Facts about Rhode Island

History, traditions, and endearing quirks of the biggest little state in the union.

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Built in 1796 and still in use today, the Foster Town House is the oldest government meeting house of its type in the United States. 

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Since 1975 Sakonnet Vineyard in Little Compton has been making award-winning wine. The vineyard is owned by Carolyn Rafaelian, a Providence native and jewelry designer who is the creative force behind the popular Alex & Ani line of jewelry.

Rafaelian got her start in the jewelry business while working at her father’s Providence-based jewelry company, which was founded in 1966. That jewelry company, called Cinerama, was inherited by Rafaelian and her sister, and eventually bought by the Alex & Ani brand.

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Escobar’s Highland Farm, located in Portsmouth, boasts one of the best corn mazes in the state. The farm also offers a pumpkin patch and hay rides, along with a pumpkin festival at the end of September. The farm has been in the Escobar family since the 1920s.

In addition to their community outreach programs, the farm is also a working dairy farm and an important fixture in the dairy farming community. Jane Escobar is a highly regarded dairy cow artificial insemination technician, helping to ensure genetic health of dairy cows industry-wide.

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1955′s Hurricane Diane was the second wettest hurricane to hit Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the wettest to hit Massachusetts. It followed two days after category 2 Hurricane Connie hit the area, bringing with it nearly 20 inches of rain. It was the most costly hurricane of the 1950s, making it one of the worst hurricanes in New England history. The name ‘Diane’ was retired after this storm.

Pictured here is the Manville Dam underwater during Diane. The first floor of the mill was also flooded.

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Built in 1810, Hearthside is a fieldstone structure thus named for the ten fireplaces found inside the home. Local legend has it that the house was constructed by Lincoln resident Stephen Hopkins Smith in the hopes of wooing a Providence woman. Sadly, they never married, and neither of them ever lived in the house.

The house was privately owned until 1996, when it was purchased by the town of Lincoln. It is now run by the nonprofit Friends of Hearthside, which operates the home as a living museum. It is also available to rent for private parties on a limited basis, and the museum offers a number of special events throughout the season.

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Since 1977 Woonsocket has celebrated Autumnfest every Columbus Day weekend. It’s been voted one of the best fall fairs in the state, featuring a parade, rides, an abundance of food, and a beer garden, as well as live music and local crafts.

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Every May 25th the village of Chepachet observes Elephant Day. It is a day of remembrance for Betty the Learned Elephant, also known as ‘Little Bet’, who was shot to death by a group of Masons while crossing the bridge over the Chepachet River.

Sadly, Little Bet was not the first elephant murdered in the village. Her predecessor was Old Bet, one of the first elephants brought to the United States by  Hakaliah Bailey, a distant relative of the James Bailey, one of the founders of the famous Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Old Bet was imported during the early 1800s, when exotic animals began to be a popular attraction in the country. As a big draw, Old Bet’s presence angered religious zealots of the time, who felt the elephant distracted citizens from their prayers and service to the church. In 1816 one of those zealots shot and killed Old Bet while the elephant was allegedly crossing his property.

Little Bet replaced Old Bet, and traveled from the Carolinas to Maine performing as Betty the Learned Elephant. In 1826, on her second trip to Chepachet, she was killed by a group of men from the local order of Masons, presumably for the same reason as her predecessor.

This dark day in Chepachet’s history was kept quiet until 1976, when May 25 was named Elephant Day, and the plaque pictured above was placed on the bridge where poor Betty met her end.

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Located in East Providence, Little Neck Cemetery is one of the oldest continuously used cemeteries in the United States.  Elizabeth Tilley Howland, one of the passengers on the Mayflower, is buried there, along with Captain Thomas Willett, the first English mayor of New York City. Founded in 1655, it is located in one of the most scenic parts of East Providence, at the top of Bullock Cove.

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An important piece of folklore in West Warwick’s Apponaug Village community is the history of the Drum Rocks found in the area. According to local legend, they were used by local native tribes as a way to signal, or ‘drum’ messages to other natives in the area. This claim has been disputed over the years, but the drum rocks remain an important part of the village’s history and identity.

During the early 20th century the rock still made a loud, booming sound when hit, according to locals who lived through that time. Today the Apponaug drum rock has eroded enough that it no longer acts as a ‘drum’, though the rock itself still stands near the Cowesett Hills apartment complex.

