Roger Williams' Landing Place Monument

Roger Williams' Landing Place Monument

If we hadn't blown it up and sold it for souvenirs, this would be our Plymouth Rock.

Roger Williams' Landing Place Monument, 2017
(July 29, 2017).

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.

When they arrived on the west side of the river, they had the good fortune to be met at Slate Rock by a number of friendly Narragansett Indians, one of whom greeted them with the phrase "What cheer, netop?"—essentially, "What's up, bud?" in a mixture of old English and Narragansett. Williams stepped from the canoe to the Rock, where he explained his predicament and asked the Indians if they knew of a place where he and his company could settle.

Engraving, Roger Williams meets Native Americans at Slate Rock, c1827
Williams stands ill-advisedly at the front of a canoe, poised to dump himself and an unsuspecting Native American into the Seekonk. (Engraving by Thomas Frederick Hoppin, c1827).

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.

Lading Place post card, circa 1898
This detail from a rare circa 1898 postcard, captioned "Roger Williams' Landing Place," appears to show that the remains of the rock have been heaped up and fenced in in an attempt to solemnize the site. (eBay).

Roger Williams Rock post card, circa 1906
This circa 1906 postcard purports to show "Roger Williams Rock, showing Slate Rock where Roger Williams first landed in 1636." (Collection of Jim Moore).

Parks Department Deputy Superintendent Robert McMahon confirmed this tale in a 2007 Providence Journal article. He said it happened in 1877, when city workers used a bit too much dynamite while trying to uncover more of the rock. With Slate Rock in little bits, plans to enshrine it in a Plymouth Rock-like pavilion had to be abandoned, and the present-day monument, designed by Frank Foster Tingley and sculptor E.C. Codman, with plaques cast by Gorham, was erected in its place in 1906. The Providence Association of Merchants and Manufacturers footed the bill. While the monument looks like a pedestal, it was never meant to hold a statue, and never has.

All those broken bits of Slate Rock didn't go entirely to waste. Florence Simister notes in Streets of the City that the Natural History Store, located at 258 Westminster Street during that period, offered pieces of slate, reputed to be from Slate Rock, in its catalog. They cost from ten cents to $2.50 per chunk. One could purchase them "in plain pieces or cut in bas relief representing [Williams's] landing, the present monument in the park, and so forth."

Slate Rock souvenir, dated 1939
Possible example of a souvenir made from a piece of Slate Rock, dated 1939. (From the Quahog Museum collection).

Pieces of Slate Rock can still be seen in a few places in Providence. Several slabs are embedded in the floor of the vestibule of the Central Baptist Church, located at 372 Wayland Avenue. Another piece is on the quad just inside Brown University's Waterman Avenue gates. It's set into the rear of a pedestal supporting a large statue of the Brown University bear. It's likely there are numerous souvenir pieces lurking in the attics and basements of Providence, as well.

Pieces of Slate Rock at Central Baptist Church, 2001
Providence's Central Baptist Church has its piece of the rock... (February 4, 2001).

Piece of Slate Rock at Brown University, 2013
...So does this bear. Where's yours? (September 14, 2013).

Over the last century, additional filling and land reclamation have moved the shore of the Seekonk River a quarter mile east of the traditional landing place. Whatever's left of Slate Rock now lies several feet below the granite monument. Several buildings on the east side of Gano Street pretty much obscure any view of the river.

Detail, Providence City Atlas, 1875
This detail from an 1875 Providence City Atlas shows the original shoreline and location of Slate Rock in relation to the contemporary streetscape.

Landing Place post card, circa 1914
You can still sorta see the shoreline in this circa 1914 postcard view.

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).

Naked, monument, 2015
Nekkid! (April 11, 2015).

Update, July 2016: The monument's plaques have been restored!

Monument Inscriptions
Gano Street side

Gano Street plaque, 2022
"BELOW THIS SPOT | THEN AT THE WATER'S EDGE | STOOD THE ROCK | ON WHICH | ACCORDING TO TRADITION | ROGER WILLIAMS | AN EXILE | FOR HIS DEVOTION TO | FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE | LANDED | 1636" (November 19, 2022).

Rededication plaque, 2002
"ROGER WILLIAMS LANDING | Rededicated to Roger Williams | The Founding Father of Providence | 1989 | Joseph R. Paolino, Jr., Mayor | Nancy L. Derrig, Superintendent of Parks" (March 9, 2002).

Power Street side

Power Street plaque, 2022
"AND HAVING OF A SENSE OF | GOD'S MERCIFUL PROVIDENCE | UNTO ME IN MY DISTRESS | CALLED THE PLACE PROVIDENCE | I DESIRED IT MIGHT BE FOR | A SHELTER FOR PERSONS | DISTRESSED FOR CONSCIENCE | ROGER WILLIAMS" | (facsimile of his signature). (November 19, 2022).

Roger Street side

At top, the Rhode Island State seal. Below, a bas relief by E.C. Codman, entitled "The Landing and Welcome by the Indians."

Roger Street plaque, 2022
Codman bas relief. (November 19, 2022).

Roger Street plaque, 2002
When the park was rededicated in 1989, this stone plaque, bearing the text from the missing Gano side plaque, temporarily took the place of the Codman bas relief.

Below the plaque, carved into the granite of the monument:

LANDING PLACE OF
ROGER WILLIAMS

Williams Street side

Williams Street plaque, 2022
"TO THE MEMORY OF | ROGER WILLIAMS | THE APOSTLE OF SOUL LIBERTY | FOUNDER OF THE | STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | AND | PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS | THIS MONUMENT IS DEDICATED | BY THE | PROVIDENCE ASSOCIATION | OF | MECHANICS AND MANUFACTURERS | 1906" (November 19, 2022).

Update, July 2017: That didn't take long. While the four original plaques remain in place, someone pried off the 1989 rededication plaque.

Slate Rock Park, 2022
Present-day Slate Rock Park. (November 19, 2022).

Find the Historical Marker

While the monument in Slate Rock Park contains a lot of relevant information, there is no display in the park that gives context for the monument. For that you have to go across the street to Gano Park, next to the shoreline walking path, about 700 feet due east of the monument.

Historical marker, 2015
(September 13, 2015).

Historical marker, 2015
(September 13, 2015).

Historical marker, 2015
(September 13, 2015).

Historical marker, 2015
(September 13, 2015).

Last Edited
2023-02-02