Sockanosset School for Boys

If you were a young boy in Rhode Island during the last century and you had a knack for trouble, it wasn’t uncommon for your parent or guardian to threaten, “I’m going to bring you to Sockanosset!” The Sockanosset School for Boys shuttered its doors the year before I was born, but that didn’t stop my parents from telling me that they were going to bring me there if I didn’t behave. All I had ever seen of the school as a kid was a desolate campus full of windowless abandoned buildings. Friends at school would whisper about the spirits that haunted the grounds and would tell of their older siblings’ exploits into the buildings in search of the supernatural and unexplained. Between Sockanosset’s spooky reputation and its former service as the “bad boys’ school,” my parents’ warning was enough to straighten me out immediately.

Looking into the Sockanosset School, it seems the urban legends about the place don’t hold much water. Opening in 1881, the Sockanosset School was a detention facility designed to be a place of reformation for juvenile offenders. While one might imagine that any juvenile detention facility would be rough around the edges, I also found many accounts that described the administrators at Sockanosset as forward-thinking in their approach to dealing with “wayward boys.” Initially, the school offered structure and discipline through labor-intensive projects such as farming, construction, or even shoveling coal from the small coal mine that existed where the Garden City Shopping Center now stands. As time progressed, Sockanosset shifted its mission from reform to education, offering young boys the opportunity to learn a vocational trade. By the 20th century, Sockanosset, while still serving as a juvenile detention center, was a well-respected vocational school with an emphasis on preparing boys for a future after their release. By the 1980s, lack of funding and the termination of vocational training made Sockanosset obsolete and it closed in 1985.

Today, the old, eerie Sockanosset School for Boys has found new life as an upscale shopping plaza with luxury condos on the top levels. Completely renovated, you would never know that the buildings are over 120 years old. The former school’s chapel is now Chapel Grille, a fine dining establishment. It’s always nice to see a developer utilize historical buildings rather than raze them, but while the buildings remain, the legends have faded with each new generation of kids. Today, if your parent or guardian tells you they’re bringing you to Sockanosset, it’s probably for an ice cream at Coldstone Creamery.

Crescent Park a-Looff

Hurricanes have not been kind to the treasured landmarks of Rhode Island over the years. Take Rocky Point Park’s famed “Shore Dinner Hall,” which was destroyed during the Hurricane of 1938, rebuilt and destroyed again only 16 years later by Hurricane Carol in 1954. Across the bay from Rocky Point in Riverside sits the last functional remnant of another well-loved amusement park of yesteryear, Crescent Park. Crescent Park was also rebuilt several times after storms, but one unique attraction survived — a hand carved carousel built by Charles I.D. Looff in 1895. The music of the spinning spectacle of horses, camels and flying coaches can still be heard bellowing from the automated pipe organ on warm summer nights on Narragansett Bay’s east bank. The carousel is one of the few remaining examples of Looff’s work and has survived over 125 years of everything from the harshest New England weather to the wrecking ball that erased the rest of Crescent Park around it in 1979. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you look a bit closer around the former Crescent Park area, you can still find evidence of the old attractions. A walk along the shoreline will provide a view of the old boardwalk, where it’s easy to imagine hot summer days spent swimming. You can still spot the weathered stumps of pylons which once held up the dock for the steam ships that would bring park attendees from points up and down the bay. While most of the area is now parking lots, condominiums and open green space, a trip to the Looff Carousel and a little imagination will transport you to simpler days when the magic of amusement parks was only a trolley car or steamship ride away.

Goodies at Goodie's

If you drive down Route 101 towards Connecticut, over the hilly landscape of northwestern Rhode Island, you will eventually find yourself 812 feet above sea level at the top of Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island’s highest peak. There, at the crest of the hill, sits a boarded-up brick building set back in the trees a bit. In the summer, one might miss it completely, as the structure is easily lost in the thick foliage. As a youngster growing up in Foster, I would often ride the school bus past this place. I seem to remember it being a weather station at one point, but besides that, it’s always been a desolate area marked with “no trespassing” signs. To be honest, I forgot it was even there until I came across this postcard from a place called “Goodie’s Lunch.” I initially thought this spot must have been closer to Scituate, but after close inspection, I recognized it as the old abandoned building on top of Jerimoth Hill. I couldn’t find much information about Goodie’s Lunch, except that they were known locally for their pie. It’s hard to imagine anyone ever stopping here to grab a slice, but I suppose the highest point in the state is as good of a place as any for dessert!

Same Old Home Day

The Elder Hammond Meeting House was built in 1796 by the Second Baptist Church of Foster with funds from the Rhode Island General Assembly. It was used as a place of worship as well as a venue for public meetings; the first Foster town meeting was held there in 1801. Foster has held its town meetings in the building ever since, making Elder Hammond Meeting House the oldest continuously used governmental assembly building in the United States.

In 1904, the town of Foster celebrated its first “Old Home Day,” in order to raise funds for repairs to the Meeting House, or, as it is called today, the Foster Town House. In true Rhode Island fashion, the celebration was a traditional clam bake and included chowder cooked in massive iron cauldrons, which are still on display today at the Foster Preservation Society. Many Fosterites brought dishes and silverware from their own homes for use at the celebration and local sawmills provided native timber boards for makeshift tables. In attendance was United States Senator Nelson W. Aldrich, who was born in Foster. Today, the Old Home Days celebration is still a time for the people of Foster to come together and celebrate their town’s heritage.

