
![]() Quahog.org > Attractions > Roger Williams's Landing Place Monument Roger Williams's Landing Place MonumentIf we hadn't blown it up and sold it for souvenirs, this would be our Plymouth Rock. Slate Rock Park, Gano Street, Providence This monument is located on a little parcel of land called Slate Rock Park, named after the ledge where Roger Williams and a handful of his followers are thought to have first stepped ashore in the late spring or early summer of 1636. The park, donated to the city by the heirs of Governor James Fenner, is also sometimes called What Cheer Square or Roger Williams Square. Williams and company had been forced to leave their original settlement at Rumford, on the east side of the Seekonk River, after being notified that the land already belonged to Plymouth Colony. While Williams was on friendly terms with the governor of Plymouth, he was a wanted man in the powerful Massachusetts Bay Colony. Knowing that Massachusetts's reach extended well into Plymouth, Williams had no choice but to leave immediately. So Williams and his friends packed themselves and all they could carry into a single canoe and took off, regretfully leaving their newly planted fields behind.
The Indians directed the group to continue down the river, around the point to the west, and up another small river to a cove. There, they were told, they would find a suitable spot to live. Williams gratefully took the advice. In the fullness of time, the little settlement he established by the cove became the city of Providence. This is a very nice little story, one that is only slightly diminished by the fact it's probably not entirely true. Scanty historical evidence suggests Williams had only one companion with him that day, a young man named Thomas Angell who was something between a servant and adopted son. What's more, it's likely Williams never set foot on Slate Rock, but that he held his conversation with the Indians by means of hand gestures and shouted phrases from out on the river. The conversation could, in fact, have taken place anywhere along the river south of Rumford. If so, the original landing place of Roger Williams would actually be near the spring at the present-day Roger Williams National Memorial. Veneration of Slate Rock as the official landing spot may have begun no earlier than 1821, shortly after Plymouth had celebrated its bicentennial. Plymouth had Plymouth Rock, the site where tradition stated that the Pilgrims had first set foot in the New World, so why shouldn't Providence have a rock, too? Such imitation is perhaps even more appropriate when you consider that the Pilgrims actually landed first on Cape Cod before proceeding across the bay to the spot that would become Plymouth. It can't be proved any one of them ever stepped on Plymouth Rock, either. The whole Roger-Williams-meeting-the-Indians episode was first recorded in a deposition given by seventy-year-old Theodore Foster in 1821. He based his version on conversations he'd had with Stephen Hopkins as long as fifty years earlier, making his story a third-hand account, at best. His version never mentioned Slate Rock, but at the time, the ledge would have been very prominent along the shoreline—a natural choice for anyone who, having heard Foster's account, might have set out to find a place to connect with Williams. Edward Lewis Peckham noted in 1872 that Slate Rock was "nearly concealed by washings from the hill above," and that, should anyone take the trouble to reveal it, "its surface will be found covered with the engraved initials, and even whole names of former visitors, most of whom are passed away." In 1912 Peckham's nephew, Stephen Farnum Peckham, tells us further that When I returned to Providence in 1880, the Rock had been blasted to pieces, portions containing names had been distributed to the few survivors of those who had carved them, and the bluff had been graded over where the Rock once was.
The monument originally had four bronze plaques. On the west side was a bas relief depicting the meeting between Williams and the Indians, as well as a small bronze emblem bearing the seal of the State of Rhode Island. The other three sides included information about Williams, his arrival at that spot, and a relevant Williams quote. In 1989 the park was rededicated and a fifth plaque was added in commemoration. But then, in 1996, the original four plaques were removed after one was vandalized. They reportedly remain in storage at the Parks Department as of this writing (2015). Update, July 2016: The monument's plaques have been restored!
Monument InscriptionsGano Street sideBELOW THIS SPOT THEN AT ROGER WILLIAMS LANDING Power Street sideAND HAVING OF A SENSE OF Roger Street sideAt top, the Rhode Island State seal. Below, a bas relief by E.C. Codman, entitled "The Landing and Welcome by the Indians." This was replaced by a stone tablet with the text from the original Gano Street plaque in 1989. Below the plaque, carved into the granite of the monument: LANDING PLACE OF Williams Street sideTO THE MEMORY OF InformationCost: free Time required: allow 10 minutes Hours: year round, dawn to dusk Finding it: take Route 95 to Route 195 East; take exit 3 for Gano Street and take a right at the end of the ramp; Slate Rock Park is a couple of blocks up on the left, across from 141 Gano Street. What’s nearbyDistances between points are actual distances, without regard to oceans or hungry harpies. Your travel distance will be longer. This article last edited August 7, 2016 © 1999–2021 Quahog.org (with the exception of elements provided by contributors, as noted). |
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