___________________ FormIO-300 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE IATERIOR STATE: July 1969 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Rhode Island COUNTY. NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Providence INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM . FOR NPS USE ONLY DATE - - ENTRY NUMBER Type all entries - complete applicable sections IL. N ÂME COMMON: - - . - Peleg Arnold Tavern ANO/OR HISTORIC: . - -. -. [itOCATION ..? STREET AND NUMBER: . - . Woonsocket Hill Road, corner of Great Road . - CITY OR TOWN: - * Union ViUage, North Smithfield, * StATE . CODE COUNTY, CODE Rhode Islafld,02895 .. liii Providence 00? jCLASSIFICATION % CATEGORY ACCESSIBLE in* : OWNERSHIP STATUS , Check One TO THE PUBLIC District Public .. Public Acquisition: Yes: C Building C *, Occupied. Restrict.d Site Private . In Process , C C Structure . C C Unoccupied Unrestricted C Object Q Both 0 Being Considered C Preservation work C I In progress No PR E5ENT USE Check One or More as Appropriate .. .. C Agricultural 0 Government . C Park 0 Transportation 0 Comments IndUstrial C Commercial C Private Residence ‘ Q Other Specify . I-. C Educational C Military C Religious ,- ... Entertainment Museum SCientific * : . --- . fl Q C C E4 OWNEROFPROPERTY - OWNERS N AME: 0 ‘i . Robert and Jeanette Rivet -1 -I Ui- STREET AND NUMBER: m ‘U. 276 Providence Street CITY OR TOWN: STATE: CODE fl. .Woonsocket . Rhode Island, 02895 Lilt c’ 1C OCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION ‘ -fl COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS. ETC: North Smithfield Town Hall STREET AND NUMBER: CITY OR TOWN: STATE CODE North Smithfield Rhode Island, 02876 1i1 EVREPRESENTATI0NIN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE OF SURVEY. r’ Statewide Survey of Historic Buildings H DATE OF SURVEY: 1970-1973 D Federal State 0 County 0 Local DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS: C Z Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission STREET AND NUMBER: John Brown House, 52 Power Street CITY OR TOWN: STATE: . j CODE - - Providence Rhode Island, 02906 Lu . ... - - " - ____ _____ -- - .- - - .. - - - :! - F C Excellent Fair C Deteriorated C Ruins - I. CONDITION C:c:dQ j One 11 Altered C Unaltered Moved Original Site - C DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL if known PHYSICAL APPEARANCE The original core of the Peleg Arnold Tavern was constructed in -. 1690 and was a small, timber-framed, gabled dwelling twenty feet square. - - Around 1790 the building was enlarged by an addition to the north end. A late 19th-century print and several photographs of that time - shoi the building as a substantial clapboarded structure of two-and-a- half storeys, its six-hay front facing Woonsocket Hill Road and its gable-end towards the Great Road. Two larF.e brick chimneys pierced - - - the roof-ridge near both ends; a small ell to the rear had a tall, slim brick chimney. A large, one-ancj-a-half-storey, gable-roofed barn, en- - tered by means of a ramp of dirt and stone and having a central cupola on the roof and palladian window in the gable, was shown located be- --, a -. hind and to one side of the house; hut this was subsequently removed from the oroperty. Later changes to the main building included an en- - largement of the one-storey entrance portico to form a covered verandah round the front and sides. However, a decline in the fortunes of the owners in the 20th century resulted in the removal of the exterior ad- rn ditions--portico, verandah, and rear ell. - - The numerous alterations to the exterior of the original house Z and tavern as it became have so affected the structure that archi- tecturally it no longer exemplifies a typical early Rhode Island build- -i ing. Also radically changed has been the interior, which was remodel- led into apartments several decades ago. The formerly-thriving tavern is today a large apartment house at the corner of Woonsocket Hill Road - - and Great Road. Its chief value now is in its- historical associations * rather thafl its architeaturalyi,erits-. -. --- -- - - _1 - I4 -. .--.- . - - I j I I -. -- -- .- - , - -- - - -- - . - , 0 - -- - .i:fha ;,.. Z - V. - - -- . - ‘ r TO 1 - C - - - - I -- - I I- iI - . - -- - - -- - -.*---- .- I -- -. -- . - ;-j Y1--- -- ::: I.: - - . - - . ,:: - - ‘I r - - - - - - . - ________________________ GN In CANCE cJntug%fl3 - PERIOO Chock One or Mote a. Appropriato - C. - 16th 18th Century 20th Century C Pre-Columbian I --- C Century -- - IX C 15th Century -- * 17th Century - - 19th Century - -- - - C 1 - C - ,---, -r -- - -- -- SPECIFIC DATEtSI ft Arijslicabfe endKnown 1690.