An interesting side note: I believe the sapling in the top image is the very same majestic maple tree featured in the bottom image (although there’s no way to be sure).

Catholics on a Mission

In the 1850s, a large percentage of Northwestern Rhode Island's immigrant community was French-speaking Québécois.  It is estimated that there were 350 French Canadian Catholics living in the Greenville section of Smithfield alone.  Despite these numbers, the Québécois of Greenville did not have a place of worship to call their own.  In 1858, that would change when St. Philip’s Parish was dedicated — the first Catholic church in all of Smithfield.  

The status of St. Philip’s was tied to the Northern American mill system (created about 10 miles away in Pawtucket by Samuel Slater). By the turn of the 20th century, the larger mills were concentrated in the eastern parts of Smithfield, including Georgiaville, Esmond, and Stillwater. As an influx of immigrants arrived to work in the mills, so did a demand for a Catholic parish in Georgiaville, where immigrants resided in mill housing complexes and boarding houses. St. Michael's Church was established in Georgiaville in 1875 and replaced St. Philip’s as the center of Catholic life in Smithfield. St. Philip’s was downgraded to a "mission" of St. Michael's Church.

Living and working in Greenville and traveling to attend Mass in Georgiaville would have been incredibly difficult for the average mill worker. In order to accommodate Catholics of Greenville, a pastor from St. Michael's would travel five miles by horse and carriage to hold Mass every Sunday at 9:30am.  The Mass was conducted in Latin and French, followed by children's religious classes. One of the biggest honors for attendants of Mass was to be selected to operate the hand pump for the organ, located in a loft above the altar. For years, a core group of thirty people attended the little mission.

Despite being built in a time of rampant bigotry towards Catholic immigrants, St. Philip’s developed not only as a religious institution, but also as a cultural center in Greenville. People of all denominations would come together for harvest suppers, square dancing, and clambakes.

The construction of the original St. Philip’s marked a significant cultural change in the rural parts of Rhode Island. Yet, within its design, we find similarity; St. Philip’s is a Catholic church built in the likeness of almost every other wooden Protestant church around it. The Québécois who built this church made an attempt to assimilate into the society around them, while still holding onto their own rich traditions and culture.  As far as anyone can tell, it worked, as St. Philip’s church was rebuilt three times over the next 100 years in order to accommodate the Catholic community of Greenville. Driving down route 44 on the Glocester—Greenville line, you can spot the current St. Philip’s Parish. While the building in the photo above sits shuttered, it remains an important landmark of Catholicism in Rhode Island.

A Bridge Too Far

The "old" in Old Danielson Pike alludes to the fact that this stretch of road, which runs directly through the heart of the Hopkins Mills section of Foster, was once the "new" Danielson Pike.  This mile stretch of road was at one time the center of economic activity in the town. The Providence & Danielson Stagecoach carried product from the mills in the village and surrounding area across the Ponagansett River, and the Hopkins Mills Bridge was a vital piece of infrastructure to every business on the route between Danielson and Providence.

With the advent of the automobile, the bridge received a much needed update: in 1913, a new Hopkins Mills Bridge was completed. Only 15 years later, however, the construction of Route 6 bypassed Hopkins Mills completely, and the bridge was no longer a vital thruway. Over time, the mills, along with the amenities in the village that supported them, such as general stores, taverns and inns, shut their doors.

Despite the closed factories, Hopkins Mills remained a close-knit community that flourished into the 1990s.  The Hopkins Mills Bridge stood for over one hundred years until RIDOT deemed the bridge unsafe for public use.  It was demolished in 2014, effectively splitting the village of Hopkins Mills in half. Today, while it remains a National Historic District, the village is a shadow of its former self.  Vegetation has taken over much of the street, not only near the bridge but all along Old Danielson Pike.  The condition of the road is poor at best, and without a thruway, these issues are likely at the bottom of Foster DPW's list.  

Still, Hopkins Mills is an important historical landmark.  It is a prime example of one of New England’s rural industrial villages, many of which have been replaced by strip malls and condominiums.  An autumn walk down Old Danielson Pike provides picturesque views of Colonial, Federal and Greek Revival architecture, babbling brooks and waterfalls, a one-room schoolhouse and (with a little imagination) a glimpse into the way life used to be.

Before photographs: Foster Preservation Society

An Icon in the Making

Here you have a view of the Industrial Trust Building (some might know it as the "Superman Building") from the corner of Benefit and College Streets in Providence.  The photo on the left was taken in 1927; the photo on the right was taken 91 years later in 2018.  The Industrial Trust Building is still the tallest building in Providence and - despite it being mostly concealed in the 2018 photo - occupies a commanding presence in Providence's small but beautiful skyline.  For the people of Providence in 1927, the building was likely the biggest structure many of them had ever seen!  I love to imagine how they must have felt standing on this very street corner staring wide-eyed at this modern marvel of engineering.  What a time to have been alive!

Market Square

Market Square was a center for commerce, news, gossip and public meetings in Providence for well over a century.  The newspaper that would come to be named The Providence Journal was first distributed here.  During the Civil War, officials stood in the square and drew names out of a wheel for the military draft.  Today, Market Square hosts a section of Providence's "Waterfire" celebration.  The top photo was taken sometime around 1896 and the bottom was taken in 2018.  Notice the Banigan Building (labeled "Amica Building" today) is the only recognizable landmark.  All other buildings have been razed and new ones built in their place.    

A View From the Park

A view of Downcity from Prospect Park located on Congdon Street.  The bottom image is from the 1960s and the top was taken in 2018.  

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