Photo: Library of Congress
Congressional Union for Woman's Suffrage, National Summer Headquarters, 128 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, R. I.
250 Hope Street, Providence
250 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02906
In 1914 Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales opened their business school Johnson & Wales in Gertrude Johnson's home at 250 Hope Street, Providence. The school soon outgrew these quarters and moved on. 250 Hope Street across the street from the Moses Brown School is now a multi-family home.
Connection to Suffrage History
A 1920 Membership Brochure for The United League of Women Voters of Rhode Island lists 250 Hope Street, Providence as its Temporary Headquarters. The League was formed under that name October 8, 1920 because while multiple state suffrage organizations were all right with NAWSA, it was not all right with the new National League of Women Voters which was organizing its structure along the lines of government - federal, state, and local so the newly forming League of Women Voters organizations had to agree on a single state organization. The new organization apparently did not use either the RIWSA and RI College Equal Suffrage League's office in the Butler Exchange nor competing the RI Suffrage Party's office at 87 Weybosset Street. Top
394 Angell Street, Providence
394 Angell Street, Providence, RI 02906
394 Angell Street was the home of Sara M. and James W. Algeo. According to current real estate listings 394 Angell St. built in 1890 is currently a condo/coop zoned for mixed use/Primary Residence & Commercial.
Connection to Suffrage History
Shortly after Sara MacCormack married James Algeo in 1907, Mrs. George D. Gladding came to their Angell St. door to recruit Algeo's help with the College Equal Suffrage League in Rhode Island. From that beginning, Algeo went on to become one of the foremost Woman Suffragists in Rhode Island leading the RI College Suffrage League and the RI Woman Suffrage party. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst was among the notable suffrage guests in Algeo's home. After Rhode Island ratified the 19th Amendment Algeo was a delegate to the Congress of the International Suffrage Alliance in Geneva, Switzerland in 1920, and she wrote The Story of a Sub-Pioneer, an extensive history and personal memoire of Women's Suffrage in Rhode Island. Top
567 Bristol Ferry Road, Portsmouth
567 Bristol Ferry Road, Portsmouth
The well-known artist Sarah J. Eddy lived at 567 Bristol Ferry Road. Before the Mt. Hope Bridge was built, Bristol Ferry landing was a junction of railroads, steamboats, and ferries. The Fall River Line stopped there for easy access to New York. Eddy's Social Studio and the Town Commons were the cultural and artistic center for Portsmouth. Eddy's home was recently renovated into three luxury condominium units.
Connection to Suffrage History
That Sarah J. Eddy may be best known for her portraits of Susan B. Anthony and Fredrick Douglass is not totally surprising given her family's deep roots within activist suffrage movements. Her wealthy father James Eddy was known for his generosity to social causes, and the chapel he had built at the entrance to his estate (Bell Street Chapel) became a center of women's suffrage activity under its minister Anna Garlin Spencer. Sarah's mother Eliza Merriam Eddy left her residual estate to Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone. Sarah herself was an active member of the RI Woman Suffrage Association who campaigned for a state constitutional amendment giving women the vote in 1886, and when she moved to Bristol Ferry in the mid-1890s she was a key figure in the group of philanthropic women of Bristol Ferry who established the Newport County Woman Suffrage League. Top
Bell Street Chapel
5 Bell Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02909
James Eddy was a wealthy businessman who retired to an estate in Providence, the city of his birth. In his retirement Eddy gave generously to social causes such as abolition, temperance, and women’s rights. Beyond that, he also sought religious truth, and had a chapel built at the gates to his estate on Bell Street as a temple dedicated “to God, to truth, and humanity.” Unfortunately, Eddy died before a ministry was established in the chapel.
