Gov. William Sprague Mansion | |
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| Location | Cranston, Rhode Island |
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| Coordinates | 41°47′28″N71°27′24″W / 41.79111°N 71.45667°W |
| Built | 1790 |
| NRHP reference No. | 71000002 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 18, 1971 |
The Governor William Sprague Mansion is an historic mansion and museum at 1351 Cranston Street in Cranston, Rhode Island. The house was the birthplace of Governor William Sprague III and his nephew, Governor William Sprague IV.
Three generations of the Sprague family lived in the house. The Spragues were founders of the Sprague Print Works in 1808, which later became the Cranston Print Works, which is the only continuously operating textile printing company in America. At the time of the Civil War, the A. & W. Sprague Company was the richest textile company in the United States, [2] and William Sprague IV was the Governor of Rhode Island. [3] William IV fought in the First Battle of Bull Run while he was a sitting Governor. [4]
The house was built around 1790. It was expanded significantly in 1864 by Col. Amasa Sprague. He added a wide hall and wide, winding staircase, for the purpose of entertaining his social contacts from financial, political, and social circles. [5]
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Currently the house is owned and operated by The Cranston Historical Society, a private, non-profit educational and historic preservation organization. [5]
The Cranston Historical Society and Rhode Island National Guard underwent a years-long dispute about ownership of two cannons used by Governor William Sprague IV's regiment during the Civil War. [3] The national guard claimed that ownership of artillery pieces returned to the federal government after the war; the historical society maintained that Sprague had purchased them outright, and were his personal property. [3]
The cannons, manufactured in the 1840s, were used by Sprague's regiment during the Civil War. [3] They were displayed at Cranston's Rolfe Square from 1924 to 1991, and removed because the wooden carriages were beginning to rot from exposure to the weather. [6] [3] The cannons were placed in the Sprague Mansion carriage house from 2005 to April 2017 when they were removed for restoration. [6] [3] In 2017, the sides agreed to return the cannons to the Sprague Mansion carriage house, while still leaving the question of ownership unsettled. [3] Cranston mayor Allan Fung attended the ceremony to unveil the restored cannons on October 31, 2017. [3]
Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island is located in Cranston. Cranston is a part of the Providence metropolitan area.
William Sprague IV was the 27th and youngest Governor of Rhode Island at 29 when he answered office from 1860 to 1863, and U.S. Senator from 1863 to 1875. He participated in the First Battle of Bull Run during the American Civil War while he was a sitting Governor.
William Sprague, also known as William III or William Sprague III, was a politician and industrialist from the U.S. state of Rhode Island, serving as the 14th Governor, a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator. He was the uncle of William Sprague IV, also a Governor and Senator from Rhode Island.
Swan Point Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Established in 1846 on a 60-acre (0.24 km2) plot of land, it has approximately 40,000 interments.
The Governor Henry Lippitt House is a historic house museum at 199 Hope Street on the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island. A National Historic Landmark, it is one of the finest Italianate mansion houses in the state, and considered one of the best-preserved examples of Victorian-era houses in the United States. It is notable for its association with Henry Lippitt (1818–91), a wealthy textile magnate who was the 33rd Governor of Rhode Island. The house is owned by Preserve Rhode Island, and is open to the public for tours seasonally or by appointment.
Seth Padelford was the 31st Governor of Rhode Island from 1869 to 1873.
John Cranston (1625–1680) was a colonial physician, military leader, legislator, deputy governor and governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the 17th century.
The Thomas Fenner House or the "Sam Joy Place" is a historic stone-ender house in Cranston, Rhode Island. It the oldest surviving house in the Providence Plantations portion of Rhode Island. The only older structure in the state is the White Horse Tavern in Newport. The house was built as a farmhouse in 1677 after King Philip's War by Captain Arthur Fenner for his son Major Thomas Fenner. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The House is available for short stays by those interested in the historical and architectural significance of the property. It also is made available to educational groups to visit and study.
Buttonwood Beach Historic District is a historic district bounded by Brush Neck Cove, Greenwich Bay, Cooper and Promenade Avenues in Warwick, Rhode Island. Buttonwood Beach is a bucolic neighborhood on the eastern limb of the Nausauket neck, located in the West Bay area of Warwick, Rhode Island. Buttonwoods is delimited by Nausauket and Apponaug to the west, Buttonwoods Cove to the north, Greenwich Bay to the south and Oakland Beach to the east. Buttonwood Beach was founded as a summer colony in 1871 by the Rev. Moses Bixby of Providence's Cranston Street Baptist Church, who was looking for a place to establish a summer colony by the shore for his congregation. He envisioned a community that would be similar to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, where the Methodists established a summer campground in 1835. Today, this coastal neighborhood on Greenwich Bay is home to people from many different religious backgrounds.
The Knight Estate is a historic estate in Warwick, Rhode Island, that is home to the Knight Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island. Developed as a country estate for a family of industrialists and later donated to the state, the main house and its outbuildings were listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Market Square is a market square in Providence, Rhode Island. It is located at the intersection of present-day North Main Street and College Street at the base of College Hill. Market Square has historically functioned as a commercial, civic, and cultural locus of Providence.
The Broadway–Armory Historic District is a historic district encompassing a mainly residential mixed-used urban area west of downtown Providence, Rhode Island.
John Gordon was the last person executed by Rhode Island. His conviction and execution have been ascribed by researchers to anti-Roman Catholic and anti-Irish immigrant bias. As a result, he was posthumously pardoned in 2011.
The Cranston Street Armory is an historic building in the Broadway–Armory Historic District of Providence, Rhode Island. It was built in 1907 at a cost of $650,000.00. The building was occupied by the Rhode Island National Guard from its opening until 1996. Since then, parts of the building have been used as film studios, and some of its offices occupied by the Rhode Island State Fire Marshal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the Armory as one of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places" in its annual list for 1997. Its distinctive yellow bricks, crenellated turrets, and decorative stonework mark it as a historically significant building and neighborhood icon.
Sprague House may refer to:
Christopher Lippitt was a prominent Revolutionary War officer and founder one of the earliest textile mills in Rhode Island.
Narragansett Park was an American horse and motor racing venue in Cranston, Rhode Island.
Amasa Sprague was an American businessman and politician from Rhode Island. Born into an influential family, Sprague was a multi-millionaire textile industrialist until the Panic of 1873. He held various political offices in Rhode Island and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Rhode Island in the 1886 election.
Amasa Sprague was an American businessman and politician from Rhode Island. He co-founded the A & W Sprague textile firm with his brother William Sprague III. He was murdered on New Year's Eve, 1843.
The Sprague family is an American business and political family in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The family ran the largest textile firm in the United States and two of its members held the offices of Governor of Rhode Island and United States Senator.
changes were made in the 1864 by Col. Amasa Sprague when he upgraded the house
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