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Underground Railroad

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Michigan, Saint Clair County, Port Huron


Prior to the Civil War, African American slaves, in brave and desperate attempts to flee from slave owners in the Southern states, passed through Port Huron via the Underground Railroad. It was not a real railroad but a system of routes where people opposed to slavery would provide escaping slaves with food, clothing, shelter and encouragement. Sympathetic people hid the escapees in houses and barns by day and then guided them to the next safe "station" at night.

Many escaped slaves traveled northward to Michigan in their pursuit of freedom. Some stayed in this state. Others continued their flight into Canada, crossing at Port Huron or other places along the waterway.

(Abolition & Underground RR • African Americans • Settlements & Settlers • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Road to the Capital

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Maryland, Prince Georges County, Colmar Manor
The War of 1812 raged on land and sea, touching every border of the young nation. On August 24, 1814, after two years at war, the Americans faced the British here at Bladensburg.

While the American militia were unable to hold back the British attack at the Anacostia River, Marines and sailors —including U. S. Chesapeake Flotillamen—set up a defense blocking the road outside present-day Fort Lincoln Cemetery. After hours of intense fighting, American forces were overrun and British troops marched to invade the Nation's Capital.

(War of 1812) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Indian Mill Stone

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New Jersey, Somerset County, Millstone Borough
Indian mill stone. A remnant of the first American mechanic. Presented to JR.O.U.A.M. No. 110 by Geo. Garretson.

(Industry & Commerce • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Charlotte Whale

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Vermont, Chittenden County, near Charlotte

In 1849 an 11,000 year old Beluga Whale was found north of this site in what had been the Champlain Sea. Resident J.G. Thorp collected the bones, and naturalist Zadock Thompson assembled the skeleton now displayed in the Perkins Museum of Geology at UVM.

(Animals • Paleontology • Science & Medicine • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

"Rokeby"

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Vermont, Addison County, Ferrisburgh

Here in 1833, Rowland E. Robinson was born of Quaker parentage. He became a popular illustrator and interpreter of nature and Yankee dialect. "Rokeby" was a station on the "Underground R.R." Here are the blind author’s memorabilia.
Open to the public during summer

(Abolition & Underground RR • Arts, Letters, Music) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Macdonough Shipyard

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Vermont, Addison County, Vergennes

Below the Otter Creek Falls was the site of Thomas Macdonough's shipyard, where the U.S.S. Saratoga was built in 40 days and other ships launched that defeated the British at the Battle of Plattsburgh, 1814.

(Industry & Commerce • War of 1812 • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Emma Willard

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Vermont, Addison County, Middlebury

Emma Hart came to Middlebury in 1807 to take charge of the Female Academy. After her marriage to Dr. John Willard, the town’s first physician, she gave the earliest collegiate instruction for women in America at a Seminary in her home, during the years 1814-1819.

(Education • Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Birthplace of Ray Fisher

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Vermont, Addison County, Middlebury

Born in Middlebury on October 4, 1887, Ray Lyle Fisher grew up on farms along Otter Creek and Creek Road. Ray starred in baseball and football at Middlebury High School and Middlebury College before joining the New York Yankees in 1910. He pitched in the major leagues for ten seasons, compiling a 100-94 record and 2.82 ERA. In 1921 Fisher became baseball coach at the University of Michigan, where he coached for 38 seasons and won 15 Big Ten championships. He spent his summers at a camp on Lake Champlain and coached in Vermont’s Northern League. Ray died at the age of 95 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

(Sports) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier/A Second Life for the Hurricane Barrier

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Rhode Island, Providence County, Providence
Providence Harbor walk at Fox Point & India Point

1. Fox Point and Night Boat Era 1822-1932 Firefly challenges the Stagecoach Era.
2. Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942
3. Fox Point Hurricanes Barrier 1961-1966 Construction and 2005-2007 changes from I-I95 relocation
4. Providence River Bride Its design, construction and journey up Narragansett Bay by tugboat
5. Shipping Expands around the Point
6. Fox Point: the 19th Century Port of Providence Downgrades from goods and passengers to coal and scrap metals
7. Welcome to India Point Park
8. Welcome to Fox Point
9. Tockwooten and the Indiamen Ship building and trade with Orient India Point
10. Sails to Rails 1835: Providence’s First Train Station
11. Bridging the Seekonk
12. Rogers Williams Landing 1636

The hurricanes of 1938 and 1954 left vast devastation to property and loss of human lives. To prevent a repeat of this unexpected disaster, the city prepared to defend itself by building the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier.

