Main Street Rhode Island

George Hail Free Library // 1888

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The George Hail Free Library on Main Street in Warren, Rhode Island, is a unique, Victorian-era public library building that has been lovingly preserved by the community. Built in 1888, the building cost just over $16,000 and was designed in a more vertical expression of the Romanesque Revival style by the Providence architectural firm of William Walker and Son and built of rough-faced granite. The library is named after George Hail (1793-1873), a merchant, philanthropist, industrialist, and native son of Warren. His second wife, Martha Hail died in 1882 and left $5,000 and their home to the Warren Public Library provided that the name of the Library be changed to the George Hail Free Library in memory of her husband. The Library Committee agreed and planning began soon after for a new, purpose built library we see today. The exterior is distinguished, but the interior is also well-preserved, with original cherry woodwork grained to resemble mahogany, brass gaslighting fixtures, fireplaces, and leaded glass windows patterned with stained glass, together with some of the original furniture, that preserve a sense of the original setting.

Warren Industrial Trust Company // 1906

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This monumental Georgian Revival bank building on Main Street in Warren, Rhode Island, and is one of the finest buildings of the style in the entire state. The Warren Industrial Trust in 1906 hired Edmund R. Willson of the Providence architectural firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson to design the bank for the town after it had absorbed the town’s multiple banks, under one roof. It would be one of his final commissions before his death. On the facade, four Corinthian columns support a dentilled pediment over the entrance with the red brick walls enlivened with arched windows, oversized keystones, and pilasters with contrasting capitals and bases. The building shows that Colonial Revival architecture, while often seen as a refined, classical style, can be festive and ornate.

Warren Town Hall // 1890

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Warren, Rhode Island, is one of the lesser-visited coastal communities of the state, but retains one of the best waterfront historic districts in all of New England. With a small population of just over 11,000 residents, the downtown is extremely walkable with a tight network of streets, lined with stellar buildings and homes of nearly every architectural style and period, and are largely preserved showcasing what New England communities were like in centuries past. On bustling Main Street, the Warren Town Hall was designed by the Providence-based firm of William R. Walker & Son, architects, and constructed between 1891-1894. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style, the two-story building with five-story central tower also features Classical detailing like the terra cotta swags and brick pilasters. Before the 1938 Hurricane, the tower was even higher, incorporating an open stage topped by a parapet and a clock face on each of the segments of its still extant dome, which now has a slightly reconfigured mini-cupola topping. Additional detailing includes a terra cotta bust of the sachem/leader Massasoit with leafage, above a fluttering ribbon inscribed “Sowams,” the Wampanoag settlement that preceded Warren. The Warren Town Hall remains well preserved by the local government and a visual landmark on the town’s Main Street.