second set of Mendon Uxbridge Millville 16 traffic lights, turn left onto 122 Blackstone B lac Douglas ksto ne Rive Smith Street and make CONNECTICUT MASSACHUSETTS r 395 Woonsocket

first left onto Canal Street. 102 146 Cumberland Burrillville N. Smithfield Parking lot for the Roger Williams 295

Glocester 295 95 National Memorial is on the Smithfield Lincoln 44 Central Falls

Pawtucket left-hand side. 146 East 44 Providence 102 PROVIDENCEPROVIDENCE

ALONG THE WAY ❑ 282 North Main Street See the exhibits at the Roger Williams National Memorial. Free. Entrance to the free parking lot is off Canal Street, a one way street, heading south. 401-521-7266 ❑ 21 Meeting Street Pick up more walking tour guides for the “Mile of History” along Benefit Street or downtown Providence, or get the schedule for guided walking tours at Providence Preservation Society. Ask for more information about the religious archi- tecture of other congregations in Providence. Terraced formal garden open. Free. What Style is That 401-831-7440 ❑ The Rhode Island Black Heritage Society has additional information about African- Church? American churches in the state. 401-751-3490 ❑ 11 Thomas Street One of dozens of Cultural and Historical Banner Trail sites, pick up a free Providence Banner Trail Guide at the Providence Art Club. Dodge House Galleries open to the public. Free. 401-331-1114 ❑ 75 North Main Street The First Baptist Church is open for tours. Free. 401-454-3418 ❑ 224 Benefit Street Tour The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and pick up a free map for a self-guided tour of the RISD campus. Admission charged. 401-454-6400 ❑ 251 Benefit Street Visit the Providence , 1836-1838. Free. 401-421-6970 ❑ 15 Hopkins Street Tour the Governor Stephen Hopkins House, 1707. Admission charged. 401-421-0694

❑ 52 Power Street At the corner of Benefit Street, visit John Brown House, Congress established the 1786-1788. Free parking off Charlesfield Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission in Street. Admission charged. 1986, recognizing the national 401-331-8575 significance of the region between ❑ 70 Congdon Street The best view of Providence, RI and Worcester, the city is from Prospect Terrace, a MA–the Birthplace of the small park just a short way up Congdon American Industrial Revolution. Street. Free. The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage ❑ Providence Harbor and the Corridor is an affiliated area of the Blackstone River To take a riverboat National Park Service. excursion, call for the spring, summer or fall schedule for The Explorer, Tourism Council. This brochure was developed 401-724-2200 under the direction of The Rhode Island Historical Society in John H. Chafee partnership with the Heritage www.nps.gov/blac/home.htm Corridor Commission. BLACKSTONE RIVER VALLEY

National Heritage Corridor

Special thanks for assistance to the Providence Preservation Society. 3: 06-01 PROVIDENCE that he advocated there could be no peace on earth

If you think architectural design is a type of puzzle until all men granted each other the freedom of their with rules that constantly change over time, this guide consciences. The danger the orthodox Puritans, as well will be your key to unlock clues to these elements that as the Church of England, saw in Williams’ beliefs was make a building church-like. On this walking tour of that, in addition to the difficulty of suddenly having to churches and libraries from three different centuries, espouse a lenient behavior, it also required uncondi- you will be walking along streets that date to the tional separation of church and state. In that era, both founding of the settlement of Providence. notions were entirely unimaginable to most Puritans. Just sixteen years after the landing of the In such a climate of not only freedom from perse- Mayflower at Plymouth, Massachusetts, Roger cution, but also freedom to choose, change, and con- Williams founded a new settlement in what would struct one’s own beliefs, the Rhode Island colony more become the colony of Rhode Island. This settlement than any other attracted religious refugees of all denom- was named Providence for the act of God that inations. It was as if the settlements had advertised Williams believed led him to the east side of the “Dissenters Welcomed.” At liberty to worship, congre- Seekonk River in 1636. gations were also free to build their houses of worship. Williams, a thirty-year old Oxford educated min- Existing physical evidence of a tolerant attitude ister, had been banished from the Massachusetts Bay that endured for centuries is the variety of places of and Plymouth colonies for his “newe and dangerous worship in a multitude of architectural styles orna- opinions against the authorities.” Of the thirteen origi- menting Rhode Island’s cities and towns. Each one, in nal colonies, only Rhode Island was founded with the its own way, tells you it is a religious building. But determination that “soul liberty,” or freedom of wor- sometimes, you will be surprised to learn, a design your ship, would apply to all people, of all denominations, eye recognizes as a “church,” is not. and of all beliefs. The novelty of Williams’ idea was