As soon as a hurricane or any major storm causes waters to rise-when people are stocking up on all the milk and bread they can find in the stores –seven or eight members of the Providence Department of Public Work’s Engineering Division start to put the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier to work.

This is Exchange Place during the 1938 Hurricane, looking toward the Biltmore Hotel and City Hall. The streets were virtually alive with floating cars, and all around were strings of swamped trolley cars. The barrier, completed in 1966, extends from Allens Avenue to India Point Park to protect the city of Providence from flooding by the Providence River and Narragansett Bay. Flooding may result from heavy rains or a “storm surge,” when a coastal storm pushes water up the Bay. A storm surge becomes a critical problem when it rides the high tide, as it did during the hurricanes of 1938 and 1954. The barrier defends the city in two ways: first, it stops the storm surge from coming into the city; second, a pumping station pumping the river’s water up and through he barrier into the Bay. This concept is fairly simple, but there are some complicated components that make it work.

The River Gates:
The hurricane barrier contains three openings, through which both the river’s water and small boats can pass. When a storm threatens the city with flooding, 40 foot by 40 foot gates are lowered over the openings to ward off the surge. The gates weight 53 tons and curve outward toward the Bay to break the impact of the waves. They are lowered and raised by chains, and take roughly 30 minutes to be put in place.

The Pumping Stations:
The pumping station houses five pumps, which are among the largest in the world. In case of an upriver flood from torrential rains, the pumps would move over 3,000,000 gallons of water per minute away from the city into the Bay.

The Vehicular Gates:
Spaces were left in the barrier’s dikes at Allens Avenue and South Main Street for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. During a flood, these spaces must be sealed and vehicular gates do this job. The gates, 13 feet high and 76 feet wide, are swung manually and locked into place.

The Dikes:
Two dikes made of armor stone (a dense, impervious type of rock) extended inland from the Providence River’s banks to where the land is 25 feet above sea level- high enough to contain a storm surge.

(Side 2)
The Hurricane Barrier was the first structure of its type in the United States to be approved for construction. A pioneer in design, criteria for such a project in this challenging geology were hard to find in the 1960s. The cofferdam shown above would be drained of water and mud to allow construction in the river.

How do you build a hurricane barrier in the middle of a river?
First construct a cellular cofferdam- an enormous looped wall that holds the water back – by driving huge hollow tubes (called cells) as wide as 57 feet through about 20 feet of river mud. Make sure the circular cells reset securely on hardpan, well below the shifting silt.

Fill them with a mixture of granular fill and river water. From the cofferdam’s center, pump out the water and mud. Construction can then begin. Drive trucks in and out of the area on long ramps, carrying heavy equipment, construction material and work crews. Next, drive some 700 steel H-piles, measuring 70 to 80 feet long, deep down to the bedrock. Like legs on a table, the piles support the massive 80,000-ton hurricane barrier. Steel was chosen over concrete because the designers found it would not displace the silt as much, which would become liquid when disturbed.

In 1966: The original 3,000-foot hurricane barrier extended from Benefit Street to Allen Avenue. It included a total of 2,000 feet of stone berms on either side of the river that were virtually tow-story impenetrable walls. This stone dike at Fox Point (pictured above) effectively cut off pedestrian access to the water. The only public passage was on the East Side at South Main Street. Access was not an issue when the barrier was completed in 1966. At the time, the waterfront was derelict and abandoned. What is now India Point Park was then a large scrap metal yard.

2006:
The hurricane barrier stone berms served as a foundation for the relocated highway I-195. This dual use of the land, coupled with moving the highway I-195, freed up 45 acres of land for urban space. Access to the water was expanded – the public may now pass along three streets and a river walk.

