Samuel John Abrams House

A small colonial house along Meeting St with ties to the Civil War’s “Colored” infantry and African American’s fight for equal education rights in the state

About this Property

Reason for Demolition

This modest, one and a half story home clad in what looks to be asphalt shingles may not have looked it when the photo was taken, but it was a 150 year old piece of history which has almost gone forgotten. Through a fascinating Providence Preservation Society article, staff uncovered the history of a family that lived there for almost 100 years.

The article is reprinted below for archival purposes and because the story needs wider recognition and distribution. It details the life of Samuel John and Henrietta Abrams. Born in Pennsylvania, he moved to Rhode Island as an adult in the 1870s. Samuel was a Sergeant in the Civil War as part of the 127th US Colored Infantry Regiment. In 1882 he married Henrietta Elizabeth Jefferson, an alumna of the Meeting Street School, which at that time was a school for African American children.

Henrietta grew up just a few houses down with her widowed mother. In 1862, 11-year-old Henrietta signed a petition for equal school rights — a high level of civic engagement for someone that age. Her mother died when Henrietta was still a teenager, leaving her an income-producing rental property. She supplemented that income as a domestic servant in the household of Stephen A. Cooke, who was the assistant city solicitor of Providence.

Samuel and Henrietta purchased the home in 1894, becoming one of the few Black homeowners in the area. The Abrams family included eight children, and one of whom, Mabel, who lived in the home until 1992. Read the full account on this page or visit the Providence Preservation Society’s article, The Last Trace of a Vanished Neighborhood.

Current Events

The location — behind the Avon Cinema along Meeting Street heading towards Brown Street — is the site of a parking lot.

History

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

Jackson House, c. 1850. 1-1/2 stories; flank gable; asphalt shingle; cottage with entrance on west side.


Maps

  • 1875 G.M. Hopkins Volume 1, Plate L — In the center of our sample image is a plat labeled “RE Jackson” at 113 Meeting Street. The structure occupies the street-facing portion of the narrow and deep lot of 3,845 square feet.
  • 1900 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 108 (page 23) — The same plat and structure outline is now labeled number 215. It is in yellow, indicating wood construction, and has a small label for 1 and 1/2 stories. No other detail is present.
  • 1920 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 13 (page 22) — The same plat and structure are present, with a large garage to the east which later becomes the Avon Theatre. A garage on Olive Street replaces a former livery building. Houses to the west are still present.
  • 1920–1951 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 13 (page 23) — The same plat and structure are present with no other homes on this side of the block. To the east, the former garage is now the Avon Theatre and to the west atvnumber 205 is a new filling (gas) station. Further west at number 201 is a Post Office. The public school on the corner of Meeting and Thayer has been razed.
  • 1920–1951 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 13 (page 22) — For the location of the former Bethel A.M.E. Church, see this map which shows it at 191–193 Meeting St. To the east of the church sat 185 Meeting Street, the Mary H. Parsons house, which was razed in 2002 to make room for an expansion of the Brown Biomedical Center.

In the News

The Last Trace of a Vanished Neighborhood

Providence Preservation Society February 12, 2024

We assume that the places we live in, work in, and travel through every day tell an accurate story about the history of that place.

In reality, all that we have is such a tiny portion of all of the buildings, squares, gardens, markets, schools, and neighborhoods we’ve constructed over time. And although historic Benefit Street and surrounding College Hill in Providence is in many ways an exemplar of historic preservation, with many 200-year-old buildings still intact, it presents a narrow view into this neighborhood’s history. Part of the work of preservationists is uncovering and animating the lost histories so we can see the past and our present moment in full technicolor.

In the latter half of the 19th Century, a small but vibrant community of Black citizens lived on Meeting Street in Providence, immediately to the west of Thayer Street. The heart of this enclave was the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in 1795 had occupied a number of temporary buildings in the area before a permanent brick church structure was built in 1865. Today, essentially no trace of this neighborhood remains, with Brown University buildings, restaurants, and parking lots occupying the block. A small bronze plaque marking the former location of Bethel A.M.E. Church is the only evidence of this once-thriving community.

