Undated photo of Providence City Hall. The surrounding neighborhood is no less lively today. Courtesy of Lawrence DePetrillo.
Published by Haunted America
A division of The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2008 by Rory Raven
All rights reserved
First published 2008
Second printing 2009
Third printing 2010
e-book edition 2011
ISBN 978.1.61423.262.9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Raven, Rory.
Haunted Providence : strange tales from the smallest state / Rory Raven.
p. cm.
print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-387-8 (alk. paper)
1. Ghosts--Rhode Island. 2. Haunted places--Rhode Island. I. Title.
BF1472.U6R38 2007
133.109745--dc22
2007041972
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For my parents.
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Nobody writes a book on their own. The following people were all onboard with me for this project, and it probably couldnt have been done without any of them or their help. Many thanks to:
My wife, Judith Reilly, who clearly has a lot to put up with;
Barbara Barnes, who was doing tours of Providence long before I;
Michael Bell, for thoughts and advice;
Christine Bevilaqua and Kate Wodehouse, both of the Providence Athenaeum;
Michael Chandley, proprietor of Cellar Stories Bookstore in Providence and a real nice guy;
Rosemary Cullen and Anne Patricks of Brown University;
Larry DePetrillo, for generous access to his massive Rhode Island collection;
Paul Di Filippo and Deborah Newton, friends and inspirations;
The Reverend Dr. W. Flayva, for reasons known only to him;
Jill Jann, for support, encouragement and that laugh of hers;
Sheri La Fazia, mistress of the scanner;
Christopher Martin, the mastermind behind www.quahog.org (the definitive Rhode Island road trip), for invaluable assistance, support, scanning, image wrangling and general swellness;
My sister Maureen, for reading Poe to me by flashlight when I was a child;
My sister Sheila, for sharing my interest in strangeness;
Louis McGowan, for the use of his images;
Ken Pastore, for some great photographs;
George Popkin of the Providence Journal, for his 1950s articles on ghosts in Rhode Island;
Leon Redbone and Carrie Rodriguez, whose music I listened to constantly while writing this book;
Ian Rowland, who always knew I could do it;
William Schaff, for scanning and critiquing prose;
The lovely Melissa Schwefel at The History Press;
That guy who said that thing that time;
Elizabeth Wayland-Seal and Meri P. Kennedy of the Cranston HERALD, for things and stuff;
And to you, for being someone who reads thank-yous.
I NTRODUCTION
This book records and relates many of the ghost stories and weird tales I have collected about my hometown, Providence, Rhode Island. As one of the nations oldest cities, it should come as no surprise that so many consider it to also be one of the most haunted.
Although a thoroughgoing skeptic, I have always loved a good ghost story. Any who dismiss ghost stories because ghosts arent real are missing the point completely. Those listening to a ghost story need not believe in the reality of it any more than those watching a play need to believe that the man onstage is really a melancholy Danish prince. Either experience can produce powerful, moving results, or have a message to communicate.
As I collected the stories herein, I became more and more interested in how ghost stories offer links to and overlaps with real history, and can serve as a gateway to some who might not otherwise be interested. I can tell you about a mill and its place in the Industrial Revolution and you might not care. If I tell you it is haunted by the ghost of a former night watchmannow you want to hear more.
I consider myself a tour guide and amateur historian (I have no formal training in anything). I am not one of those self-styled paranormal investigators, who stumble around with night vision cameras and claim to see orbs and collect evidence.
I have never seen a ghostat least one reason for my skepticismand really, thats fine by me. If youre dead, please leave me alone.
What I collect are storiesand I hope you enjoy them as stories.
In October 2000 I created the Providence Ghost Walk, a walking tour through the haunted history of Providence, relating many of the ghost stories I have compiled over the years. After each walk, people approach me to relate their talesthe stories they grew up hearing or that were passed down in their family. I love hearing them. A number of the stories people have told me have ended up either on the Providence Ghost Walk or in this book, or both. I owe many thanks to all of those who stopped to tell me their stories.
Rhode Island has always had a strange contrariety, and has long been home to some unusual characters and practices that flourished here long after they had died out elsewhere. (Where else can you enjoy a May Breakfast?) And this seems to go back to the very beginning.
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the smallest state with the longest name, was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Cambridge-educated Puritan theologian. Like other Puritans, he felt the Church of England had not sufficiently separated itself from Roman Catholicism, and he left for the New World hoping to create the City on a Hill and to serve as an example to Old Europe. Arriving in Boston from London in 1631, Williams became the minister of Salem, where he soon made a name for himself for his unusual beliefs, among them being a strict separation of church and state. Sunday worship was often compulsory in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Williams averred that Forced worship stinks in Gods nostrils.
While all Christians must obey the Ten Commandments, Williams felt the magistrates of the colony had no right to enforce their observation.
He was also looked upon as an eccentric because he cultivated friendship with the American Indians, learning their language and customs at a time when many dismissed them as heathen savages. While he preached Christianity to them, he made no attempt to forcibly convert them, believing that they must come to God of their own free will.