(Man-Made Features • Science & Medicine) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942 /Fox Point and the Night Boat Era 1822-1932

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Rhode Island, Providence County, Providence
Providence Harbor walk at Fox Point & India Point

1. Fox Point and Night Boat Era 1822-1932 Firefly challenges the Stagecoach Era
2. Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942
3. Fox Point Hurricanes Barrier 1961-1966 Construction and 2005-2007 changes from I-I95 relocation
4. Providence River Bride Its design, construction and journey up Narragansett Bay by tugboat
5. Shipping Expands around the Point
6. Fox Point: the 19th Century Port of Providence Downgrades from goods and passengers to coal and scrap metals
7. Welcome to India Point Park
8. Welcome to Fox Point
9. Tockwooten and the Indiamen Ship building and trade with Orient India Point
10. Sails to Rails 1835: Providence’s First Train Station
11. Bridging the Seekonk
12. Rogers Williams Landing 1636

Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942 (side 1)

You are standing on what was once the Colonial Wharf. From here you could have stepped aboard the Comet (pictured below) for a night trip to New York. The Colonial Line was started in 1910 by Frank M. Dunbaugh, one of the original founders of the Joy Line. Like the Joy Line, the Colonial Line never built new steamers of their own but rather purchased used vessels from other lines.

Although relative small, Colonial’s steamers were handsome and well run by experienced crews. The first ships purchased by Dunbaugh for the new line were two iron-hulled propeller steamers, renamed Concord and Lexington.

They ran nightly between Providence and New York for a quarter-century. While they had a large number of passenger staterooms, they had a relatively small freight capacity and were not as fast as the steamers of the other nightlines. Still, they were popular and successful.

In 1935 the Lexington was sunk in a collision near the Brooklyn Bridge. A year later the Concord was retired and scrapped in 1937.

Both were replaced by two fast turbine steamers formerly in the Boston-Maine service. Built in 1907 as the Camden and Belfast they were renamed Comet and Arrow and ran on the Colonial Line until 1942 when the government took the steamers for war service.

After the war Comet was sold for service on the Yangtze River in China and was scrapped in 1950. Arrow served in the Hawaiian Island until after the war. In 1947 she returned to the U.S. west coast and was wrecked off Washington State while being towed to Oregon. The Steamer Comet departing Providence on March 27, 1942. This was her last trip before she and her sister ship Arrow were taken by the government for service in WWII. When the Comet arrived in New York, scheduled overnight steamship service between New England and New York ended forever.

Cover of a 1928-29 Colonial Line brochure. The Slogan “The public be pleased” was a counter to the New Haven Railroad’s William H. Vanderbilt who once said “the public be damned”-it was intended to make the Colonial Line seem more friendly.

In this November 14, 1939 photo, the Comet crew participates in a lifeboat drill while at the Providence wharf.

Left:
An image from a Colonial Line letterhead in the late 1930s or early 40s showing passengers on the gangplank being greeted by a ship’s officer. Right: Luggage sticker from the late 1930s or early 40s featuring the Comet.

A Colonial Line magazine ad from 1915 showing the steamer Concord at Colonial Wharf.

(Side 2)
Fox Point and the Night Boat Era 1822-1932 (side2) For centuries Rhode Islanders have been trying to find ever-faster ways to New York. The latest, Amtrak’s Acela, can make the trip from Providence in less than three hours. Just before the Revolutionary War the condition of the roads leading out of Providence was such that a trip from Boston to New York via Providence and New London, consumed one week. By the turn of the century the adoption of the turnpike system led to great improvements in the stagecoach facilities. By the year 1805 travel time between Boston and New York was reduced to about 50 hours. Besides this land route there were “palatial packets” (sloops from 60 to 100 tons), sailing from Providence to New York, which made the trip between one week or two depending on the weather and tides. In 1817, the steamboat Firefly was the first steamboat to run between Newport and Providence. In 1822 boats owned by the Rhode Island and New York Steamboat Company were making semi-weekly trips between Providence and New York. They were called “Night Boats” because they would leave port at dusk and arrive in New York in the morning. In 1832 drawings above show the steamboat Bradford Durfee of the Fall River Line sailing off Fox Point.