Providence 1790 The Rhode Island Historical Society This walking tour of churches in the College Hill National Registered Historic Land-

BENEFIT 1 PRATT mark District (part of which was Roger Williams’ own back yard) begins directly LLOYD across the street from Roger Williams National Memorial on North Main Street. ? STAIRS P CONGDON

BOWEN BROWN Roger Williams National Memorial CUSHING NORTH MAIN Prospect Terrace

CANAL ST. SOUTH FIRST BAPTIST COURT 7 2CHURCH MEETING 8 OLIVE 75 North Main Street. 1775, timber frame, OMAS ANGELL wood. Joseph Brown, designer. TH Rhode Island 2 School of Design Campus 6 This is the Baptists’ third church build- WATERMAN

WASHINGTON P ing in Providence, and the oldest in the R ME O Brown E S country. A transitional structure, this is MORIAL B COLLEG P University 3 E 5 Campus C

T a traditional meeting house combined S TEEPLE ST. LVD. BENEFIT GEORGE with a London church style steeple. SOUTH MAIN

MAGEE Brown, a “gentleman-architect,” Providence River

copied the five-stage steeple design BROWN T BENEVOLENT E from detailed drawings in James MINSTER S S. WATER ST. 4 S O WEST B Gibbs’ “Book of Architecture,” pub- Y E lished in England in 1728. As much a W landmark 200 years ago as it is today, POWER the religious symbolism of the 185- COLLEGE HILL, PROVIDENCE foot steeple is sometimes secondary to its usefulness as a navigational aid by sea or by land. MEMORIAL HALL, Style books published in RHODE ISLAND the early 1700’s made SCHOOL OF DESIGN 3 the art of architecture accessible to master carpenters and builders Formerly, Central Congregational Church. throughout colonial 226 Benefit Street. 1853-1856, brownstone- America. While it wasn’t faced brick. Thomas A. Tefft, architect. exactly a “paint by num- bers” formula for perfec- With almost no exterior modifications, tion, the books inspired the Rhode Island School of Design has some aesthetic sense The Rhode Island Historical Society adapted the former Central and sophistication in architecture beyond the Laurence E. Tilley Congregational Church for reuse as a earlier vernacular, post- mailroom and snack bar. The twin tow- medieval buildings. A with its entirely vertical emphasis, has ers were damaged and later removed century before, there would have been little CATHEDRAL OF ST. been clear: everything points heaven- as a result of the Great Hurricane of JOHN (EPISCOPAL) visual or structural dif- 1 ward. The clergy supported the Gothic 1938. The triple-rounded arch ference between a barn, style, original or revival, as most aptly entrance, and the tall rounded arch a tavern and a meeting 271 North Main Street . 1810, Smithfield suited for worship, reasoning that it windows are clues to the building’s house except for the stone, brownstone trim. John Holden furnishings, and in the provoked spirituality. original religious function. case of the tavern, heat. Greene, architect. Walk up the stairs in front of the dioc- Romanesque designs are characteristi- You would never mistake the original esan offices, continue close along the cally solid, heavy, and usually symmet- building of the Cathedral of St. John right-hand side of the building, and rical. Builders felt the mass and for an office building or a department through the iron gate at the back. weight of the sturdy masonry was a store. The tall, sharply pointed arch Continue up the path and steps, and good allegory for the importance of a windows, plus the stained-glass, give turn right on Benefit Street. For the rest spiritual foundation and permanence you the first clues to the building’s pur- of the tour, follow the map carefully. of belief in people’s lives. pose. Although 19th-century church buildings of the English Gothic Revival style share some decorative elements with everything from armories and town halls to picturesque country resi- No other image evokes the spirit of New England more than a tall steeple atop a big white church at the head dences, the tower with a belfry gives of a broad village green. Providence’s first religious this building its church-like appearance. building for the Baptist congregation founded by Roger Williams, was hardly a spiritual icon. It was “in the Since the twelfth century, the emo- shape of a haycap with a fireplace in the middle and tional message of the Gothic style, smoke escaping from a hole in the roof.” FIRST UNITARIAN tower, Greene placed an enormous ROBINSON HALL, Gothic design and decoration immedi- 4CHURCH Gothic round-headed, three-part lancet BROWN6 UNIVERSITY ately catches the eye. The colorful (pointed arch) window. He then flanked stonework and festivity of the decora- the window with four colossal tions on Robinson Hall give it the look Formerly, First Congregational Church. Formerly, University Library. 64 Waterman of a site of celebration. The domed, 301 Benefit Street. 1816, granite. columns also in a classical design. Street. 1875-1876, poly-chrome masonry. John Holden Greene, architect. Finally, Federal style finials and decora- Walker and Gould, architects. octagonal cupola is another architec- tions were added on every corner and tural feature automatically associated This church was the third built by the edge, nearly all the way up to the sky. Built as the university library, Robinson with religious, and sometimes official, congregation in Providence. A charac- Hall looks for all the world as if it buildings. The size and symmetry of teristic of the Baroque style, originally The visual effect of the combination of should have a sacred function. What the building is a final hint that it might from the late-Renaissance, is the use architectural elements is so dramatic first makes you see this as a church? be a place where many people gather of harmonious, yet richly three-dimen- that the building is awe inspiring. The “pointy-ness” of the High Victorian inside, rather than a private residence. sional forms. Under the huge classical pediment on the facade beneath the