Connection to Suffrage History
Anna Garlin (Spencer) was Corresponding Secretary for the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association from 1872 to 1878 when she moved to Wisconsin with her husband. She was a well-known social activist and thinker. After James Eddy’s death, the Trustees for his estate requested that Spencer return to Rhode Island to turn James Eddy’s dreams for his chapel into reality. Upon her return in 1888, she rejoined the Suffrage Association and was First Vice-President under Elizabeth Buffum Chace for whom she acted as a surrogate as Buffum Chace’s health declined. Spencer was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in Rhode Island. She wrote the entry for Rhode Island in History of Woman Suffrage:1883-1900, the monumental history edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper. Susan B. Anthony spoke at the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage association's 1901 annual meeting held at Bell Street Chapel. The Chapel hosted the 29th annual meeting of the RIWSA in October 1906. Top
Churchill House
155 Angell Street, Providence, RI 02912
"Churchill House at 155 Angell Street was built for the Rhode Island Women’s Club in 1907 and named for Elizabeth Kittredge Churchill, founder of the Club... Later occupied by Katherine Gibbs School, the building was acquired by Brown in 1970. In 1972 the Afro-American Society, the Afro-American Studies Program, and the Graduate Minority Association moved into the building."
Connection to Suffrage History
"November 5, 1908, Churchill House was site of a regular meeting of RIWSA. The topic of discussion 'The National Convention at Buffalo from the Viewpoint of the Rhode Island Delegate'" On December 11, 1908 RIWSA celebrated its 40th Anniversary at Churchill House. The Woman Suffrage Party held a gala ball at the club in May 1914. Top
Davis Park – Chalkstone Avenue
50 Raymond St, Providence, RI 02908
Davis Park is only as shadow of what it was when the Thomas Davis estate was donated to the City of Providence for a park. Photos in the Providence Public Library’s Digital Collections show an impressive home with numerous outbuildings in a rustic looking area. After World War II a great deal of the land was donated to the Federal Government for the VA Hospital.
Connection to Suffrage History
Paulina Wright Davis was a noted early suffragist who in the late 1830s worked with feminists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Ernestine Rose. Her work contributed to the passage of the New York Married Women’s Property Act in 1848. After she married Thomas Davis in 1849, she moved to Rhode Island.
Two years after Seneca Falls she both planned and chaired the First National Women’s Rights Convention held on October 23-24, 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Davis also founded The Una in 1853, the first feminist periodical that was owned, written, edited, and published entirely by a woman. Newspaper publisher Sayles, Miller and Simons 15 Market Square were the original printers for The Una. The building no longer exists, but old maps indicate it was in a building opposite Market House. Paulina Wright Davis and Elizabeth Buffum Chace founded the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association in 1868. Davis was the first president of the RIWSA.
The Davises earlier owned a home at 503 ½ and 507 ½ Chalkstone Avenue which still exists behind another row of houses. Top
Easton's Beach
175 Memorial Blvd., Newport, RI 02840
Easton's Beach, also known as First Beach, is a 3/4 mile long stretch of sand on the Atlantic Ocean with a board walk, ball room, and other amenities maintained by the City of Newport.
Connection to Suffrage History
In August 1912 Alva Vanderbilt Belmont hosted a dance at Easton's Beach in honor of Inez Milholland a Suffragist best known as the beautiful woman on a white horse at the head of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession prior to President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.
After Belmont's grand Conference of Great Women at Marble House which featured her daughter Consuelo the Duchess of Marlborough in July 1914, anti-suffrage forces hosted an opposing event September 14, 1914 at Easton's Beach. Top
Manning Hall Chapel - Brown University
21 Prospect St. Providence, RI 02912
"Manning Hall, opened in 1834, was the third major building constructed on Brown University's campus. Designed as a double-sized replica of the Doric-order temple of Diana-Propylea in Eleusis, Manning Hall originally housed the university's first free-standing library and its chapel... Currently, Manning Hall houses the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology's exhibitions and Manning Chapel."
Connection to Suffrage History
Manning Hall was site of January 24, 1911 meeting of RIWSA with talk titled "The Nation's Need of Woman's Vote" by Professor Henry S. Nash of Cambridge, MA. This hall also served as site of Rhode Island Progressive League meeting in 1913 in which Harvard professor Albert Bushnell Hart spoke on woman suffrage." Top
Marble House
596 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840
According to the Preservation Society of Newport County
"Marble House was built between 1888 and 1892 for Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt. It was a summer house, or "cottage", as Newporters called them in remembrance of the modest houses of the early 19th century."