1918 Sanborn map of the Fox Point waterfront.

South Water Street circa 1900-1905, Freight transported to and from New York was stored in the wharf building and later passed through to a river-side steamer or land-side wagons and trucks. Passengers would also board and disembark here. To the right of the building is the present Corliss Landing.

(Man-Made Features • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Welcome to India Point Park

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Rhode Island, Providence County, Providence
Providence Harbor walk at Fox Point & India Point

1. Fox Point and Night Boat Era 1822-1932 Firefly challenges the Stagecoach Era
2. Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942
3. Fox Point Hurricanes Barrier 1961-1966
Construction and 2005-2007 changes from I-I95 relocation
4. Providence River Bride Its design, construction and journey up Narragansett Bay by tugboat
5. Shipping Expands around the Point
6. Fox Point: the 19th Century Port of Providence Downgrades from goods and passengers to coal and scrap metals
7. Welcome to India Point Park
8. Welcome to Fox Point
9. Tockwooten and the Indiamen Ship building and trade with Orient India Point
10. Sails to Rails 1835: Providence’s First Train Station
11. Bridging the Seekonk
12. Rogers Williams Landing 1636

In 1962, Mary Elizabeth Sharpe wrote of her vision for a park at the head of Narragansett Bay. Her passion for landscape allowed her to see beyond the abused and neglected waterfront. She shared her thoughts in a Providence Journal article. “The Providence area is a dream by nature… perched to overlook a breathtaking expanse of sparkling bay front… It is a paradox that this beauty has gone so completely unrecognized. Our bay-front –a potential “Rio” of the north’- is a hodgepodge of unrelated and semi-decayed commercial activities… and will again be, I believe- a sparkling inspiration in the plan of our town.”

Mrs. Sharpe set the wheels in motion. Land had to be bought and swapped, piles of scrap metal and abandoned tracks had to be removed and money had to be raised. Mrs. Sharpe herself donated more than $150,000 toward development of the park. Hundreds of others made donations, including children from the Fox Point Elementary School. Twelve years after Mrs. Sharpe’s proposal, India Point Park was dedicated on September 7, 1974.

An aerial drawing illustrates Albert Veri’s vision of India Point Park.

In 2000, concern about the re-routing of I-195 led to the creation of Friends of India Point Park. Rhode Island residents and other visitors continued to enjoy and help maintain the park. Activities depicted below include the community boating fleet the Cape Verdean Independence Day celebration, Mexican Soccer League tournaments.

This watercolor by Edward Peckham depicts the Fox Point shore in 1832

The same shoreline as in the painting above, just before work began to create India Point Park in 1974.

To design the park, Mrs. Sharp hired young landscape architect Albert Veri in 1971. Veri spoke of the project; “We wanted to bring the water’s edge to people who were cut off by the highway and industry. Rusty mountains of scrap metal covered nearly three acres.” In his work, Veri believed that parks should be accessible to communities, offering people a place to come and enjoy themselves. “It’s but a beginning,” he later reflected. “You plant something and it grows. Adjacent areas in time will tie in. This will be the seed.” Time has proved Veri and Mrs. Sharpe correct.

(Bridges & Viaducts) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Hilleary-Magruder House

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Maryland, Prince Georges County, Bladensburg
The Hilleary-Magruder House was constructed circa 1742 and is the oldest building in Bladensburg, In 1763, Scottish merchant Richard Henderson bought the property . He lived here with his family and more than two dozen enslaved African Americans and indentured servants. Mr. Henderson was well connected. George Washington, on his way to Philadelphia, stopped here for dinner on May 9, 1887. He penned the following in his diary:

Crossed from Mt. Vernon to Mr. Digges a little after sunrise & pursuing the rout by way of Baltimore - dined at Mr. Richd. Hendersons in Bladensbg and lodged with Muir. Snowdens where feeling very serverly a violent hd. ach & sick Stomach I went to bed early.

