Historic Resources
This page lists some of the historic and
important buildings that are
located along Broad Street. Some of them are listed or eligible
for the
National Register of Historic Places. The next time you
walk down Broad Street, think about the importance and respect
that these buildings should and do have in our community. Take
the time to look around and recognize some of these addresses
and get a sense of history that is alive in our street.
View Historic Photos
City of Pawtucket
Pawtucket-Central Falls Railroad Station, 205 Broad Street
- (1915) Beaux-Arts (symmetry, hierarchy of spaces, eclectic,
historical references) Train Station built over the tracks on
the city line. Cost $250,000 to build and once handled 70,000
departures a month on 79 trains per day. Last of the major
styles before the beginning of ‘Modernism’.
McDevitt Building (formerly Kinyon Building), 23 Broad
Street - (1887-1888 remodeled mid 20th century) Origianlly
Queen Anne in style, remodeled in Art Deco.
Presco’s Building, 24 Broad Street (façade c.1940) –
Distinctive glass-block and Art Deco façade.
Fanning Building, 84 Broad Street (1915) –
‘Pattern-Brick’ commercial black, rather more ornate than most
of this style. Built for the Broad Street Power Company.
John F. Kennedy Housing for the Elderly, 175 Broad Street
- (1963, 1969-1970) Castelluci, Galli, Planka Associates,
architects. The first high rise apartments in Pawtucket.
City of Central Falls
Pawtucket-Central Falls Railroad Station, 205 Broad Street
- (1915) Beaux-Arts (symmetry, hierarchy of spaces,
eclectic, historical references) Train Station built over the
tracks on the city line. Cost $250,000 to build and once handled
70,000 departures a month on 79 trains per day. Last of the
major styles before the beginning of ‘Modernism’.
Valley Falls Company Mill, 1363 Broad Street (1849)
Jenks Park and Cogswell Tower (1890, 1904) – Park
designer unknown, a gift by Alvin Jenks who pioneered the
manufacturing industry; Tower designer Albert Humes, and a gift
by Caroline Cogswell. Fales and Jenks’ iron umbrellas, tall
clock tower, and rambling picturesque walkways (no longer has
its fish ponds). Dexter’s Ledge was where a local tribe of
indigenous peoples watched Pierce advance before they met for
battle at the river’s edge.
Grant House, 324 Broad Street (1880’s) - Queen Anne
style house built for Smith Grant, grocer turned dealer of coal,
wood, brick, and lime. Served as the YWCA since the 1920’s.
Broad Street School, 405 Broad Street (1861, 1877) –
Built by the town of Smithfield during the Civil War and is of
unusual size for its date. It is the earliest extant school
building in the city.
Daniels House, 428 Broad Street (c.1865) – Italianate
mansion designed by William R. Walker, altered and moved from
the original site. Built for the Daniels manufacturers, then
owned by Littlefield, a Hair Cloth manufacturer, who was later
elected Lieutenant Governor of the state in 1889.
Broad Street Civic Center, Broad Street between Central
and Fales Streets - Here are located the principal municipal
buildings, major institutional structures and the city’s largest
park. Though somewhat compromised by inappropriate modern
intrusions, this group of buildings and spaces is of critical
importance to the city and deserves especial attention from the
city government, residents, and business people.
Police Station and Court House, 507 Broad Street
(1914) – William R. Walker & Son, architect, classical design
built by city and state.
Broad Street Fire Station, 551 Broad Street (1889) -
Albert Humes, architect, Queen Anne Style.
Central Falls City Hall, 580 Broad Street (1889) –
Queen Anne style, first built as the Lincoln High School,
switched to Central Falls High School in 1895, and became City
Hall in 1927.
Falcon House, 597 Broad Street (c.1880) – Queen Anne
style, built for Abraham Z. Falcon, a doctor and drugstore owner
who emigrated from Quebec.
Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur, 666 Broad Street (1933) –
Ernest Cormier, architect, Romanesque style. Replaced the
original wooden parish and church for French-Canadian
congregation in 1875, Bell Tower was removed and façade
flattened in 1971-1972. Walter F. Fontaine designed the school
building on the west end and it opened in 1910, it was the
largest school in the diocese.
Central Falls Credit Union, 693 Broad Street (1974) –
Designed by Fenton, Keyes Associates. It is indicative of Broad
Street’s commercial life from a pedestrian oriented building to
the servicing of automobile-oriented customers: single story,
narrow windows, expansive parking lot, and drive-in window.
DeNevers Building, 702-706 Broad Street (c.1895) –
reflects the 19th century transition of the city’s commercial
area
Cartier Building, 708 Broad Street (1893) –
Headquarters for the Cercle Jacques Cartier, organized in 1886
and one of a number of active French social societies.
Monast Building, 753 –755 Broad Street (1895) – Built
for the offices of the Monast family who were lumber dealers,
carpenters and real-estate brokers
Schiller House, 765 Broad Street (1880’s) – Late
Victorian house, now obscured by a 2-storey store front extended
to the sidewalk. Owned by Alphonse Schiller, grocery store owner
and prominent leader of the French-American community.
Broad Street Garage, 913 Broad Street (1922) – One of
the city’s earliest service stations. Built for Frank and
Joaquim Filipe who owned it until the late 1920’s, it
illustrates the changes in both land use and transportation
modes.
Notre Dame Hospital, 1000 Broad Street (1925) – City’s
only hospital and funds were raised by public subscription. Not
officially a parochial or diocesan institution, it was funded by
the public subscription of members of the French-Canadian
parishes throughout the Blackstone Valley and Rhode Island. A
source of pride for Central Falls and the community.
Earle House, 1084 Broad Street (c.1865) – Gothic
Revival style. It has lost the porch columns, yet retains
everything else. The Earle family were proprietors of a major
express and teaming business, which made daily runs between
Central Falls and Pawtucket and Providence.
Waypoyset Mill, 1107 Broad Street (1910). John Judson, architect
for the Waypoyset Manufacturing Company that was incorporated in
1907. Manufacturer of cotton and silk novelties, it is now used
to manufacture toys.
Corning Glass Works, 1169-1223 Broad Street (1937,
1966, 1969, 1972) – The major employer of Central Falls, built
on the house of Elizabeth Buffum Chace (prominent abolitionist
and feminist) and Samuel B. Chace (leading industrialist of the
19th century in Central Falls).
Wyman House, 1192 Broad Street (1880’s). Two and a
half story, cross-gable house, which was the home of Elizabeth
B.C. Wyman, author of magazine about stories of factory life and
co-author of a noted biography of her famous mother, Elizabeth
B. Chace. It exhibits the flat surfaces and detailing of the
Stick Style.
Valley Falls Mill Complex, 1363 Broad Street (1849).
Four-story, red brick mill building with a helm-roofed,
projecting central tower. One of the oldest industrial sites in
Central Falls, it was developed by A. and I. Wilkinson of
Pawtucket in 1820.
Broad Street Bridge, (1915) The Valley Falls were
first bridged shortly before 1812 when Isaac Wilkinson built the
Valley Falls Turnpike passing over it. In 1873 it was replaced
by an iron bridge and in 1915 the present, arched, stone bridge
was built.
Town of Cumberland
Valley Falls Heritage Park/Site of Valley Falls Mills,
Located at the corner of Broad and Mills streets, the ruins of
the large, nineteenth-century Valley Falls textile mill complex,
which burned down in the 1930’s, are located along the north
bank of the Blackstone River above the damn.
Former Valley Falls Baptist Church/ Knights of Columbus,
22 Broad Street - Tall, one-and-a-half-story structure is
clad with artificial siding, has a brick-face entrance, and
rests on a concrete covered stone foundation. This congregation
was founded in 1832 and met in local mills until a plain
wood-frame building was constructed on the present site in 1840.
