The Sabin Tavern, built in 1763, was a popularly hostelry owing to the fact that is was located directly opposite the Fenner's Wharf, from which a packet ship plied the waters between Providence and Newport on a daily basis. It was in the South-East room of this tavern on the evening of June 9, 1772, Rhode Island patriots met and made plans to burn the British revenue schooner H.M.S. Gaspee. The patriots even cast their bullets in the tavern. It was from across the Main Street at Fenner's Wharf that the brave men from Providence departed in their longboats to attack the Gaspee.
The site of the Sabin Tavern was originally part of the 1640 grant
to
William Burrows. According to An Address by Edward
Field entitled "A
Night at Sabin's Tavern", Sabin's tavern was the former home of
Captain
Woodbury Morris, mariner, he having purchased the estate from Joseph
Whipple, 13 Jun 1757 for ₤1200 and built the house soon after. Seven
years later Captain Morris, while
on a voyage to sea, died on the coast of Africa. On the second day of
December,
1765, Mary Morris, the captain's widow, wrote in a little memorandum
book,
wherein her husband had formerly kept his accounts, and which she had
continued
to use: "Then Mr. Sabin moved into my house. From this time until
December,
1773, James Sabin lived here, and catered to the wants of man and
beast,
but on this date he purchased a tract of land on the west side of the
river,
near the Great Bridge, about where the Merchants Bank Building now
stands,
and left the tavern." James
Sabin took the name with him and reestablished the the Sabin Tavern
nearer Market Square.
The house was then purchased in 1785 by Welcome
Arnold, a distinguished merchant of Providence, whose first house
still
stands further up on Planet Street. He made many additions to the
structure,
and occupied it as his residence until his death in 1798. It remained
in
the Arnold family for more than a hundred years. During their occupancy
of the house, the room wherein the 'Gaspee' party met was used as a
dining
room, and there, on the wall, hung, for many years, an account of the
affair,
prepared by Colonel Ephraim
Bowen,
the last survivor of the party, and engrossed by the hand of his
daughter. Welcome Arnold passed the ex-tavern onto his eldest son,
Samuel Greene
Arnold, who then passed it on to Samuel's younger brother Colonel
Richard
James Arnold, for which it was used as his personal residence in the
1830s.
According to an article appearing in the Newsletter of the Warwick Historical
Society, May 1990,
Over time the river front was filled in and what is now Water Street was created, in effect moving South Main Street one block further away from the Woonasquatucket River that was central to the town. Fenner's Wharf most likely lied below what is now The Packet Building at 155 South Main Street. In 1772 there was probably one Main Street which only later was differentiated into North and South Main Street based on their directions from the city center at Market House. The Sabin Tavern lot adjoined that of the later Abial Brown House on Planet Street. Abial Brown was also one of the known participants in the attack. Circa 1780 Welcome Arnold also had another house built that still exists on the other side of the where the Abial Brown House once stood.
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| Left: Sabin Tavern. The South-East Room, where the Gaspee Raiders met, can be seen behind the tree on the right side of the picture. Providence Public Library Collection wc 688.1 | Right: Colorized postcard of Sabin Tavern photo. Providence Public Library collection pc7142. Pictures taken of the of what is purported to be the Sabin Tavern show a Victorian style mansion that had been extensively renovated since the times of the Revolution. |
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| Left: The Gaspee House incorporated the original room from the old Sabin Tavern as an attachment, seen on the left. - Providence Public Library Collection pc 7180 | Right: The Gaspee Room (2001) as currently located at 209 Williams Street is now a condominium. |
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| Left: Rear and side view of the Gaspee Room, 209 Williams Street. This is the original room of the Sabin Tavern in which patriots plotted the destruction of the Gaspee in 1772 | Right: Old photograph of the interior of the Gaspee Room, now part of the Mary Arnold Talbot house - Providence Public Library Collection gc 2653 |
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Left: At the World's Columbian
Exposition of 1893 which took place in
Chicago,
the Rhode Island exhibition displayed the fireplace and marble mantel,
taken from the old Sabin Tavern. Its current whereabouts are
uncertain,
but may still exist in the Gaspee Room. Ref: <http://columbus.iit.edu/dreamcity/00044061.html>
Note the different mirror above the mantle in this view as apposed to
the one seen in the entire room view. |
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Left: Commemorative plaque on
outside of the
Gaspee Room, 209 Williams Street, Providence.
Text Reads: HISTORIC GASPEE ROOM TAKEN FROM THE GASPEE HOUSE SOUTH MAIN STREET IN 1891 AND MOVED TO THIS LOCATION IT WAS IN THIS ROOM ON JUNE 9, 1772 OWNED AND PRESERVED BY GASPEE CHAPTER |
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| Left: Sabin Tavern Door installed into wall of the Pawtuxet Rangers Armory. | Right: Commemorative plaque. |
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------------------------ UPON THIS CORNER STOOD THE SABIN TAVERN IN WHICH ON THE EVENING OF JUNE 9TH 1772 THE PARTY MET AND ORGANIZED TO DESTROY H.R.M SCHOONER GASPEE IN THE DESTRUCTION OF WHICH WAS SHED THE FIRST BLOOD IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION |
| Left: Slate memorial tablet from the site, but currently installed in a private Pawtuxet home. | Right: Wording of plaque as displayed on left. |
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| Left: Present, restored
marker for
the Sabin Tavern site. Wording is kept exactly as original. |
Right: Present (2004) Sabin Tavern memorial granite marker in parking lot of Partridge, Snow, & Hahn law firm at 180 South Main Street. |