(African Americans • Colonial Era • Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 10 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fox Point: The 19th Century Port of Providence/Shipping Expands Around the Point

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Rhode Island, Providence County, Providence
Providence Harbor walk at Fox Point & India Point

1. Fox Point and Night Boat Era 1822-1932 Firefly challenges the Stagecoach Era
2. Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942
3. Fox Point Hurricanes Barrier 1961-1966 Construction and 2005-2007 changes from I-I95 relocation
4. Providence River Bride Its design, construction and journey up Narragansett Bay by tugboat
5. Shipping Expands around the Point
6. Fox Point: the 19th Century Port of Providence Downgrades from goods and passengers to coal and scrap metals
7. Welcome to India Point Park
8. Welcome to Fox Point
9. Tockwooten and the Indiamen Ship building and trade with Orient India Point
10. Sails to Rails 1835: Providence’s First Train Station
11. Bridging the Seekonk
12. Rogers Williams Landing 1636

Fox Point:
The 19th Century Port of Providence (Side 1)
Downgrade from goods and passengers to coal and scrap metal

During the first half of the 19th century, Fox Point emerged as Providence’s transportation center. Wharves multiplied to accommodate as many as seven steamships lines. In 1835, a railroad opened on India Street at the foot of Ives Street and its railroad track network, shown in adjacent 1895 atlas, attracted a new industries, such as the Providence Steam Engine Company and the Fuller Iron Works.

The era of steamboats began during the early decades of the 1800s. From docks on the south shore of the Neck, between Fox Point and India Point, passengers and freight were transported to New York, Philadelphia, and ports south. The largest facility, pictured to the right, was established in 1875 by the Providence, Norfolk and Baltimore Steamship Line, at the Lonsdale Wharf located on India Street, at the foot of Hope Street. Here the Line with three large steamers along with the Brown & Ives Company shipped finished cotton and woolen goods, hardware, machinery, steam engines and other manufactured goods. These were balanced by return cargos of raw materials, including cotton, wool, leather, iron, hides and other southern and western products.

By the late 1800s coal became Providence’s major import for its industry, transportation, and home heating. In his 1886 The Providence Plantations for 250 Years, Welcome Arnold Greene noted that in 1878, cola imports peaked when nearly one million tons of coal were delivered to storage yards and wharves along the harbor. One of those yards in India Point is shown in the 1891 photo to the left. Many of the wharf’s pilings survived a century later.

By the turn of the 20th century the “electric power revolution” and the diesel engine began to make inroads into the use of industry’s coal fired steam engines. Gradually the coal yards of India Point disappeared only to be replaced by the scrap metal yard pictured below. The Port of Providence moved south to the deeper waters off Allens Avenue, leaving Fox Point abandoned and desolate in its wake.

1895 Atlas Shows extent of wharves, rails, and industry at the 19th Century Port of Providence.

The Lonsdale Wharf in Providence, painted in 1878. This artist rendering depicts Fox Point as a transportation hub.

By 1891 mountains of coal occupied the wharves at India Point where China Clippers once docked.

The once proud Lonsdale Wharf was reduced to a scrap yard as shown in this 1969 photo.

(Side 2)
In 1864 a group of capitalists, mostly members of the Spargue family, started the Providence Line to New York. In 1873 the directors of the Providence Company took control away from the Spragues and voted to merge with the Stonington Line, forming the Providence and Stonington Line. In 1892 the New Haven Railroad acquired the shipping line, bringing them into the Long Island Sound Steamship business for the first time.

The railroad created the New England Navigation Company in 1904, later called the New England Steamship Co. The steamers were large, fast and comfortable and boasted an international reputation.

The steel hulled steamer Providence of the New England Steamship Co. The 379’ side-wheel was built in 1905 at the Fore River shipyard in Quincy, MA.

A two-page spread from a 1930s Providence Line brochure. The right hand page shows some interior views of one of the company’s propeller steamers.

The Merchants & Miners Steamship Line was first started in Baltimore in 1852 by a group of merchants with the purpose of shipping tanned hides to Boston. At the time, eastern Massachusetts was the shoe-manufacturing center of the country. Coal mined in Maryland and Virginia was another product needed by New England factories and was carried in the company’s ships, hence the name Merchants & Miners. As the company expanded passage service, new routes and ports were added. By the 1920s, cities from Boston to Miami were served by the M&M. At one time, the Providence-Baltimore route had as many as six ships and three sailings a week. By 1941, the government had requisitioned so many of its ships for the war, that Merchants & Miners ceased operations.

