Historic and Architectural Resources of Block Island, Rhode Island, 1991

From introduction: "This study encompasses the historic and architectural resources of Block Island. It is based on fieldwork and research conducted over many years by several individuals and organizations. In 1985, Gerald F. Abbott, Robert Downie, and Judith Watts initiated and completed an island-wide survey of historic buildings, sponsored and funded by the Block Island Historical Society. This survey produced unusually extensive documentary research on Block Island’s historic structures and a remarkable photographic record as well, which are being compiled for a forthcoming book, All later efforts in survey and evaluation of Block Island’s historic buildings, including this one, have relied heavily on the information and images of the Block Island Historical Society’s survey. In 1987 a survey of the town’s buildings, structures, sites, and objects was conducted by Everett Associates under a Certified Local Government grant to the town by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. The first draft of the survey report, prepared in 1988, was revised to produce this publication. Survey research involved extensive use of primary and secondary sources. Maps and atlases, town plats, deed records, newspaper accounts, and genealogical records--both singly and collectively--helped to document the history of properties on the island. The information and historical research for individual buildings collected for the Block Island Historical Society by Robert Downie proved invaluable in the preparation of both the historical overview and the inventory of historic resources. This report begins with an overview of the town’s physical setting in the first section. A short, illustrated account of Block Island’s historical development follows in the second section. The third section contains a list of properties already listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places and a discussion of additional properties which may be eligible. The fourth section is a selective inventory of historic properties chosen to represent important or typical facets of the town’s historical or architectural development. Though a relatively small number of properties are discussed directly in the report, the survey data sheets for all properties are kept on file at the office of the Historical Preservation Commission, 150 Benefit Street, Providence, and are available for reference. Archeological sites which document the long history of Native Americans on Block Island before the beginnings of white settlement are essential components of Block Island’s historic resources. The prehistoric archeological record of Block Island is extraordinarily rich and very significant. It is not, however, treated in this report, whose scope is limited to the period following white settlement." Funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant administered by the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation Office and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Historic and Architectural Resources of Block Island, Rhode Island, 1991

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