Walking Tour of Churches on College Hill (Providence–Downtown) WORCESTER 9 9 and Proceed Onto Memorial Leicester 122 90 Boulevard
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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 RHODE ISLAND 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 Athenaeum, 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, Blackstone Valley 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.