The “temple-front” style was so thoroughly and enthusiastically adopted by builders across America, that no bank, school, post office, city hall, private home, or church escaped the heroic implica- Weathervane CONGDON STREET tions—a search for democratic truth, purity, and equality. Think of BAPTIST CHURCH the many churches you have seen that are basically a Greek temple 8 with a New England steeple stuck on the roof. At the time, it did not seem odd to combine the two. 15 Congdon Street. 1874, wood frame. C. F. Wilcox, architect.

Spire This church is an important site in the city’s African-American religious his- tory, beginning with the congregation from the African Union Meeting House, which stood on Meeting Street. The Italianate style, inspired by sixteenth- First Octagon century sources from the Tuscan hill towns surrounding Florence and later Lantern interpreted by an English sensibility,

The Rhode Island Historical Society produced simple, strong, and typically Second Octagon asymetrical designs. The easily recog- MANNING HALL, FIRST CHURCH OF nized details are heavy framing, bold CHRIST SCIENTIST BROWN5 UNIVERSITY 7 trim, and decoratively capped win- dows and doors set against a plain 1834, stuccoed-rubblestone. James 71 Prospect Street. 1906-1913, brick and background surface. Following close Bucklin, architect limestone with terra cotta trim. Hoppin and after the decline of popularity for Greek Belfry Stage Field, architects. Revival designs, Italianate buildings This Greek Revival style building origi- must have seemed enjoyably pictur- nally housed a library, downstairs, and This basilica-sized, copper-clad esque, and substantially less laden a chapel, upstairs. Used commercially Renaissance-style dome and the State with meaning and portent. to the extent that the style eventually House dome are landmarks on the city’s skyline. During the Italian Clock Stage was ridiculed by taste-makers in the mid-1800’s, today the best of the Renaissance in the fifteenth and six- Gallery Greek Revival buildings are among the teenth centuries proportioned and most powerful designs on the land- measured buildings aspired to total scape. Stand next to one of the Doric refinement and complete perfection of columns in the deep shadow under- detail. Built by a collaboration of archi- neath the portico of Manning Hall. You tects, scientists, mathematicians, and feel the permanence and strength of intellectuals, backed by the wealth of the forms. the church, the thrilling vision of a flawless and inconceivably expensive structure was a symbol for the great Because architects were quite precise importance and influence of a whole, about the historical accuracy of the unified, and perfect churchdom. details in the revival styles after 1900, the Providence Preservation Society overall impression of revival buildings is strong and direct. Yet, the redrawn Return by walking down South Court Street. On your way, you will pass the Old designs sometimes lack the motivation and meaning they had in their first, more State House, 1762, on the right-hand side. At the foot of the hill, turn right on North exciting, incarnations centuries before. Main Street.