Rhode Island Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

Looking for Rhode Island trivia? Try our list Rhode Island little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

—Named for its mile-long face of veined granite quartz, Diamond Hill, formerly a ski area, is located in Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland (pop. 31,840).

first appeared: 1/11/2009

—In 1915, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to take 14,800 acres of land in Scituate (pop. 10,324)—more than a third of the town’s land area—to create a reservoir to supply water to greater Providence. The project resulted in the loss of 1,195 buildings, including houses, schools, churches and mills, an electric railway system and dairy farms.

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—The most expensive piece of American-made furniture ever sold was an 18th-century desk-bookcase, made for Providence merchant Nicholas Brown. It was sold by the Brown family in 1989 for $12.1 million, a record for a piece of American furniture at auction.

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—Founded in 1896 and headquartered in a historic boathouse in Slater Park in Pawtucket, the Rhode Island Watercolor Society is one of the oldest watercolor organizations in the nation. Within the boathouse is a permanent gallery that displays the paintings of local and regional artists, and classroom space on the lower level.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—Although only 1.2 miles in length, Benefit Street in Providence, commonly called the “Mile of History,” is rich in architecture of the Colonial and Victorian eras. The street includes historic homes, churches, museums and a subscription library.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—A former Catholic Sister of Mercy, Arlene Violet became the first female state attorney general in 1982. Since then, Violet has hosted a radio talk show in Providence and collaborated on a play.

first appeared: 10/19/2008

—The uniform of the Rhode Island State Police captured a best-dressed award from the National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors (NAUMD) in 1986, prompting David Letterman to invite six troopers to appear on his show. In 2005, NAUMD presented the state police with an 80th Anniversary Commemorative Uniform Award.

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—The 1761 Milestone in Woonsocket (pop. 43,224), situated at 640 South Maine Street, marked the miles on part of an old highway system from Boston to the Connecticut colonies. The marker was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—Born in Newport (pop. 26,475) in 1882, Thomas H. Ince was an actor, director and producer of silent films. He is credited with many of the practices of modern-day movie production, such as a shooting script and a production schedule.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—Big Nazo, an international performance group of visual artists, puppet performers and masked musicians, creates unusual and larger-than-life-size characters for parades, international festivals, schools and other productions. The lab in which these creations are made is located in downtown Providence.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—Naragansett Indian Tribe member Ellison Myers “Tarzan” Brown, a Westerly (pop. 22,966) native also known as Deerfoot, was a two-time Boston Marathon winner in 1936 and 1939.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—Drum Rock, deposited by an ancient retreating glacier in what is now Apponaug, a village of Warwick, balanced on two points that allowed the rock to move if there was sufficient wind and to make a deep booming sound. The reverberating rock was moved in the 1950s and now is silent.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—The Rhode Island School of Design, an art and design institution in Providence, has more than 80,000 works in its museum collection. Items date from ancient Greece and China to the modern age.

first appeared: 7/13/2008

—Operated by volunteers, the Stone Soup Coffeehouse, in its 27th season, presents folk music artists at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pawtucket on Saturdays September through May.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—Jamestown (pop. 5,622), a small island that sits in the middle of Narragansett Bay, originally was called Conanicut Island after Narragansett Indian Chief Conanicus. The tribe used the island as a burial site.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—The Providence-based hockey franchise, the Rhode Island Reds, came to the city in 1926. The team won its first Canadian-American Hockey League championship in 1930, and also claimed league titles in 1932, 1934 and 1938.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—Irving R. Levine, an NBC news correspondent whose career spanned more than 35 years, was a native of Pawtucket. His assignments took him from covering the Korean War to the era of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev; and to Italy where he reported on events ranging from the Vatican to the Middle East and Africa. As part of his political and financial coverage, he also traveled with Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton to the annual G-7 Economic Summit meetings.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—Newport (pop. 26,475) was a center of pirate activity during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Perhaps the most notorious pirate based out of the town was Thomas Tew, who was so popular with locals that crowds turned out to greet him after one of his pirating excursions.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—A popular children’s author and Newbery Award winner known as Avi has written works such as Something Upstairs and Finding Providence: The Story of Roger Williams. He lived in Providence for several years in the 1980s and 1990s.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—Labor union official Leonard Woodcock was born in Providence in 1911. He succeeded Walter Reuther as president of the United Automobile Workers Union in 1970 after Reuther died in a plane crash. He served in that post until 1977.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

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