However until the late 1990s, a small, unassuming Greek Revival cottage stood at 215 Meeting Street, a photograph of which was found in PPS’s recently digitized architectural slide collection. Research revealed that this house (located to the rear of the Avon Cinema) was the last standing 19th century residential structure on the block, and that it had been owned by a single family for more than 100 years before it was torn down and replaced with a parking lot.

Built sometime around 1850, the home mostly served as a rental property for a series of working-class Irish and Black families and then owned by members of the Jackson family until it was sold in 1894 to Samuel John Abrams and his wife, Henrietta. Samuel was a Pennsylvania-born Black man who had moved to Rhode Island as an adult with his mother Catherine, and stepfather Nathan Green in the 1870s. Samuel was a Civil War veteran who served as a Sergeant in the 127th US Colored Infantry Regiment. He worked as a nurse, and was active in many of Providence’s Black Masonic organizations.

In 1882 he married Henrietta Elizabeth Jefferson, a Providence-born woman who was an alumna of the Meeting Street School. Henrietta and her siblings had grown up just a few houses down from 215 Meeting Street, with her widowed mother, who worked as a laundress. In 1862, 11-year-old Henrietta signed a petition to the Rhode Island legislature for equal school rights, indicating a notable level of civic engagement for a girl of her age. Her mother died when Henrietta was still a teenager, leaving her a rental property that provided her a reliable income, though she also worked as a domestic servant in the household of Stephen A. Cooke, who was the assistant city solicitor of Providence.

Henrietta and Samuel had a large family together and continued to live on Meeting Street during the 1880s and ’90s. By 1894, they saved enough funds for their own home and bought 215 Meeting Street,[ix] becoming one of the few Black homeowners (as opposed to renters) in the area. The property was valued around $1,460 for tax purposes shortly after its purchase.[x] After the death of Samuel’s stepfather in 1902, the family also rented the house across the street at 212 Meeting as a residence for their eldest son and Samuel’s widowed mother Catherine (who also worked as a nurse). Various family members split their time between the two properties[xi] until Catherine’s death in 1919 at the age of 96. A detailed obituary and portrait of her was printed in the Providence Journal.

The Abrams family included eight children who reached adulthood. A daughter, Esther Julia, graduated from the Rhode Island Normal School in 1910 and later received a BS in Education from Hunter College, teaching in public schools in Maryland, Delaware, New York, and Connecticut. Another daughter, Etta Catherine, followed in her father’s footsteps and became a nurse, training at Lincoln Hospital in New York, and working at a home for orphaned African-American children in Philadelphia for many years. A son, Chester Nathaniel, was a World War I veteran, a member of the VFW, and worked as a custodian in the Wayland Square neighborhood of Providence after the war.

Though many of their children lived in other cities and states at different points of their lives, the house at 215 Meeting Street in Providence remained a constant in the Abrams family. Throughout the 20th Century, family members continued to populate the home, even as the surrounding buildings in the neighborhood (including the Bethel A.M.E Church the Abramses were members of) were torn down to make way for university buildings and gas stations. The last surviving Abrams sibling, Mabel, who never married and worked as a Girl Scout troop leader for many years, was still living in the home by herself at age 100 in 1992. It wasn’t until 1998 (a year before Mabel’s death) that the home was finally sold out of the family and was torn down shortly afterward and replaced with a parking lot.

The demolition of the home at 215 Meeting Street seems to have been met with no public opposition, including from PPS. Though the home was documented in Providence: A Citywide Survey of Historic Resources as “the only surviving structure of a small black community,” contemporaneous PPS newsletters do not include any mention of the loss of this important part of the city’s Black history. Unfortunately, the story of 215 Meeting Street reflects of the fate of many of Providence’s Black neighborhoods, which have disappeared via the steady transfer of property into the hands of institutional and commercial interests, frequently leading to wholesale demolition and redevelopment. It is also a cautionary tale of what has happened and continues to happen to properties that lack local historic district protections. Although PPS cannot recover these lost buildings, we can share the stories of the people who once cared for them and called them home, providing a glimpse into the vibrant but vanished history of our city.

— Captured December 1, 2024 from https://ppsri.org/the-last-trace/