Travellers rode in elegance, as seen in this main saloon on the Plymouth. The column is actually one of the ship’s masts.

1918 Sanborn map of the Fox Point Waterfront.

Old Merchants & Miners advertising post cards showing a typical 1920s liner and scenes aboard the vessel. Covers from two different brochures showing some of the ports served by M&M Company.

The Fabre Line based in Marseilles, France, began trans-Atlantic service to the Lonsdale Dock in Fox Point in June 1911. Between June 30, 1912 and June 30, 1913 almost 12,000 immigrants, mostly from Portugal and Italy, debarked at the Lonsdale Dock. The Fox Point facility, however proved inadequate, and the state decided to build a pier on Allens Avenue, which opened on May 23, 1914.

On a smaller scale, these schooners crossed the Atlantic with cargo and passengers right up until the 1950s. To the right, sailors can be seen repairing sails in preparation for their next voyage.

(Man-Made Features) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fox Point Cape Verdean Community

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Rhode Island, Providence County, Providence
Providence Harbor walk at Fox Point & India Point

1. Fox Point and Night Boat Era 1822-1932 Firefly challenges the Stagecoach Era
2. Colonial Wharf at South Water Street: 1910-1942
3. Fox Point Hurricanes Barrier 1961-1966 Construction and 2005-2007 changes from I-I95 relocation
4. Providence River Bride Its design, construction and journey up Narragansett Bay by tugboat
5. Shipping Expands around the Point
6. Fox Point: the 19th Century Port of Providence Downgrades from goods and passengers to coal and scrap metals
7. Welcome to India Point Park
8. Welcome to Fox Point
9. Tockwooten and the Indiamen Ship building and trade with Orient India Point
10. Sails to Rails 1835: Providence’s First Train Station
11. Bridging the Seekonk
12. Rogers Williams Landing 1636

Cape Verdean Immigration to Rhode Island
The Cape Verdean community in Fox Point originated from the Cape Verde Islands, a tiny archipelago lying 240 nautical miles off the coast of West Africa. Uninhabited prior to discovery by the Portuguese between 1460 and 1462, Cape Verdeans developed as a mix of Africans, Portuguese, and other European voyagers to the islands. Renowned mariners and seafares, Cape Verdeans began making contributions to New England immediately after the Revolutionary War. Whaling ships from Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts sailed to Cape Verde to enlist crew who were eager to take dangerous and low-paying work, in order to escape the drought-stricken island.

As the whaling industry declined in the late 1800s, Cape Verdeans moved to land-based employment, settling first in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The trickle of immigration turned into a flood at the turn of the 20th century. Cape Verdean fleeing cycles of drought, starvation, and harsh colonial rule filled the need for cheap labor in the cranberry bogs, textile mills and factories throughout southeastern New England. By 1924, approximately 35,000 Cape Verdeans crossed the Atlantic on Cape Verdean- owned packet ships, arriving in the ports of New Bedford, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, the second oldest and largest Cape Verdean community in the United States. Cape Verdeans were the first people of African descent to migrate voluntarily in large numbers to the United States.

Fox Point Cape Verdean Community
In Providence, Cape Verdeans settled in old wooden-framed housed along the waterfront and nearby docks, in factories, at Brown University and in the homes of wealthy residents on the East Side. By the 1940s, the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point was thriving as the first American-born generation grew up and began raising their families.

Providence, RI about 1945-1955.
The “Madalan,” a sailing vessel from Cape Verde, in dock on the Providence River at South Water Street. Photo by Charlotte Estey, courtesy of Rhode Island Historical Society, Madalan Neg#RHI (E79) 1103

Ronald and Marilyn “Woogie” Gomes, Benvinda Perry, George and Manny Mendes, Josephine Perry sitting on a stoop in Fox Point, 1940s. Photo courtesy of SPIA Media Productions, Inc.

March 1930
The Boys Club on South Main Street was the second home for generations of boys from Fox Point. Established in 1916, the club kept the boys off the streets by offering vocational classes, contests, special events and sports. Photo courtesy of SPIA Media Productions, Inc.

The St. Antioni Cape Verdean Association, founded in 1934 was Rhode Island’s first Cape Verdean beneficent society and provided health and death benefits to its members. Photo courtesy of SPIA Media Productions, Inc.

