Roger Williams national Memorial

Roger Williams National Memorial successfully combines the historic features of its site while providing a downtown soft-landscape for modern day uses. The park provides a setting for passive recreation as well as interpretive and cultural activities. It is a place of quiet and repose in its context and it also brings to life the history of Roger Williams and the early settlers of Providence for visitors of all ages. Sited on a 4½ acre parcel in downtown Providence, the Memorial contains two historic elements: the Roger Williams Spring- where the original settlers of Providence found a pure source of fresh water- and the Gabriel Bernon Memorial Grove, a lovely shaded area where the founder of the Anglican Church of Providence resided. The design gracefully incorporates the historic elements of the site with the present day needs of Providence- Rhode Island’s “livable city”.

The design for the Memorial park recognizes many off-site influences. In clear view of the McKim, Mead and White designed State Capitol Building, the Park walkways were located to provide vistas of the building for the user. Directly across North Main Street at the southern end of the Park is the Old State House, the seat of the early Colonial Government. An elm tree allee (known as “The Parade”) leads up to the building from North Main Street. The site design for the park recognizes its significance by continuing the line of trees across the street into the park, thus serving the dual purpose of linking the site in its context and focusing the park user to the Old State House.

Awards:

American Society of Landscape Architects, Rhode Island Chapter – President’s Award for Design Excellence