Robert H. I. Goddard Stable

About this Property

#Redevelopment

While much is known about the Goddard family, not much is known about “Hopeton House” at 160 Hope Street, the large estate that once stood at the corner of Governor Street in Providence. This stable is all that is left of that estate.

Built in 1885, this handsome stable building facing Benevolent Street was used as a Club House in the 1950s for a local theatre company (possibly affiliated with Brown University). Hopeton House was razed by 1937 (see Maps). A yellowed newspaper clipping in the John Hutchinson Cady Research Scrapbooks collection gives us a blurry glimpse of what this large home looked like

About Colonel Robert H. I. Goddard

Colonel Robert Hale Ives Goddard (1837–1916) was a Brown University graduate in 1858 and enlisted in the Civil War with an exemplary record, taking part in the first Battle of Bull Run, and later serving as an aide to General Ambrose Burnside.

After the war, Colonel Goddard became president of Goddard Brothers, the managing agents of the firm of Brown and Ives, a land ownership and shipping business with a founding date of 1769.¹ The company had mills in Blackstone, Massachusetts and in Smithfield and Warwick, Rhode Island, with holdings including the Ann & Hope Mill in Lonsdale. The deaths of his cousins, the Ives brothers, left the Goddards in charge of the family business enterprises.

Colonel Goddard served in the state Senate as an independent, was a leader in the burgeoning Progressive movement, and ran but lost as a Democrat for another state senate seat later in life. In 2009 he was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame (where much of this information was sourced).

In 1927, two of the Colonel’s children gave one of the family estates to the State of Rhode Island to be a park in memorarium. Nearly 490 acres of land on Ives Road in the Potowomut section of Warwick along with a 33-room mansion known as “The Oaks” opened in 1930 as Goddard Memorial Park.²

Less is known about the Colonel’s sons who carry on his namesake — Robert Hale Ives Goddard Sr. (1880–1959) and Dr. Robert Hale Ives Goddard (1909–2003) — though Doctor Goddard is known as the father of modern rocketry.³

#Current Events

The former stable has been a private home for many years. It has not been on the market for long enough that the usual real estate sites do not have any photos of the interior.

#History

From the College Hill Historic District nomination form, Edward F. Sanderson & Keith N. Morgan, January 1976

Robert H. I. Goddard stable, c.1885. 2 1/2 stories; brick; hip roof with large off-center gable; ellipti­cal attic light; cupola; rusticated brownstone quoining, window, and entrance surrounds.

Caption on the John Hutchins Cady Research Scrapbooks Collection photo

Stable erected c. 1885 at the rear of Hopeton House, Robert H. I. Goddard’s estate at 160 Hope Street. (The house has been razed). The stable has been altered for the use of Twelfth Night. Photo 1948.

Maps

• 1900 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 119 (page 32) — The stable is labeled as a 2 1/2 story brick (pink) building with a few small wooden (yellow) outbuildings. The large Hopeton House occupies the northeastern corner of George and Hope Streets while the southeastern corner of Hope and Benevolent is empty.
• 1920–1921 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 21 (page 28) — Much the same as the 1900 map but with slightly different labels.
• 1926–1927 G.M. Hopkins Insurance Map, Plate 19 — Much the same as the 1921 map but for the newer homes to the north and east of the stable (circled in red).
• 1937 G.M. Hopkins Insurance Map, Plate 19 — While the stable remains the same, the shape of the Hopeton House in the northeast corner of the block has changed enough that we think this is a newer home. This would place the demolition of the Hopeton House between 1927 and 1937.
• 1920–1951 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 21 (page 28) — The stable is now labelled “Club Ho.” for club house and says “Fr. Gables” (fr. for “former”) under that. The large Hopeton House is gone and a new brick dwelling is in its place. Another new dwelling is in place on the southwestern corner.