East Providence Scout House

also known as District 6 Schoolhouse

A former schoolhouse that has been constantly in use by the Girl Scouts of America, East Providence Troops

About this Property

Current Events

This local landmark building is an example of the “little red schoolhouse” that doesn’t exist much anymore. Luckily, this one is in constant use as the central meeting place for the East Providence Girl Scouts. While the city maintains ownership (the Scouts do not pay property taxes), the Scouts maintain the building, pay utilities, and raise funds for large renovation or maintenance projects like replacing the roof. Each spring around Earth Day the kids clean up the grounds, replace the mulch, and maintain the plantings.

History

National Register Nomination Form, November 1980

The District 6 Schoolhouse, more commonly known today as the Riverside Girl Scout House, is located on a small, grassy lot in a suburban neighborhood of nineteenth- and twentieth-century dwellings. Built between 1864 and 1874, it is a one-and-one-half-story, gable-roofed, rectangular frame structure on a stone foundation, oriented narrow end to street. The main (east) facade contains two doorways with gabled hoods supported by gently curved braces and a double-arched window in the gable above. Each side has three very large six-over-six double-hung windows with shallow, gabled, bracketed hoods. Exterior walls are sheathed with clapboards. The interior has been totally altered for contemporary use as a meeting hall and is of no historical or architectural interest.

The District 6 Schoolhouse is architecturally and historically significant. It is the earliest school building in East Providence to survive in recognizable form and is the only extant local example of a once-common structural type: the double-entry one-room Schoolhouse. It is also an important artifact reflecting the expansion and development of civic institutions in this case public education to meet the needs of a growing community with an increasing population.