As a follow up to a 2012 posting on the closing of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in Providence, 
it appears that this historic church may take on a new role as a museum dedicated to the history of the slave trade in Rhode Island, according to a recent article in the Providence Journal.

Noting that ship building and the shipping industry in RI were major players in the slave trade and and that some of those businesses were owned and operated by Episcopalians, church officials say they feel an obligation and an opportunity to speak the truth about the church’s role in the slave trade.

The cathedral has remained shuttered during the last 2 1/2 years, and is considered an "endangered property", according to the article.  Church leaders are presently looking for partners and grant money to help open the center.

The Village Green is alive and well in Slatersville!

Slatersville Congregational Church, located in North Smithfield, RI, certainly defies the trend that the village green, with its distinctive church, is a thing of the past.  

Surrounded by 19th century homes, and adjacent to the town hall and library, this church is still strategically located.  Signs of life abound: a food pantry to serve the needy, a vacation Bible school held earlier this month, weekly concerts on the green all summer, and even a paint crew seen recently sprucing up the exterior.

The church's web site indicates that mill owner John Slater started a Sunday School in 1807 (the year after he opened his mill) "to give the youngsters schooling as well as moral instruction".  It was one of the earliest Sunday Schools in the US, and was followed in 1836 by the erection of the present building.

Slatersville was in its heyday as a mill village from about 1810-1820, featuring the largest and most modern industrial building of its day.  200 years later, its village green appears to still be thriving.  What is the secret of its success?

Deja Vu - St Mark's Church for sale

Is that a "For Sale" sign in front of St Mark's Episcopal Church in Riverside?  This sign must have appeared within the last couple of weeks, and it is a sad omen of changing times.  Think of all the people who worshipped here, met here, were baptized or memorialized here...           Unlike its namesake in Warren [see April 6th], St Mark's in Riverside is a 20th century structure (built in 1965, according to the property's real estate listing).  Its location is Riverside Square was once a bustling stop along the trolley line, the stop just before Crescent Park (mostly destroyed in the Hurricane of '38, but still boasting a fabulous Looff Carousel).   

St Brendan's Roman Catholic Church still stands across the street and one block east of St Mark's. There, people continue to meet for mass each morning, although St Brendan's school closed its doors a few years ago, due to declining enrollment.

Perhaps it is the old, somewhat remote (from the main thoroughfares) Riverside Square location that consigned these buildings to close.   As more of these old (and not so old) centers for worship, fellowship, and education close their doors, a way of life ebbs away.

The steeple fashion of 1810?

Less than 5 miles east of the Cathedral of St John the Divine is the Newman Congregational Church, which features the same pinnacles on its  tower as the Cathedral.  It is described in the Federal Writers' Project publication, Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State (1937), as follows:


"The square tower of the present structure...is surmounted by a set-back stage or belfry with shuttered windows.  Crowning the belfry are sharp corner pinnacles connected by a low paneled parapet.  A central pinnacle, higher than the rest is topped with a weather vane." (p 397)


Significantly, the Guide states, the church was built in 1810 - the same year as the Cathedral.  The Cathedral (see previous post)  lacked the central pinnacle of the Newman tower.  (Was the cathedral's central pinnacle felled by a storm - or  did the original plan call for only corner pinnacles?)  Was there a glut of these pinnacle-towers in Rhode Island 200 years ago?  Or were there only these two?


The Guide also notes that the 1810 building, situated at 100 Newman Avenue, is within 200 feet of the original church of 1643 (now that's old!), which was conducted by Rev Samuel Newman.  In 1643, this section of East Providence would have been a part of the town of Rehoboth, and later of Seekonk.  Samuel Newman himself was a native of Banbury, England and a 1620 graduate of Trinity College, Oxford.  Religious persecution drove Newman to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.


On a side note, I wonder if Rev Newman ever visited Wroxton Abbey as a young man.  Wroxton is a Jacobean manor house built by the Pope family in the early 17th century, just 3 miles from Newman's home village of Banbury, and owned by Newman's alma mater of Trinity College, Oxford.  It is now Wroxton College, of which this steeplechaser is an alum.

Time is running out for historic landmark

Plans to close the Cathedral of St John the Divine were announced in a recent  Providence Journal article.  The last service to be held in this historic church is scheduled for April 22nd, 2012.  


The cathedral, at 271 North Main Street on Providence's East Side, had its beginning way back in 1722 as King's Church.  The church, in fact, was closed once before, the article states - when the congregation refused to pray for King George III during the American War for Independence!

The 1810 building features the familiar square clock tower and belfry with spiky pinnacles above it, left.  The Providence Preservation Society's site includes more architectural details.

The Journal article cites the church's outreach to the community (serving up a weekly meal for the homeless), as well as the diversity of its parish (including 40% of Liberian ancestry).  The cathedral is also the ecclesiastical seat of RI's Episcopal bishop.  In summary, this church is not only an historical landmark, and the Bishop's church, but also a community of faith that seems to be meeting needs and keeping up with changes in its community.   

Yet, the article reports, there is just not enough revenue to maintain the old building.  Let's hope the iconic tower remains on the horizon and, more importantly, that the congregation can find another home in which to worship if they truly have to vacate this beautiful old building.