- 1790 fr. -- AREAS OF SIOHIFICANCE Check One or More es Appropriate - - I - - Aboriginal Education -- - Urban Planning C - XJ Political * - r Prehistarich Engineering. r, - Other SpeCify - C - C Religion/Phi- C: . Historic- -- C C Industry - - Iosophf -- -- . -- C Agriculture Inventian I Science C C *I - C Architecture Landscape Sculpture -- -: C C - C Art Architecture C Social/Humon - Commerce Literature - C C itorion Communications Military -- C IJI - C Theater C Conservation C Music C Transportation -- STATEMENT OF SIGNtFICANCE --- - - -- - In 1690, the small dwelling-house that later evolved into the - Peleg Arnold Tavern was built in what is now Union Village by Richard Arnold, a member of the family that originally settled Woonsocket. - Arnoldts house was the first- one- constructed in Union Village, and one of the earliest in the township of North -- 0 Smithfield. - - - - In 1739, during the ownership of Thomas Arnold, the building was U - licensed as a tavern to serve the needs of travelers along the route - from Providence to Worcester, Massachusetts, when the original rough - -- trail was enlarged into a roadway and began to carry more traffic. Upon the death of Thomas in 1765, his son, Peleg, became owner. Peleg Arnold, educated at Rhode Island College later Brown Uni versity, was an energetic man who became deeply involved in the af- - - Z - - fairs of his times. Upon hearing of the conflicts at Lexington and - Concord in the spring of 1775, he hecame ai’oused and began’recniiting - soldiers for the coming struggle with England. At lii - - - a town - meeting held - - in his tavern in Juno, 1775, that place was - LU designated as one of the - three depositories for arms to he used by the townsmen in the event of - invasio, by the British. - During the War for Independence Peleg Arnold - attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Continental Army. - Followincc the war, Peleg Arnold served as a justice of the peace - from 1782 to 1788 and also, from - 1786 to 1789, as a delegate to the Continental Congress. In 1795 he was made Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court. His final service to this state was as Chief - Ju@ice of its Supreme Court- from 1799 to 1809 and 1810 to 1812. -- - - - - After the - -: Revolutionanr 4ar the Arnold house gained great renown a thriving tavern and continued as as such after the death of Peleg - - Arnold - - in 1820. Later in the 19th century a daughter of James Arnold - - married Albert Mowry. During Mowry tenure the establishment II was trans- formed * .frorn an ordinary inn into one - of the most iujo.zrious tavert- - in New England" Woonsocket Call, September 9, 191i8, and it so served --- - until the early 20th century. After several changes of ownership and - a period during which it was vacant - arxl neglected, it was converted - into apartments in the late l9ljO’s. - - - See - Continuation Sheet.- fl’’tqw - Form lO-300o UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE -- - July,1969 NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Rhode Island -- COUNTY - -: - - NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES - Providence -- - - -- - INVENTORY NOMINATION FORM - FOR NPS USE ONLY - - ENTRY NUMOER DATE - - j Continuation Sheet - Number all entrlee - 8. Significance. The Pelev Arnold Tavren, a landmark in the Union Villare area for more than 280 years, is noteworthy ‘fnr several reasons. It is one of the oldest buildings there; it served as a tavern and gathering-place alon the old - Great Road between Providence and-Worcester for more than one-and-a-half centuries; it played a role in the Revolutionary War as a derository for arms and as a recruiting - center; and it was the home af Peleg Arnold, a man of local and state prominence, who served the state and nation with dis- * tinction in several important positions during a formative period in our - - / - nationts development. - - * ‘a Major Bibliographical 9. References. - Richardson, Erastus: History of Woonsocket ‘tioonsocket, Rhode IL and, 1876. - Steere, Thomas: History of the Town of Smithfield, 1730-1871 Providence, Rhode Island, 1381. - - U. S. Works Progress Administration. Federal Writers’ Project: Rhode - Island. A Guide *.. Boston, Massachusetts, 1937. Woonsocket Patriot, Febnary 11, 1870: account - - of Union- Village. - - - - -: - - - - - ---- - - - - i,ic ,tck - - --, - -- --- - - - -‘ - - -- I I 7 * --- -- - - - --- - - / - -/ :- - - -- - -- -- - - -- - - -- - . t - - --- --- -- - -- - - I - - -- ------ - -- -I- -- ----- - -1-j- -- - -- - - - --- ---- - - ---- - - - - - - - --- I 4 - j - - -- - - - - - - - GPO 92t-7 24 - - - - Wflrnfl 01’ __________________________ -WI-n - 4. Vt i-, Bayles, Richard N: History of Providence County, Rhode Island, Volume 2 New York, 1891. - Franklin, M. S.: "The Monograph Series. The Houses and Villages of North Smithfield, Rhode Thland,11 in Pencil Points magazine, August, 1935 -- - - - New York, 1935. Harvey, George: North Smithfield Centennial n. p.? 1971. Leach, Charles N., and Nobrega, Edith W.: ‘1The Great Ro," in The 1970 Rhode Island Yearbook, pp. 1t7-6 Providence, Rhode Island, 1970. - - See Continuation Sheet... L12 GEOGRAPHICAL DATA a LATITUDE