Five of Rhode Island’s historic armories, plus the stable and riding grounds of the Armory of Mounted Commands, were designed by the prolific Providence architectural firm of William R. Walker & Son. The largest of these buildings is Walker’s masterpiece, the great Providence Armory (also known as the Cranston Street Armory). With two headhouses and a 170-by-275-foot drill hall that could easily hold two football fields, the state-owned building has been home to events such as the Governor’s Ball, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, high-school state championship track meets, and National Guard drills so large that part of the parade included trucks. Placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2011 “Most Endangered Properties” list, the building has been looking for its new mission ever since the National Guard moved out in 1996. Walker also designed my beloved Westerly Armory. Built in 1901–02 for $30,000, it replaced a wood-framed
Woonsocket Armory, 1912 Gloucester Light Infantry Armory (Chepachet), c. 1865
Pawtucket Armory, 1894–95 Armory of Mounted Commands (Providence), 1913–14 and 1923–25 Benefit Street Arsenal (Providence), 1839–40
Providence Armory, 1903–07 Armory of the Pawtuxet Rangers (Warwick), 1843
Armory of the Warren Federal Blues, c. 1865 Warren Artillery Armory, 1842
Warwick Kentish Artillery Armory, 1912
Bristol Naval Reserve Armory, 1896 Bristol Train of Artillery Armory, 1842
Varnum Memorial Armory (East Greenwich), 1913 Armory of the Kentish Guards (East Greenwich), 1843
Newport Armory, 1894 Armory of the Artillery Company of Newport, 1835–36
Rodman Hall Armory-Gymnasium (South Kingstown), 1928
Westerly Armory, 1901–02
Dorr Rebellion armory Militia armory Designed by William R. Walker & Son Other
armory that had burned in an ammunition explosion two years earlier. The brick and granite armory was erected in a new location on a triangle of land with Railroad Avenue and Dixon Street on two sides and West Street in the rear. After college, I moved from Westerly north to Warwick, but returned in the early 1990s as a member of a state committee supporting the Guard and Reserve, then headquartered at the armory. When I entered the building, I could see that it was deteriorating and that its wounds had been treated with mere Band-Aids. The National Guard had no money to properly maintain and renovate the building. It was then that I decided to restore the Westerly Armory. One hundred and fifty volunteers came to assist and we began our work with the Guard still in place. Four years later, in 1997, the Fall 2015 Historic New England
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