- Cumberland Public Library
The Cumberland Library is housed in a former monastery built in 1900 by Trappist Monks of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance, who left after a fire destroyed many of the buildings in 1950. The town incorporated three smaller libraries into one in 1976. The library is a member of the statewide automated library network, known as CLAN.
URL: http://www.cumberlandlibrary.org/
- Nine Men's Misery
Edward J. Hayden Library,
Diamond Hill Road
Cumberland, RI
Open: Year round
The oldest known monument to veterans in the U.S. Erected in memory of the colonists killed in Pierce's Fight during King Phillips War in 1676.
URL: http://www.bucklinsociety.net/Bucklin_Benjamin.htm
- William Blackstone Monument
Broad Street
Cumberland, RI
Phone: 401-334-7773
Open: Year round
Memorial to Reverend William Blackstone, an Anglican priest who settled in Rhode Island in 1635 -- the first European to do so. The memorial is on the site thought to be Blackstone's grave.
URL: http://www.whipple.org/charles/providencetrip2004/blackstone.html
- Daggett House
Slater Memorial Park, U.S. 1A
Pawtucket, RI 02861
Phone: 401-722.6931 or 401-724.5748
Built in 1685, contains a good collection of antiques, including colonial pewter, china, and articles used by Samuel Slater, who built the first cotton mill in America
URL: http://www.nps.gov/archive/blac/educator/inner/daggett_house.html
- Brown University, Chartered in 1764, is the country's 17th oldest college.
- Corliss-Brackett House, used by Brown University as it's Admission Office
and is located on Prospect Street in Providence at the top of college hill.
This house has the first elevator installed, a carriage house and it is
believed that below the basement are the passages used in the Underground
Railroad from the south, Quakers helping slaves. This house is truly a mansion with
lots of unique things in there. Air conditioning etc. the first in the
country.
- The John Carter Brown Library with its collection of early Americana.
- The First Baptist Church in America, meetinghouse of the nation's oldest Baptist congregation, founded by Roger Williams in 1638. The structure was dedicated in 1775 and designed by Joseph Brown. The church has a carved wood interior and a Waterford crystal chandelier. Built by ships' carpenters in 1775, it survived the gale of 1875 and the hurricane of 1938.
- The Gaspee Room removed from the Sabin Tavern where the raid on the Gaspee was organized - the first armed resistance by American colonists to British authority.
- Old State House, built in 1762, became Rhode Island's Independance Hall, where the colony was declared a free republic on May 4, 1776.
- Roger William's Square marks the landing point where Roger Williams was greeted by Indians in 1636.
- Roger Williams Park is located near Cranston town line, R.I. 12
- The Museum of Natural History contains Indian artifacts.
- Roger Williams Spring and site of original house built in 1637 is near the original Providence settlement.
- The Rhode Island Historical Society
- Shakespeare Head House (1763) the first bookstore and post office, where William Goddard printed the Providence Gazette and Country Journal.
- Stephen Hopkins House, home of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, was first built around 1707 and added to in 1743.
- Old Market House (1774), Market Square, where a Providence Tea Party was plotted and French soldiers were later quartered on the second floor.
- The Providence Athenaeum, was established in 1753 and is among the oldest lending libraries in the world.
- The First Unitarian Church of Providence, built in 1816. The church's bell tower contains the largest bell ever cast in Paul Revere's foundry, weighing 2,500 pounds.
- The Arcade Building newly refurbished, called "the 1st mall in the country"
If you know of any other historic sites in Providence County, Rhode Island that would be helpful to list here,Please let me know.
Return to Providence County, RI USGenWeb Page
Return to Rhode Island USGenWeb Page
Return to USGenWeb Project