Witness a rebirth of city’s Historical Society
New exhibit celebrates Woonsocket’s rooted history in retailing and manufacturing
WOONSOCKET — The bulkies and photographs are the first things that grab your attention – an old cast iron stove and a grainy, sepia-toned mug of President Lincoln, right up there with Gov. Aram Pothier and industrialist Edward Harris.
There’s a Victrola off in a corner, next to an old-fashioned, wood-veneer radio the size of a small refrigerator, while stoneware crocks and vintage glassware take up space on floors and shelves. Glass display cases feature an assortment of oldies, from tinted-glass medicine bottles and ashtrays to shoehorns, paperweights and measuring sticks.
No this is not an antique shop, but the off-beaten-path home of the Woonsocket Historical Society. While the collection is certainly
eclectic, it’s not random – most of is linked to the city’s heritage in manufacturing, trades and culture.
“Almost everything in here has a Woonsocket connection,” says WHS member Larry Poitras. “A lot of these things are from Main Street businesses and manufacturers of the past.”
Tucked in a space the size of a small apartment at 42 South Main St., the WHS is located in the rear basement of the same turn-of-thecentury mill that the Museum of Work & Culture also calls home.
But with no street frontage, it’s an easy spot to overlook.
Which is unfortunate, says WHS President Irene Blais, because the society’s collection hasn’t been so organized and professionally displayed for some time. After a period of regrouping following the death of former WHS President Phyllis Thomas in 2013, there’s been an influx of new blood into the society that’s helped declutter, display, file and rearrange – giving the place a whole new feel.
“You couldn’t even walk back here,” says Blais, looking around her feet as she stood in a back room, lined with shelves stacked with plastic containers, each carefully marked with labels, like “Old Rhode Island,” “Voting Records,” or “Buell Hudson,” – a former publisher of The Woonsocket Call.
“The other day I was looking for something and – you know what? – I was able to find it!” says Blais. “I went to a file cabinet and it was right there.”
Now the WHS is celebrating its rebirth with a new exhibit, “Businesses of the Past,” that’s designed to offer visitors an opportunity to see some of the items from the city’s retailing and manufacturing legacy. The exhibits, part of WHS’s permanent collection, include a vast array of wares, ranging from routine objects of everyday life to the utterly unexpected.
Hanging on the wall, for example, is a circular wooden window dressing that once adorned the long-defunct Woonsocket Opera House – an ornately, carved piece that’s about four feet in diameter. On the floor nearby you’ll find a marble statue of a lamb that once graced the Jarret Wool Combers, located at 159 Singleton St.
Some of the quirky bits of city memorabilia that can be found in the WHS include an original chair from the Bijou, one of several vaudeville-era auditoriums in the city that no longer exist; stoneware jugs that were once the vessel of choice for the city’s thriving liquor business; a bronze scale model of the French Worsted Complex on Hamlet Ave- nue – now a vacant lot.
“We had quite a liquor business in the city,” says Poitras, showing a group photograph of the members of the Woonsocket Liquor Dealers Association. Crowded around the front of what looks like an old-time general store, the populous bunch completely obscures the porch, and some are even sitting on the roof.
But what about that cast-iron stove?
Poitras says it was actually manufactured in southeastern Massachusetts, but it still has a powerful connection to the city: Poitras. The retired principal of Good Shepherd Catholic School and host of a popular talk show on radio station WNRI, Poitras says he bought it for his wife Elizabeth many years ago. After using it for quite some time, she declared the gas-, coal- and wood-burning combo obsolete and banished it from the house.
He gave it to someone in Blackstone and thought it was gone for good. Years later, the recipient no longer wanted it and gave the stove back to Poitras. The WHS is where it landed.
Founded in 1915, the WHS builds its collection from all kinds of sources – private individuals who are downsizing, collectors streamlining their treasures and for-profit businesses who are aware of the organization’s unique focus on the city.
“We have a very good relationship with Timeless Antiques,” says Poitras. “They keep an eye out for anything we might be interested, and they offer it to us at a very good price.”
Tammy Irwin, who runs Timeless Antiques with her husband, Frank, is a member of the WHS, which sells items at the Main Street shop occasionally to help raise operating revenue. The WHS is an all-volunteer nonprofit that doesn’t have a budget – it runs mostly on donations. It raises some money from the sale of various books produced by members, including the recently published “Woonsocket Monuments, Plaques and Memorials.” About three years ago the WHS published “Woonsocket: People from the Past,” which is still a hot seller, says Blais.
The WHS has done well in amassing a trove of photographs, memorabilia, documents, souvenirs and antiques of all kinds – almost too well. After Thomas died at the age of 92, the roughly 1,000-square feet of space the WHS occupies in the basement of the onetime Barnai Worsted Mill was so cluttered it was difficult just to move around or find anything, Blais says.
As new president, she found herself on her own to sort through it all and get it organized for display – or so it seemed. About two years ago, Poitras – who had been active in the WHS in the 60s and 70s – retired from Good Shepherd.
With some newfound spare time on his hands, Poitras decided to begin spending some of it at the historical society again. And he brought some old friends with him, including Roger Beaudry, a fan of military history, and Joan Gahan. Poitras and Gahan are both history buffs and volunteers at the Stadium Theatre.
“I think it was just a matter of a few of us all retiring around the same time,” said Poitras. “There have been three or four of us filing, classifying, organizing two days a week here for over a year now.”
Poitras says the WHS is as interested as ever in building the collection, but it’s trying to stay focused on items with a Woonsocket pedigree. Antiques are wonderful things, says Poitras, but the historical society can’t be a repository for anything that’s merely old – it needs to have a tie to the city.
“We just don’t have the room,” he says.
Follow Russ Olivo on Twitter @russolivo
“Businesses of the Past” is open to the public during the Woonsocket Historical Society’s normal business hours, Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturdays, noon to 3 p.m., or by appointment. Call 356-0067.