Former State Home on RIC Campus Designated National Historic Landmark
The Rhode Island State Home and School, built on what is now the east side of Rhode Island College’s campus, was recently approved for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
The National Register is the official list of our country’s historic buildings, districts, sites, structures and objects worthy of preservation. It was established as part of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and is overseen by the National Park Service. More than 90,000 properties are recognized by the National Register for their significance in American history, architecture, art, archeology, engineering and culture.
Chartered by an act of the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1884, the Rhode Island State Home and School was a state-run orphanage that took in 10,000 children between 1885 and 1979.
Fewer than 10 percent of the children admitted were actually orphans, however. The majority had one or both parents. It could be that the parents’ whereabouts were unknown, or they were confined in a mental institution, incarcerated at the state prison or State Poor Farm, or were otherwise unable to care for their children (“Rhode Island History,” Vol. 65, No. 3).
Made up of a complex of buildings, the State Home consisted of a large administrative building, a circle of cottages (dormitories) facing it, a school, a hospital and a working farm to support the institution’s operation. By 1979 the State Home had closed its doors. By the time Rhode Island College acquired the property in 2002, only one 19th-century, wooden dormitory remained called the Yellow Cottage – and that was slated for demolition.
Recognizing the historical significance of the site, the late Richard Hillman, a social worker and RIC alumnus (B.A. in psychology, 1983; and M.S.W., 1996), urged then-RIC President John Nazarian to renovate rather than raze the building and to research and preserve records of the institution. Thus began the State Home and School Project, a research, documentation and preservation project, that ran from 2002 to 2010.
Leading the archaeological excavations was RIC Professor of Anthropology Pierre Morenon, a founding member of the State Home and School Project. He noted that this site is important not only for archaeological reasons, but for historical ones. It was the beginning of Rhode Island’s modern child welfare system. “The building, grounds and land are all an important part of that historical record,” he said. One of the project’s major accomplishments was restoration of the Yellow Cottage.
Project members also collected oral histories of former residents and employees of the State Home. Transcripts of these interviews are archived in Rhode Island College’s Special Collections, along with newspaper clippings and other historical documents. Digitized photos can be found in the State Archives, while physical artifacts from the archaeological digs still need to be housed in a state facility.
Joining the list of registered historic places in Rhode Island is a fitting culmination of a project that began almost two decades ago said Rhode Island College President Frank D. Sánchez.
“This is a well-deserved recognition of the history that existed at this site even before it became a college campus,” he said. “The many years of hard work and research by the dedicated team of the State Home and School Project have put a spotlight on an important chapter in our state’s history and opened up new possibilities for preservation that come with this federally recognized designation.”
“State institutions housing ordinary children who had been separated from their families were once common in the United States,” added Morenon. “Most of those institutions are abandoned; few are as well documented as the State Home and School.” Today, the Yellow Cottage now features space for a large classroom, two conference rooms and an office.