Cumberland Town Hall, 45 Broad Street (1894) - The
three-story, cross-gable, Colonial Revival style, brick Town
Hall has a carved terra cotta decorative motifs in the gable
ends. The front entrance is within a recessed porch. This was
Cumberland’s first building constructed specifically as a town
hall and was built on land previously owned by the Valley Falls
Company.
John F. Clark House, 91 Broad Street (1882) - An
elaborate, two-and-one-half-story, Queen Anne style house with
patterned shingles, cruciform plan, steeply pitched roof,
plastered and corbelled chimney, round-arch gable reveal, and
many decorative treatments, including date in gable brackets.
Designed by William R. Walker & Son, it is the most ornate house
of its type in Cumberland.
House, 130 Broad Street (late 19th century). A
two-and-a-half story, Italianate style house with wood
clapboards and a flank-gable orientation, resting on a brick
foundation. It has a two-story bay window with 2/2 windows in
the main block and 6/6 windows in a one-and-a-half story rear
ell.
Former Valley Falls Universalist Church, 135 Broad Street
(1885). This is a simple, tall, two-story, end-gable-roof,
clapboard and shingle Queen Anne style former church in Valley
Falls.
Patterson Brothers House & Store, 159 Broad Street (c.1882,
demolished 1998). A well-preserved, one-story, wooden, Late
Victorian commercial block with low-pitch gable rood set flank
to the street. The block is attached to a two-and-one-half
story, end-gable Victorian house. It later houses Roger’s
Hardware store until it was demolished.
Fire Station, 272 Broad Street (1887). A two-story,
hip-roof, brick fire station with central projecting roof gables
and three grouped, round-arch windows above two engine doors on
the street façade. It has been heavily altered for use as an
auto body repair shop.
House, 284 Broad Street (late 19th century) – Late Greek
Revival-style, flank-gable house. Clapboard on brick foundation.
Colonial Revival hip-roof porch spans the façade.
St. Patrick’s Church, Rectory, Convent, and Parochial School,
285 Broad Street (1861 et seq., 1936) – Early Victorian stone
church with cruciform plan, the first Roman Catholic parish
established in Cumberland. 1936 church totally rebuilt in stone,
served the new influx of Irish and European mill workers.
Bernard F. Norton School/Cumberland High School, 364 Broad
Street (1889) – Recently rebuilt with little reference to
the original structure (originally sandstone with Romanesque and
Classical Revival detailing).
Lonsdale Historic District
American Legion Post 14, 695 Broad Street (1934) –
Intersection of Broad and Mendon Road.
Blackstone Marker, Intersection of Broad & Blackstone Street
(c.1889) - Plain beige granite marker inscribed with William
Blackstone’s name, dates, and deeds.
William E. Blackstone School, 523 Broad Street (1873) –
Two-story gable-roof school building, built by the Lonsdale
Company for workers’ children.
Masonic Building, 531 Broad Street (1928) – T-plan,
Neoclassical brick building with a cross-gable roof, now
occupied by the Blackstone River Theatre.
Mill Houses, 550-52, 554-56, 558-60 Broad Street
(c.1870) – Three identical mill workers’ houses.
Kent-Smith House, 561 Broad Street (1838) – An early
house predating the industrial development of Lonsdale, now
covered with artificial siding.
Lonsdale Mill House, 562-64 Broad Street (c.1880’s) –
Four family mill house.
Lonsdale Mill Houses, 566-68, 570-72 Broad Street
(c.1870) – Two identical brick mill houses.
Lonsdale Mill Houses, 574-600 Broad Street, even #’s
only (c.1880’s) – Seven identical double mill houses.
Garvin House, 577 Broad Street, (1870-1888) – Frame
Italianate house with modillion cornice and paired arched
windows above a Colonial Revival style portico. Residence of
Lucius F.C. Garvin who was the physician for the Anne & Hope
Mill. He served several terms in the state legislature and was
governor of Rhode Island from 1903 to 1905.
Lonsdale Mill House, 602,04,06 Broad Street (1860’s) –
Wood-frame house with simple Greek Revival doorways.
View Historic Photos
