What to See in East Greenwich - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The New England Wireless and Steam Museum is an electrical and mechanical engineering museum at 1300 Frenchtown Road in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, with working steam engines and an early wireless station and technology archives.

The museum was founded in 1964 under the leadership of Robert Merriam. According to the museum's website, the New England Wireless and Steam Museum contains five buildings:

• One museum building contains the wireless collection.
• The Massie Wireless Station, (PJ), was "built in 1907. It is the oldest surviving working wireless station in the world. It was moved to this site from Point Judith, Rhode Island, in 1982 to avoid demolition."
• Another museum building contains "the stationary steam engine collection. This collection includes the only surviving George H. Corliss engine running under steam today."
• The Mayes building houses the Mechanical Engineering library of historic engineering textbooks and the collection of steam engine models.
• A meeting house built in 1822 is used as the assembly hall for the museum. In 1972, the nearby Frenchtown Baptist Church in East Greenwich was going to demolish its building, so it was moved to this site to save the building. The meeting house is part of the Tillinghast Road Historic District and is available to rent for weddings and other events.

The Museum is situated within the Tillinghast Road Historic District. It was designated an engineering history Landmark in 1992 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2001 the Massie Wireless Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places.^[1]

Courthouse. The Kent County Courthouse, now the East Greenwich Town Hall, is a historic court building at 127 Main Street in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

Kent County was set off from Providence County in 1750. The same year, a courthouse was constructed in East Greenwich, then the largest town in the new county. By 1799 the courthouse was too small, and the state legislature appointed a committee for the construction of a new building. The old building was sold and dismantled, and a new courthouse built on the site in 1804–05. It was designed and built by contractor Oliver Wickes.

Rhode Island had an unusual "rotating legislature" from 1759 to 1901. In order to keep state government local, the legislature occupied each county seat on a rotating schedule. In 1854, only the buildings in Providence and Newport were used. In 1901, when the new Rhode Island State House was first occupied, Providence became the state capitol, and the buildings in Bristol, South Kingstown, and East Greenwich were turned over to the counties.

By the early twentieth century, the courthouse was in need of modernization. In 1908 the Providence architectural firm of William R. Walker & Son was hired to renovate the structure. However, as soon as work had begun, it was revealed that the building's structural integrity had been compromised over the years. The courthouse was gutted and the interior was completely rebuilt in the Colonial Revival manner. The work was completed in 1909.

In 1974, a new courthouse was built in Warwick. The building in East Greenwich was repurposed as the East Greenwich Town Hall, replacing the old shingle-style town hall, formerly a block north on Main Street. The probate court continues to meet in the building, making it the oldest active courthouse in the state.^[2]

East Greenwich Historic District is a historic district encompassing the historic commercial and civic heart of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, United States. The district bounded on the east by Greenwich Cove, an inlet on Narrangansett Bay, on the south by London and Spring Streets, on the west roughly by Park Street, and on the north by Division Street. The district extends westward on Division Street as far Dark Entry Brook, and the district properties on its north side now lie in the city of Warwick. East Greenwich was settled in 1677 with its town center growing in the district, with a rural farm landscape to the west. The area's road network had begun to take shape by the mid-18th century, and the town center was industrialized in the 19th century.

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It includes several separately-listed properties: the Windmill Cottage at 144 Division Street, the Kent County Courthouse, the Gen. James Mitchell Varnum House, the Armory of the Kentish Guards, and the Col. Micah Whitmarsh House.^[3]

Building in East Greenwich. The Clement Weaver–Daniel Howland House is a historic stone-ender timber frame house built in 1679. This rare example of primitive 17th-century architecture is located at 125 Howland Road in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It is the oldest documented dwelling house in Kent County and the second oldest home in Rhode Island.

Clement Weaver, a native of Newport, Rhode Island, built the house in 1679, after fighting in King Philip's War. His descendants sold the house to Daniel Howland in 1748. Daniel Howland was a grandchild of Henry Howland, who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1624. Henry was the younger brother of John Howland, one of the original Mayflower Pilgrims of 1620.

The house was included in the Historic American Buildings Survey, the first national preservation program, begun in 1933 to document America's architectural heritage. Several years later, Norman Isham, a prominent architect and professor at Brown University, began a comprehensive restoration of the house.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.^[5]

Building in East Greenwich. The Spencer–Shippee–Lillbridge House, also known as the Crossways Farm and Walnut Brook Farm, is a historic farmstead at 12 Middle Road in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The main house is a 2+1⁄2-story timber-frame structure, five bays wide and three bays deep, whose construction date is traditionally given as 1772. There is, however, architectural evidence that it may be older. The building has a small 19th century addition, whose purpose was to provide a staircase for hired farmhands to reach the attic, where their living space was. The downstairs spaces have retained much of their original Georgian fabric, although a pantry space has been converted into a modern kitchen. There are five outbuildings on the 1.3-acre property, including a 19th-century wagon shed and horse barn. The house, once the centerpiece of a 225-acre farm, was held by members of the interrelated Spencer, Shippee, and Lillbridge families from its inception until 2001.

The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.^[6]

The Richard Briggs Farm is a historic farm at 830 South Road in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. The 72-acre farm, established in 1704 by Richard Briggs on land given to him by his father, who had acquired it in the 1670s. The farm is one of the oldest in the town, and is one of its few remaining farms that is still largely intact. Construction of the core of the main house, a 2-1/2 story timber frame structure with a large central chimney, was traditionally ascribed to Briggs, but architectural evidence suggests it was built c. 1735–55, probably by Briggs' son John after his father's death. This structure has had two major additions, an ell to the west built c. 1820–50, and a northern ell built in the 1930s and further extended in following decades. The property includes a barn which may be contemporaneous to the original house.

The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.^[8]