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Often considered the most impressive falls in Rhode Island, West Greenwich’s Stepstone Falls is located just off the Ben Utter Trail. The falls themselves are made up of both natural flat rocks and leftover granite slabs from the quarry that once operated along the Falls River. Following the trail to the falls will take you past an old gristmill and sawmill.

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At the end of Point Judith stands Narragansett’s own Corrosion Test Facility, a one-acre enclosed site where scientists from the Alcoa corporation test the affects of salt air and constant weather exposure on various types of aluminum products. The site, which stands next to the Point Judith Coast Guard Station and is protected by barbed wire, has been there since the 1920s.

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Located in Tiverton’s Four Corners, Sakonnet Farm is a small family farm offering local eggs, broiler chickens, and produce along with 'farm stays’. Overnight guests can stay in the converted 1800s school house on the farm’s property, also known as Old Tiverton Four Corners Schoolhouse No. 1. There are two other historic properties available for farm stays as well, in addition to a 2012 construction built by the farm’s owners.

Purchased in 2009 by Adam and Krista Silviera, the property was once part of Tiverton’s Cavaca family compound. Manny Cavaca was a former fire chief for the town, and the current garage once served as the Tiverton Fire Station.

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Considered one of the best spots in Rhode Island to view New England’s famous fall foliage, Bristol’s Coggeshall Farm Museum is a 1790s saltwater farm and museum which is open to the public. Not only does the farm offer picturesque fall colors, but it is also home to several types of livestock, including heritage breed sheep which are cared for by staff in period costume.

The farm is also host to a September Harvest Fair, as well as a Fiber and Crafts Festival in May which features spinning demonstrations and traditional craft skills. The 44th annual Harvest Fair takes place on September 15-17 this year.

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Pettaquamscutt Rock, also known as Treaty Rock, is the site of the land deal between English settlers and Native Americans which would see the founding of Providence and settlements on Aquidneck Island. Today Treaty Rock is part of Treaty Rock Park, a small park in South Kingstown featuring a recreation area and a small hiking trail leading to the rock itself. 

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Since 1965, one of Florence Nightingale’s nursing caps has been on display at Westerly Hospital. Sometimes they even trot it out to ceremonies honoring nurses in the area. Here it is at a nursing conference in Mystic. Its permanent home in the lobby of the hospital includes several other notable caps from medical history.

This particular cap was given by Ms. Nightingale herself to Cyrus Hamil, an American missionary and educator who worked in Turkey during the war. He was also the inventor of laundry equipment used in hospitals, as well as the owner of bakeries that helped feed Florence’s patients. A hundred years after it was given to Cyrus, his great-granddaughter, a Westerly resident, donated it to the hospital for display.

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The first grand cottage of the Gilded Age was Chateau-Sur-Mer, built in 1852 as an Italianate villa for William Wetmore, a merchant of the China trade. Until the Vanderbilts builts their mansions, it was the grandest of the Bellevue Avenue mansions. 

Unlike most of the other cottages, Chateau-Sur-Mer was built as a year-round residence. Wetmore was born in Vermont, but made Newport his home and the base of operations for his merchant trade. Today the mansion is owned by the Newport Preservation Society and open to the public.

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A Block Island tradition that started in 1962 is the Painted Rock, located at the corner of Mohegan Trail and Lakeside Drive. For many years the rock has been painted over and defaced again and again, becoming a local tradition for island residents and visitors alike. The origins of the Painted Rock were a mystery until 2000, when the couple who started the tradition finally confessed in a letter to the Block Island Times.

Before they married, Wendy and Eddie Northup were bored on Halloween night in 1962. As a prank they gathered some leftover paint and painted stripes on the rock. Instead of complaints, island residents seemed to embrace the idea of painting the rock. After Wendy went to college a local artist took up the mantle of decorating the rock, then others began to join in until it became a free-for-all.

While the mystery behind the Painted Rock’s origins has been solved, the tradition continues. It was unfortunately vandalized in 2006, when someone (or someones) chiseled many layers of paint off the rock, bringing it back to its mostly original rock face. As upsetting as this was for local residents, it did have the advantage of revealing that there was indeed a geodetic survey marker embedded in the top of the rock, though it is unreadable. Since then the rock has been repainted again many times, in keeping with tradition.