Connection to Suffrage History
Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont elevated the Vanderbilts into the upper reaches of New York society through her mastery of publicity. When she embraced the Suffragist cause, she immediately realized the immense drawing power of Marble House and began using it as a venue for Suffrage events like, but not limited to, the Suffrage lectures in 1909 which included tours of the mansion and the 1914 Conference of Great Women which featured her daughter Consuelo, the Duchess of Marlborough as well as tours. Top
Mathewson Street Church
134 Mathewson Street, Providence, R.I. 02903
Founded in 1848, Mathewson Street United Methodist Church is the oldest surviving Methodist Church in Providence.
Connection to Suffrage History
May 15,1900 the church hosted the RIWSA's annual meeting.
April 19,1912 the church was the site of a joint meeting of the RIWSA and the College Equal Suffrage League. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was the guest speaker.
February 17, 1914 the Rhode Island Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage held a lecture by Miss Lucy Price at the church. Top
Newport Casino Theatre
9 Freebody St, Newport, RI 02840
The Casino in Newport is now mainly thought of as the home of the Tennis Hall of Fame. However, when the Casino opened in 1880 it was a complete entertainment complex with lodging, shopping, entertainment, and of course - tennis. The Casino Theatre served as both a 500-capacity removable seat theater and a ballroom for dances. The Theatre is now home to Salve Regina's dance, music, and theatre arts programs.
Connection to Suffrage History
On Thurday August 11, 1887, the New England Woman Suffrage Association held a Woman Suffrage Convention in the Casino at Newport, R.I. "for the purpose of gathering the friends of Rhode Island together for social intercourse and general business." Julia Ward Howe one of the New England Woman Suffrage Association's founders presided. Top
Newport Opera House
19 Touro Street, Newport, RI 02840
Currently owned by the Newport Performing Arts Center which is attempting to renovate the Newport Opera House to serve as home for its programs, the Opera House was originally built by Patrick Shanahan in 1867 as an amenity for his elegant hotel Perry House in Washington Square.
Connection to Suffrage History
On March 25, 1887 an event in favor of the RI Woman Suffrage amendment which would be voted on in the April 6, 1887 general election was held at the Opera House. Julia Ward Howe, Mary F. Eastman, and Henry B. Blackwell were among the featured guests. Unfortunately, the amendment was soundly defeated. Top
Oak Glen
745 Union Avenue, Portsmouth 02871
Oak Glen was the final residence of Julia Ward Howe, who wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Howe was born and raised in New York City and spent most of her married life in Boston. However, her Ward family roots were in Rhode Island and the Howe family spent many summers in the Newport area with their Ward relatives. Oak Glen is now a private residence listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Connection to Suffrage History
When the proposed 14th Amendment Section 2 gave all males over the age of 21 citizenship rights and equal protection under the law, Women Suffragists were outraged by an amendment that specifically excluded them. This also meant that women suffragists had to decide whether to support the subsequent 15th Amendment which gave Black men (but not women of any race) the right to vote.
Howe a noted Suffragist supported the 15th amendment (as did most RI Suffragists), and she helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869 because the National Woman Suffrage Association would not support the 15th Amendment. Howe was editor of Woman's Journal, a widely read suffragist magazine; president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association; and president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association.
When the Newport County Woman Suffrage League was formed in 1907, Howe frequently hosted their meetings at Oak Glen. After Howe’s death, her daughter Maud Howe Elliot, who became President of the Newport County Woman Suffrage League, lived at Oak Glen and held meetings there. Top
Old State House
150 Benefit Street, Providence 02903
“The Old State House on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, known also as Providence Sixth District Court House, Providence Colony House, Providence County House, or Rhode Island State House is located on 150 Benefit Street. It is a brick Georgian-style building completed largely in 1762. It was used as the meeting place for the colonial and state legislatures for 149 years.” The Old State House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and the College Hill Historic Landmark District, designated in 1971.
Connection to Suffrage History
"In 1884, by unanimous vote of the Assembly, the State House was granted for the first time for a woman suffrage convention. Four sessions were held in the Hall of the House of Representatives, and Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, William Lloyd Garrison, Mary F. Eastman and other addressed great throngs of people who filled the seats, occupied all the standing room and overflowed into the lobbies." December 3-4, 1884 The event was planned by Elizabeth Buffum Chace and Lillie Chace Wyman. Top
Pembroke Chapel
172 Meeting Street, Providence, RI 02912
"Pembroke Hall was the first building erected for the use of the Women’s College... The all-purpose building served the social, religious, academic, and athletic needs of the Women’s College... The chapel of the Women’s College is a long, wide room, well lighted by many windows."