Local 1329 of the International Longshoremen’s Association was organized in 1933 largely by Cape Verdeans in the Port of Providence. The union was the economic lifeline for the community. Generations of Local 1329 members “worked the boats,” loading and unloading loose lumber, scrap iron, and coal. Photo courtesy of SPIA Media Productions, Inc.

Urban Renewal
Urban Renewal in Fox Point began in the late 1950s with the construction of I0195, which cut through the community.

Gentrification and the expansion of nearby universities by the late 1970s forced out most of the remaining Cape Verdeans. The displaced community scattered to other sections of the city or to nearby East Providence. Rosalia “Mamai” Alves, the matriarch of one of the oldest Cape Verdean families in Fox Point, fought to stay in her house on 88 Pike Street, with the assistance of Councilman John Murphy. They won. On April 4, 1998, Pike Street was renamed Alves Way in honor of the Alves family. The house stayed in the family until it was sold to Holy Rosary Church. On December 12, 2007, 88 Alves Way was torn down and turned into a parking lot.

Cape Verdean Independence Day
Celebration at India Point Park Cape Verda gained its independence on July 5, 1975 after 500 years of Portuguese rule. The Cape Verdean Subcommittee of Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Verda Commission has organized the annual Independence Day Celebration in Rhode Island since 1977. It is recognized as one of the oldest and largest celebrations in the United States of Cape Verdean Independence Day.

(Side 2)
Down by the old Colonial Line
Where the genteel people boarded boats,
We stole the show from big fat rats
That lived around the pier.
We shucked and tucked and winged
And bucked and waited for them coins.
And when they flew, hunger flew,
Away from skinny lions.
And when they yelled, “Hey,
Come on, boys, dance, “ We worked like hell, sang like hell, Told’em all “Go to hell”
Out of our coal blackened lungs.
Not too loud through
We needed the dough
Didn’t wanna steal more coal
For the stoves that never stayed lit,
For the houses that never stayed warm
For our mommas
Who thought all they were born for
Was to scrub down old downtown stores
On knees, wet in the suds they hid in.
So we said, “Go to hell” through our teeth
And cheered ol’ Sneaky Pete
As he drove from a hundred feet for a dollar
And we danced the coal yard step.
Alberto Torres Pereira
May 1973

Boys swimming in Providence River, about 1930. Photo courtesy of Reflections: Cape Verdeans in Rhode Island Narragansett Electric, March 18, 1954. Providence Journal, Staff photo by William L. Rooney Packet Ship, date unknown, Courtesy of SPIA Media Productions, Inc.

(Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Bryon A. Buffington Home

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Wisconsin, Eau Claire County, Eau Claire
Historic Home Bryan A. Buffington built this Queen Anne house in 1890. Buffington, a prominent lumberman and business leader, served the city as an alderman and mayor and was also elected to the Wisconsin General Assembly. Upon the death of Bryan's wife, Fannie, the house was donated to the Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire.

Designated April Twentieth
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Three

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Welsh Congregational Church

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New York, Oneida County, Holland Patent
Welsh language and heritage
flourished here in preaching,
singing and fellowship.
National Register of Historic Places

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Patriots of the Revolutionary War

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New York, Oneida County, Holland Patent
To the memory of the
patriots of the
Revolutionary War,
who are buried
in this vicinity.
---------------
Erected by Holland Patent Chapter
Daughters of the American Revolution
May 30, 1915.


(Cemeteries & Burial Sites • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Thomas Alva Edison

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Michigan, Saint Clair County, Port Huron


[Bas relief panels highlight significant events in Edison's life, including]

Edison the railroad entrepreneur

Edison the young scientist

Edison inventions

(Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features • Railroads & Streetcars • Science & Medicine) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Schwahn House

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Wisconsin, Eau Claire County, Eau Claire
Historic Building Tilla and William Schwahn built this house in 1928. Schwahn was the Vice-President of the Schwahn-Seyberth Company, a saddlery that operated a large business on Wisconsin Street. This house is an excellent example of the Georgian Revival architectural style. The house also is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Designated January Eighth
Two Thousand One

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Narragansett Pier

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Rhode Island, Washington County, Narragansett
1883-1886
The Towers is one of the most highly visible, widely known, and universally cherished landmarks in the state of Rhode Island. It recalls Narragansett Pier’s heyday as one of the foremost seaside resorts of nineteenth-century America, the destination of scores of tourist each summer from throughout the Northeast, the South, and the Midwest. Its picturesque form, monumental scale, and dramatic location create a striking image which symbolizes Narragansett in the minds of thousands of residents and visitors.

