Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission

Description

The Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission is the state agency for historical preservation and heritage programs. The Commission operates a statewide historical preservation program that identifies and protects historic buildings, districts, structures, and archaeological sites. The Commission also develops and carries out programs to document and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Rhode Island's people.

The commission supports educational and recreational events, and manages state historic sites, which are listed individually in this database.

Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden [CT]

Description

The Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden embodies the dramatically different passions of two individuals. Bethlehem pastor Joseph Bellamy, a renowned leader of the Great Awakening, the emotional religious revival of the 1740s, built the house around 1754. In 1912, New Yorkers Henry and Eliza Ferriday acquired it as a summer residence. Around 1915, Mrs. Ferriday designed a formal garden with historic roses, peonies, lilacs, and other flowers. The Ferridays' daughter, Caroline, restored the house, furnished it with Litchfield County antiques, and maintained the magnificent garden, refining the property as a combination of natural and manmade beauty.

The house offers tours.

Rhode Island Historical Society, John Brown House Museum, and Museum of Work and Culture

Description

The Society operates the John Brown House Museum and the Museum of Work and Culture. The John Brown House museum was one of America's grandest mansions when completed in 1788, for John Brown, a businessman, patriot, politician, China Trade pioneer, and slave trader who participated in the debates and practices that shaped the new nation and the world. Today this building serves as a place in which the public can learn about the men and women who lived here from the late 18th through early 20th centuries. The Museum of Work and Culture presents the story of immigrants who came to find a better life in the mill towns along the Blackstone River. The exhibits recreate immigrant life at home, at church, and at school, and present the unique Woonsocket labor story of the rise of the Independent Textile Union, which grew to dominate every aspect of city life.

The society offers tours, research library access, educational programs, and recreational and educational events; the House offers tours and educational programs; the Museum offers exhibits, tours, and educational programs.

Hempsted Houses [CT]

Description

The 1678 Joshua Hempsted House is one of New England's oldest and best documented dwellings. Joshua Hempsted lived here his whole life, filling many roles, including farmer, judge, gravestone carver, shipwright, and father of nine children left motherless by his wife's death in 1716. The Hempsted House survived the 1781 burning of New London by the British, commanded by traitor Benedict Arnold. Later, it may have been a safe house on the secret Underground Railroad which aided fugitive slaves seeking freedom. Adjacent to the Joshua Hempsted House is a rare stone dwelling built in 1759 by his grandson Nathaniel. Both houses' furnishings include original Hempsted family objects.

The houses offer exhibits and tours.

Museum of African American History and Historical Sites [MA]

Description

The Museum of African American History is dedicated to preserving, conserving, and accurately interpreting the contributions of African Americans in New England from the colonial period through the 19th century. The Museum maintains several individual historical sites, including the Boston African Meeting House, the Abiel Smith School, the Nantucket African Meeting House, and the Higginbotham House. The African Meeting House on Beacon Hill was built in 1806 in what once was the heart of Boston's 19th-century African-American community. It is today a showcase of black community organization in the formative years of the new republic. The 1834 Abiel Smith School is the first building in the nation built for the sole purpose of serving as a public school for black children. This historic site has been transformed into exhibit galleries. The African Meeting House on Nantucket is the island's most vivid reminder of a thriving 19th-century African-American community. Erected in the 1820s by the African Baptist Society (of which Captain Absalom Boston was a trustee), it is the only public building still in existence that was constructed and occupied by the island's African Americans during the 19th century.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, lectures, and recreational and educational events; the Boston African Meeting House offers tours; the School offers exhibits; the Nantucket African Meeting House offers exhibits.

Rundlet-May House

Description

The merchant James Rundlet acquired his wealth in the textile trade. To proclaim his success, he built his 1807 mansion on a terraced rise above the street and filled it with the finest furnishings available. He imported his wallpapers from England and purchased his furniture from local cabinetmakers, whose work was noted for its fine craftsmanship and striking use of veneer. Rundlet also saw to it that his house was equipped with the latest technologies. The kitchen boasts both a Rumford roaster and a Rumford range, as well as a set kettle and an elaborate venting system that services a smoke room on the third floor. There is an early coal-fired central heating system and an indoor well.

The house offers tours.

Nantucket Historical Association, Whaling Museum, and Historic Sites [MA]

Description

The Association operates several museums and historic sites, including the Whaling Museum, Hadwen House, Oldest House, Old Mill, Old Gaol, Quaker Meeting House, and the Hose-cart House. The Museum displays exhibits tracing the history of the New England whaling industry. The Hadwen House is a Greek Revival mansion built in 1845 by whaling merchant and silver retailer William Hadwen. Also called the Jethro Coffin House, the Oldest House is the oldest residence on Nantucket. Built as a wedding gift in 1686 for Jethro Coffin and Mary Gardner, it is the sole surviving structure from the island's original 17th-century English settlement. The Old Mill, built in 1746 by Nathan Wilbur, a Nantucket sailor who had spent time in Holland, is the oldest functioning mill in the country. The Old Gaol was opened in 1806; the wooden structure represents colonial architecture with exceptional reinforcements. The Quaker (Friends) Meeting House was erected in 1838 and originally served as a Friends School for the Wilburite Sect. The Fire Hose-cart House is the last remaining 19th-century firehouse on the island, dating from 1886.

The association offers tours, lectures, classes, research library access, and recreational and educational events; the Museum offers exhibits; the Hadwen House offers tours; the Oldest House offers tours; the Old Mill offers tours and demonstrations; the Old Gaol is open to the public; the Quaker Meeting House is open to the public and offers lectures; the Hose-cart House is open to the public.

Arlington Historical Society, Museum, and Jason Russell House [Massachusetts]

Description

The Jason Russell House was the site of the bloodiest fighting during the first day of the Revolutionary War, April 19, 1775. Today it and the adjoining Smith Museum hold collections of the Society. The Society, with offices in the Smith Museum, hosts a yearly lecture series as well as offering individual and group tours of the Jason Russell House. Through its education and outreach program, the Arlington Historical Society welcomes school classes and scout groups to explore life in colonial America.

The society offers lectures, research library access, and occasional recreational and educational programs; the house offers tours; and the museum offers tours and exhibits.