Rhode Island In Review

Rhode Island was founded in 1636 by the Puritan preacher & friend to the Indians, Roger Williams.

The Roger Williams monument overlooks the city he founded.

  While he lived in Massachusetts, colonists were not allowed to attend any church other than the Puritan church & couldn't even vote unless they were members of that church.  But Williams had radically different ideas.  He believed that people were saved by faith alone -not church affiliation- and that the Indians should be treated fairly.  Having threatened to send him back to England for his opposition, Roger Williams escaped Massachusetts.  The Narragansett deeded him land for a colony at the headwaters of Narragansett Bay.  He named the place Providence, in recognition of "God's merciful Providence unto me in my distress."  Here people would find complete freedom of religion, and his ideas would later be expressed in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.  We viewed the location where he & the early colonists lived.

We also visited the First Baptist Church in America which Williams founded in 1638.

Before leaving Providence we also toured the beautiful Rhode Island State Capitol where we saw amazing documents.  Safely kept in a large steel vault was a handwritten original of the Declaration of Thirteen States that was given to each of the original colonies and the Royal Charter of 1663, given by King Charles II of England to guarantee the Rhode Island settlers the freedom to govern their own colony.

"To hold forth a lively experiment that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained with full liberty in religious concernments"

One of our Providence days was dark & rainy, so the girls & I stayed in for a study day while Jim took the day to tour some war ships...

View of the nuclear power plant from the shipyard.  Sort of erie with the low clouds. 

The U.S.S. Massachusetts is a highly decorated battleship used in WWII.

These guns are huge.  The pictures don't do them justice.  They must have been 30 feet long.

The U.S.S. Massachusetts now sits mothballed and obsolete because of our current high-tech naval fleet. 

This is a sleeping area for a torpedo man aboard a submarine.  Notice the torpedo right below the bunk.  The other sailors would sleep 12-20 in a room piled four high.  How would you like to live like that for six months or more at a time.  We should always remember our soldiers for their sacrifices.  Many we are not aware of. 

We then moved our home to the "island" part of Rhode Island and visited Newport.  A gorgeous area, Newport is home to stunning coastal scenery, amazing architecture & Gilded Age mansions.  We toured 2 Vanderbilt summer homes and one mansion that belonged to Doris Duke.
The Marble House was built in the late 1800's at a cost of $11 million, of which $7 million was spent on 500,000 cubic feet of marble.  Rough Point held an extensive collection of French furniture, European art, Chinese porcelains & Turkish carpets.  The grandest abode, The Breakers, was a magnificent & elaborate 70 room Italian Renaissance-style home that cost nearly $12 million to construct in 1895 (an estimated $310 million in today's dollars!)
Sadly, no interior photos were allowed:(

A walk along the Cliff Walk gave us beautiful views of the Newport shoreline and peaks of the gorgeous mansions along the path.

This sign made us laugh:)

A tiny but beautiful place,  the Ocean State Rhode Island (especially Newport) is on our list of places to return for a longer visit someday.

A) Providence, RI

B) Newport, RI

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