This imposing structure was originally only a part of a much larger building: the Narragansett Casino. The Casino was constructed between 1883 and 1886 for the Narragansett Casino Corporation, following designs by Charles F. McKim of the New York architectural firm McKim, Mead & White.

The Casino Corporation was formed by leading summer and year-round residents for the purpose of building and maintaining a gathering place for recreational actives, and social events.

McKim, Mead & White, architects of the earlier Newport Casino and a growing number of stylish cottages in Atlantic coastal resorts, was at the time well on its way to becoming the most prominent and influential American architectural firm of the era. The Narragansett Casino has been recognized by scholars as one of the firm’s finest achievements.

The Casino occupied the largest plot, which is today Memorial Park. It consisted of two buildings; a rambling S-shaped stone and wood-shingle structure along Ocean road and Exchange Street and a small structure backing up to Mathewson Street. The wing paralleling Ocean Road, including the western portion of the Towers, and the separate Mathewson Street building were erected in 1883-4; the Exchange Street wing, eastern part of the Towers, and arch over Ocean Road were completed in 1885-6. The stonework, executed under the direction of the well-known South County mason Kneekand Parelow, Includes rock taken from the old breakwater nearby North Pier. The design of the building was inspired by late medieval French architecture, especially the farm complexes and manor houses of rural Normandy and Brittany. The architect stove to achieve and ancient appearance. The original roof shingles were laid in uneven wavy rows to give the impression that they had been battered by winds. It is said that McKim himself climbed up on the roof when it was finished and pried off some shingles to make the building look more weather-beaten.

The main building of the Casino including stores (rented out for income), dining rooms, cafes, parlors, a billiard room, a reading room, and an assembly hall used both as a theatre and a ballroom. The Towers served as the monumental main entrance to the Casino, with an open-air café above the archway over the Ocean Road. The Mathewson Street structure contained a bowling alley and shooting gallery. Between the buildings were lawn tennis courts surrounded by grounds designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

After its completion, the Casino changed the tone of Narragansett Pier and became the center of social life for the summer colony. People were expected to appear –and be seen – at lunch or dinner or evening dances. The Casino was popular with well-to-do, fashion conscious visitors. However, those of more modest income or temperament associated the Casino with extravagant pretentious or frivolous behavior.

On 12 September 1900, called by one man “the darkest and saddest day the pier has ever experienced” a great fire started in the Rockingham Hotel, north of the Towers, and swept the Exchange Street area. It destroyed the Casino, leaving only the stone Towers. The ruins were repaired in 1908-9 under the direction of Providence architect J. Howard Adams. The Towers remained vacant until 1924, when it was leased from the Sherry Casino Company and opened as a ballroom. The 1930’s brought the great depression, and the Towers remained vacant until 1963, When a snack bar was opened on the ground floor of the east tower.

The Towers burned again in 1965. The State of Rhode Island then purchased the structure and deeded it to the Town of Narragansett, finally bringing this structure which long served as an emblem of the town into public ownership. It is fortunate that this evocative relic survives to illustrate and memorialize Narragansett’s romantic past.

Narragansett Historical Society Sallie Wharton Latimer, President Board of Trustees Leona McElroy Kelley Marjorie J. Vogel Lynne D. Anderson Douglas M Vogel Patricia French Knowles Bethanne Dressel-Hostetter

Dedicated June 11, 1989 The Honorable Claudine Schneider The United States House of Representatives Antoinette F. Downing Chairwoman, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission Timothy P. Haxton President, Narragansett Town Council

The National Register of Historic Place, 1969 The 100th Anniversary of the Narragansett District Incorporation, 1888-1988

(Entertainment • Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 7 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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