" Providence 1810 - copied from the old drop scene "

A rare view of Providence , Rhode Island as it was in the year 1810 ( probably 1808/1809 ).

Vintage mounted photographic print, from the original painting in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society.

Mounted on stiff card, 9" x 12" overall.

Formerly owned by the Providence Public Library , Rhode Island Collection.

Carefully packed for shipment to the buyer.

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Historical information :

The original drop curtain, painted circa 1809, has been in the possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society since 1833.

It depicts Providence, RI, as it appeared in 1808, is thought to be the oldest curtain of its kind in America.

The large 24' x 15' original was painted by John Worrall (1783-1825), who was engaged by the Boston Theater on Federal Street as a pantomime dancer and scenery painter for about 16 years. He routinely traveled with the group to Portland , Maine  and to Providence , RI. He began painting scenery at the theater in 1806 as assistant, but soon became chief scene painter and remained in that position until at least 1822. 

The scene of the City of Providence was painted ca. 1809. 

Worrall executed a similar drop curtain for the Federal Street Theater in 1818, a view of Boston from South Boston bridge.

The Providence curtain seems to have been painted from a vantage point on Federal Hill, with the easterly edge of what was then still a residential area, the Providence River flowing beyond, and beyond that College Hill, at the time called "The Neck." 

Brown University, founded in 1764, became Brown, named for the prominent family of donors, merely five years before the curtain was painted. 

University Hall, built soon after the college moved from Warren, R.I., to Providence in 1770, can be seen on the skyline (at the 3rd curtain seam from the left ). The road that runs downhill from University Hall (which was still called the College Edifice in 1809) probably, eventually, became College Street.  

Weybosset Bridge, originally erected in 1663 and replaced five times before 1809, cannot be seen - possibly because it is behind a stand of trees on the near side of the river. The bridge was destroyed in the Great Gale of 1815 and rebuilt twice as wide.

The western embankment of the river (nearest the observer) is more densely occupied than College Hill itself. Unlike the buildings on College Hill, most of the early structures on the Weybosset Neck were torn down and replaced, maybe once or twice or more, by the structures that now make up today’s Providence downtown. 

Some of the houses on the west side of College Hill that were there in 1808 still exist today, and no doubt a few are in the painting.