Scituate - Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage ...

valleys which were flooded, the Joslins built a large rural estate
#49, one of the most elaborate local residential developments of
the early twentieth century in this part of the state, near the
summit of Field Hill.
Automobiles and Roads -
The Scituate Reservoir project, however, although resulting in
considerable loss of villages, buildings and land, did not impede
certain phases of local development. During the early years of the
twentieth century, other changes were taking place within and outside
of the town which would affect, it, particularly the increased use of
the automobile and resulting highway projects. Providence and other
nearby centers of population, commerce,and industry were within
easy driving distance of Scituate; and city dwellers, in turn, dis
covered the charm of Scituate’s rural atmosphere. In the l920s, the
Victory Highway was created as an important link in a belt highway
system around Providence. Running through the western part of town,
it incorporated existing Chopmist Hill Road and Plainfield Pike.
Several east-west highways were improved; a new road was constructed
between Danielson Pike and Crazy Corner; and East Road, the Hope-North
Scituate Road, was also reconstructed in the twenties. A concretearch
Bridge #2D, built in 1929-1930 over the North Branch of the
Pawtuxet River-at Hope, and a small, former gasoline station and store
#111 on Plainfield Pike are associated with the early twentieth
ceittury highway era.
North Scituate Village
Although the western part of North Sc-ituate was lost to the
- reservoir, and there was no longer any industry in the village, North
Scituate experienced a revitalization in the 1920s. A building at
the west end of the village was converted for use as town offices when
the town clerk’s office in Richmond was lost to the reservoir project.
A four-room brick school, built on Church Street, was said to have
been the first public building erected in North Scituate in one
hundred years. Also added were a public library and store, and in
the eastern part of the village houses sprang up. In the first years
of the twenteith century, the former Smithville Seminary became the
home of the Pentacostal Collegiate Institute. Acquired by the Reverend -
William S. Holland in 1920, the former seminary became a day camp and
trade school for Black children and eventually housed the Watchman
Industrial School. Later, a series of fires and other difficulties
caused the discontinuance of the school; today it is vacant. The Old
Academy School which ceased its school function, was converted for
community use. Long unused for regular services, the Congregational
Church was deeded to the town in 1940. for religious and historical
meetings and other uses. St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church was built
in 1938-1940 at the intersection of West Greenville Road and Danielson
Pike on the site of the Old Phillip’s Tavern. The new church building
-18-