PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island will receive $750,000 to preserve the Old State House building on Benefit Street, the current home of the R.I. Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission and one of six surviving Colonial-era statehouses in the country.
Supported by a “Semiquincentennial Grant” from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the U.S. National Park Service, Department of the Interior, the funding is aimed to help states prepare for July 2026 commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Rhode Island is one of 20 such projects in 14 states that received funding in 2023.
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The state plans to use the funding for restoration work on the building’s interior including plaster repair, painting and flooring. Parade restoration will include the ashlar retaining wall, brownstone stairs, wrought-iron fence and cobblestone-lined gutters, according to an announcement Wednesday by the heritage commission.
Funds will also support research initiatives preservation officials say could yield new information about the building’s construction. The project is expected to be completed by fall 2025.
RIHPHC Executive Director Jeffrey Emidy said Wednesday the federal grant, in conjunction with ongoing state support, demonstrates “a wide-ranging commitment to preserving the Old State House and Parade” and will prepare the site for planned events commemorating the Semiquincentennial.
U.S. Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and helped secure the funding, said it will compliment “continued state restoration investments in saving this historic, architectural, and cultural gem.”
“As the nation gears up to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, it is important that we preserve our past,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the funding will ensure the Old State House and Parade “can be restored to its former glory and enjoyed for generations of Rhode Islanders to come.”
Modeled after the Newport Colony House and completed in 1762, the Old State played a pivotal role in the political life of Rhode Island for more than 260 years, according to the RIHPHC. It was where the colony’s General Assembly in 1776 renounced its allegiance to King George III, two months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Parade was an important gathering place and was the site of visits from historical figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the French revolutionary and Continental Army volunteer Marquis de Lafayette in 1824.
The Georgian style brick and brownstone building on College Hill was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. After the current State House opened in 1901, the Old State House served as the state’s 6th District Court until the 1970s.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