Connection to Suffrage History
"Susan B. Anthony spoke to the women students of Pembroke College on October 10,1901 about the differences between woman's education of today and sixty years ago." Top
Providence Public Library (central library building)
225 Washington Street, Providence, RI 02903
The Providence Public Library's classic Renaissance building at 225 Washington St. opened in 1900. In 1954 a massive addition was completed facing Empire Street. The library was designated the Rhode Island Statewide Reference Resource Center in 1989.
Connection to Suffrage History
Susan B. Anthony died Mar 13, 1906. On April 9, 1906 RIWSA held an event in honor of Anthony at the Providence Public Library with a speech written by Julia Ward Howe, read by Mrs. Mary Homer. Top
Roger Williams Park Casino
1000 Elmwood Ave, Providence, RI 02907
Roger Williams Park was established on the last of the original land granted in 1638 to Roger Williams by the Narragansett chief Canonicus. Betsy Williams, a descendant of Roger Williams, bequeathed the family farm to the City of Providence in 1872.
Connection to Suffrage History
The RI Woman Suffrage Party held an all day Women's Independence Day celebration in the park on May 2, 1914. Top
Sayles Hall - Brown University
81 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912
"Built in 1881, Sayles Hall was built with a donation from W.F. Sayles to memorialize his son, William Clark Sayles, who died at Brown in 1876. The granite and brownstone building took over the function of chapel from Manning Hall and also served as the University’s largest assembly hall for many years."
Connection to Suffrage History
"Sayles Hall on Brown University Campus hosted numerous lectures on woman suffrage including a series of lectures in the mid-1890s under the title "Woman's Contribution to the Progress of the World. Lectures included Abby Goold Woolson, Mary A. Livermore, Lillie Devereux Blake, Lillie Chace Wyman, Alice Stone Blackwell, Mary F. Eastman, Prof. Katherine Hanscom and the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer. Also Mrs. Annie Cobden Sanderson of England spoke at Sayles Hall in December 1907 and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt in 1916" Top
State House
82 Smith Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02903
"The Rhode Island State House is the capitol of the state of Rhode Island, located on the border of the Downtown and Smith Hill sections of Providence. It is a neoclassical building which houses the Rhode Island General Assembly and the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and general treasurer of Rhode Island. The building is policed by the Rhode Island Capitol Police and is on the National Register of Historic Places."
Connection to Suffrage History
Over the years the State House was the scene of intense lobbying for Women's Suffrage. In 1917, the Presidential Suffrage for Women passed, and on January 6, 1920 Governor Beeckman signed Rhode Island's ratification of the 19th Amendment. "On May 17, 1920, the Rhode Island Equal Suffrage Association concluded its work. A procession of women marched through the streets of Providence carrying the records of the organization for fifty years, which were deposited in the archives of the State House with impressive ceremony."
League of Women Voters Suffrage papers exist at the RI Historical Society. Top
Valley Falls – Valley Falls Heritage Park
45 Broad Street, Cumberland, RI 02864
Valley Falls was originally a mill village on both sides of the Valley Falls on the Blackstone River. The village is now divided between Cumberland and Central Falls. (The Central Falls for which the city of Central Falls is named are further south on the Blackstone River.) Valley Falls Heritage Park is built amid the ruins of the Valley Falls Company mill complex on the Cumberland side. On the Central Falls side of the river, the remains of the Valley Falls Company Mills are now a housing complex.
Connection to Suffrage History
Elizabeth Buffum Chace was a noted abolitionist and suffragist. Her husband Samuel was the son of Oliver Chace the founder of the Valley Falls Company, and the couple lived up the street from the mill on the Central Falls side of the river at the corner of Broad and Hunt (map). Elizabeth Buffum Chace and Paulina Wright Davis founded the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association in 1868. Chace was president of the RIWSA from 1870 until her death in 1899. In 1887 Chace led a spirited effort to pass a women's suffrage referendum in Rhode Island. Despite impressive support from prominent people, the referendum was soundly defeated. The home of Chace’s daughter, Elizabeth "Lillie" Buffum Chace Wyman who followed in her mother’s footsteps, remains at 1192 Broad Street, Central Falls (behind some businesses). Top
