Franklin Mile Markers, again

This marker is about a half-mile closer to Providence, on the grounds of the old Dexter House at the corner of North Main and Rochambeau.

Franklin Mile Markers

I'm researching this stone, which stands on the tip of a traffic island on North Main Street, near the Pawtucket line. I think it may be one of the mile markers that were placed along the Boston Post Road in the mid-eighteenth century under the aegis of Ben Franklin, postmaster general. I'll be back with more pictures, but I'm told that there's another one about a half-mile west on North Main.


I understand that quite a few of these stones, sometimes called Franklin Mile Markers, still stand along the old routes of the upper and lower Post Roads in Massachusetts, RI, Connecticut and New York. They were notable landmarks in their day--any tavern near a "milestone" attracted more patrons. This one would have been on the outskirts of town, beyond the burial ground and the gaol. It's on a busy street, between a restaurant and an underground bowling alley (now that's another story)--I worry that an SUV driven by someone talking on a cell phone will knock it over. But I guess it's come THIS far...

Blackstone Canal, Providence, RI

These are photos of what remains of the downtown Providence end of the Blackstone Canal. The Canal was begun in 1825 and opened in 1828, connecting Providence to Worcester, Massachusetts. The timing was unfortunate--the Providence and Worcester Railroad was built in 1847, and the Canal was soon abandoned.

These views represent what's left of a later version of this stretch of the abandoned canal. By the late nineteenth century meat plants were located here, dumping their offal into the waters which carried it--along with other industrial waste--into the Cove Basin. Soon the pollution would force the city to landfill what remained of the Great Salt Cove.

Here's a website with pictures and information about the section of canal in South Grafton, Mass.

Bits of the past

What I'd like to do here is look at what remains of the past within the modern city. I'm not as interested in the preserved past as I am in what's left over, what persists despite the "progress" around it. So from time to time I'll post pictures of spots in Providence, Rhode Island, that, to me, create a real dimension in the landscape. Providence is loaded with breathtaking eighteenth and nineteenth century architecture, and some might claim that such preservation represents a manipulated vision of the past. I like some decay, some messiness.