CENTRAL FALLS HIGH
Historic Cogswell Tower, Jenks Park centerpiece, offers unparalleled view of square-mile city a quick drive away
Climbing the long, wooden spiral staircase inside Cogswell Tower can be daunting. It’s a steep and narrow climb and if you have any fear of heights whatsoever you may find yourself gripping the wooden handrails tightly as you ascend the 70-foot-high edifice.
It’s also about 10 degrees warmer inside the stone clock tower, which can be stifling and feel claustrophobic on a hot summer day.
But all of that is quickly forgotten once you finally reach the top and take in the unparalleled views of the city in all four directions. The highest point in the square-mile city, the top of the tower offers stunning 360-degree views that reach from the mills in Cumberland and Pawtucket all the way to the Statehouse and the Providence skyline.
“I love to see the look on people’s faces when they get to the top and look out for the first time,” says Robert Ferri, president of the Central Falls City Council and the unofficial keeper of Cogswell Tower, the centerpiece of Jenks Parks on Broad Street and the city’s most famous historic landmark.
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who knows more about Cogswell Tower than Ferri, a member of the Blackstone Valley Historical Society Board
of Directors who has been leading public tours of the tower and surrounding Jenks Park for the past five years.
Ferri has been championing the historic, late 19th-century Jenks Park for years, determined to protect and preserve what he calls the city’s “crown jewel” for generations to come.
Built in 1890 by Albert Humes, the 4.5-acre Jenks Park was a gift to the city from Alvin Jenks, a descendant of early industrialist Captain Stephen Jenks. Its picturesque walkways take visitors away from the modern world – and the City Hall that abuts it – leading them past iron umbrellas and up toward the tower on Dexter’s Ledge.
Rich with History
Dexter’s Ledge was originally known as Quinsniket, a rocky ledge with a commanding view of the valley below and a key role in King Philip’s War. Due to a series of land disputes and broken peace treaties between the local natives and early English settlers, King Philip’s War had erupted in 1675. It was at the base of Quinsniket that Nanunteenoo, better known as Canonchet, Chief Sachem of the Narragansett, held his council fires in preparation for one of the most notorious attacks in the war.
Placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in September 1979, the park and tower are a perfect destination not only for their silent witness to an epic era in the region’s history, but for those looking for a picnic or meditative stroll.
Occupying a deep, narrow site running back from Broad Street to Washington Street, Jenks Park is flanked on the north by the former Notre Dame Church, its convent, parish house and school, and on the south by City Hall and a row of dwellings facing Summit Street.
With its cast-iron, Renaissance-style urns and water fountain, the park has a whimsical Victorian style and design, especially the three pavilions or summer-houses, which are intended for sheltered seating and roofed with arching umbrellas of sheet metal supported by central iron masts and secured to the pavement by iron rods. Resembling carousel canopies, these merrygo-round gazebos are among the park’s most charming and unique features.
Today, the park hosts festivals celebrating the ethic diversity of the city and is home for the city’s annual Summer Food Service Program, which provides outside activities and free breakfast and lunch to city youth throughout the summer.
The park is not as ornate or as well landscape as it was 100 years ago. The water fountain no longer works; much of the originally statuary is long gone; and the giant urn planters are empty. But Ferri has some ideas and believes much more can be offered at the park, including the possibility of an annual Christmas light display, a small outdoor and skating rink and reactivating the original fountain.
“Jenks Park is really a gem in this city,” he says. “There’s so much history and beauty here.”
But the undisputed centerpiece of the park is the the imposing stone clock tower erected in the center of the Dexter’s Ledge promenade and easily the city’s most famous landmark. The tower was designed by Pawtucket architect Albert H. Humes and built in 1904.
Gifted Tower
A gift of Caroline Cogswell, Cogswell Tower is 18 feet square at the base and rises 70 feet.
Below each of the four glazed clock-faces is an observation balcony railed in wrought iron and approached through an unadorned doorway (these openings now closed by modern flush-paneled doors). Below each balcony, and approximately 20 feet above the terrace, is a small rectangular window opening. At terrace level on the east side is a roundarched entrance with a steelplate door which gives access to the interior wooden stairs and platforms.
Surrounding the tower, a cast-iron trellis roofs the promenade. The tower is illuminated by lights at night.
Much of the weight of the tower is supported by a brick barrel-vault sprung from the ledge and concealed within the retaining wall. The corridor-shaped vault or cave is known as the grotto.
“The grotto is a hidden gem,” says Ferri. “There are people who have lived in this city their entire lives and don’t know it’s here.”
The Climb
The tower is normally locked and people are allowed inside only during special events. But over the past few years, the city in partnership with the Blackstone Valley Historical Society has conducted annual public tours of the tower led by Ferri
“Every year we have about 30 people come on the tour. Many of them are city residents who were born and raised in Central Falls and have never been inside the tower,” he says.
The climb can be challenging because there are lots of stairs, which go up and up behind the face of the clock, but once you reach the top, the views are spectacular.
“A couple of years ago we had a woman in her 80’s who climbed all the way up to the first landing,” says Ferri. “We’ve had people of all ages make the climb.”
Ferri has climbed the tower probably a hundred times over the years, but never tires of the sweeping views it offers, especially on a clear day when one can see as far away as the Seekonk River in East Providence and the water tower at North Central Airport.
“Whether you like history or not, Cogswell Tower and Jenks Park is a great place to visit and enjoy,” he says.
If you go:
Jenks Park 580 Broad St. Central Falls, RI
Contact the Blackstone Valley Historical Society at (401) 725-2847 for more information on the next scheduled tower tour.