What to See in Coventry - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Coventry, Rhode Island. The Paine House Museum is an historic house at 7 Station Street in the village of Washington in the town Coventry, Rhode Island. The oldest portion of this large 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house may have been built as early as 1691 by Samuel Bennett, who was known to operate a sawmill on the nearby Pawtuxet River. The house was significantly enlarged c. 1748 by Francis Brayton. His son, Francis Jr. was granted a license to operate a tavern on the premises in 1785. The property was acquired by the Paine family in 1866, whose descendants gave it to the Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society in 1953.

The house has been furnished to reflect the Colonial era, and is now operated by the society as a historic house museum. Visitation is from May through September on Saturdays.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.^[2]

Bridge in Scituate, Rhode Island. The Interlaken Mill Bridge is an historic bridge spanning the Pawtuxet River at the site of the former Arkwright and Interlaken mill complexes in Coventry, Rhode Island. The lenticular pony truss bridge was built in 1885 by the Interlaken Corporation to provide a direct connection between the mill sites, having recently acquired the Arkwright property. The trusses were manufactured by the Berlin Iron Bridge Co. of Berlin, Connecticut. The bridge is a single span measuring 92 feet in length and just under 19 feet in width, resting on stone abutments.

The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. It is the only known lenticular pony truss bridge in Rhode Island.

As of 2015, the bridge is completely closed off to the public and no longer maintained. It has fallen into severe disrepair and is structurally unsound and unsafe to cross. With the closing and abandonment of the facilities on the south side of the river, and the eventual reclamation of nature to the location, the south side of the bridge leads only to thick woods and brush.^[3]

Building complex. The Pawtuxet Valley Dyeing Company was a historic mill complex at 9 Howard Avenue in the town of Coventry, Rhode Island. The complex included three buildings: the main mill building and two pump houses, as well as the dam which impounds the Pearce Mill Pond, and the tailrace which evacuates water from the mill into the North Branch Pawtuxet River. The main mill was an irregularly shaped complex of structures, which grew from the original Pearce Brothers Woolen Mill, a two-story rubble-stone structure that predates 1859, and has been extended in all directions. Most of the additions were made in the first two decades of the 20th century. The dam, about 100 feet long, was an earth-fill structure faced in fieldstone and capped in 20th-century concrete, with a modern spillway. The tailrace was a trench lined with cut stone which exited from under the original mill building. The mill was established by Joseph W. Pearce, an English immigrant, and carded and spun wool. The March 11, 1916 Fibre & Faric, page 29, a trade publication, list William Waterhouse and the President of the Royal Chemical Co. and The Pawtuxet Valley Dyeing Co. The January 1918 edition of the trade publication "Textile Colorist", page 23, list the obituary for William Waterhouse and states that he was the president of The Pawtuxet Valley Dying Company beginning in 1907. The November 13, 1920 edition of Fibre and Fabric, a trade publication, lists James B. McDowell as president and J.B. Bennett as treasurer and general manager. A brief notice states that the company added a new machine, and is "quite busy with orders".

The mill complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

in December 2020, due to the now long abandoned structure's dangerously decrepit and collapsing condition and local youth and homeless population continually breaking in, the building was named a public hazard and completely torn down.^[4]