Weird Island

In the middle of downtown Pawtucket, there’s an old, no longer functioning drinking fountain that most people assume is just a statue. But it’s one of only a handful of remaining Temperance Fountains, donated to the city by a man who believed that the solution to drunkenness might just be a glass of fresh, cold water. 

To Visit: Corner of Roosevelt Ave and Main Street, Pawtucket RI | You can map to 175 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI 02860

Episode Source Material: 

• Debunking the the bubbler myth
• Henry D. Cogswell - Wikipedia
• Boston Daily Globe | September 27, 1893
• Temperance fountain - Wikipedia
• “God's Free Gift to Man and Beast” - Henry Cogswell's Temperance Fountains | Rhode Tour
• Dubuque Daily Herald | March 6, 1885
• Sandy Creek News | July 28, 1887
• Frederick Weekly News | May 29, 1884
• Brooklyn Daily Eagle | July 16, 1883
• Thompsonville Press | May 5, 1881
• Stafford Springs Press | October 8, 1885
• “All Benefactors of Man I Claim as My Brethren”: Henry D. Cogswell and his Fountains of Philanthropy | SPMC
• Tompkins Square Park Monuments - Temperance Fountain
• Cogswell Memorial Fountain
• Temperance Fountain: Nobody Knows How Dry It Was - Heyday DC
• Jenks Park and Cogswell Tower , Adjoining £80 Broad Street to the north Providence Central .Falls
• Pawtucket Walking Tour
• Shenipsit Lake - Wikipedia
• Temperance Fountain – Washington, DC - Atlas Obscura
• Prohibition: A Case Study of Progressive Reform | Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929 | US History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress
• History of Drinking Water Treatment
• Women Led the Temperance Charge – Prohibition: An Interactive History
• A Brief History of US Drinking - JSTOR Daily
• The time when Americans drank all day long - BBC News
• Access to Free Public Water Fountains Might Have the Temperance Movement to Thank
• 13 Weird Moments In The History Of Water Fountains | HuffPost Life
• New York Times | June 11, 1859
• Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews

Episode Description: 

While he never lived in Rhode Island, Edgar Allan Poe famously spent time here at the end of his life. He courted a Providence writer, Sarah Helen Whitman, and spent time at her East Side home, Swan Point Cemetery and the Athenaeum. 

Episode Source Material: 

• About… – Edgar Allan Poe: Rhode Island
• Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence Poet Who Dumped Edgar Allan Poe - New England Historical Society
• Sarah Helen Whitman, Providence Poet Who Dumped Edgar Allan Poe - New England Historical Society
• Sarah Helen Whitman - Wikipedia
• Sarah Helen Whitman | Poetry Foundation
• Sarah Helen Whitman | Biography, Books, & Facts | Britannica
• Ulalume - Wikipedia
• Poe & Whitman
• Benefit Street: Sarah Helen Whitman Residence, Rose Garden, & St. John's Cathedral – Edgar Allan Poe: Rhode Island
• “Ulalume” & The American Whig Review – Edgar Allan Poe
• The Franklin Lyceum – Edgar Allan Poe: Rhode Island
• Sarah Helen and Susan Anna Residence, 140 Power Street – Edgar Allan Poe
• Swan Point Cemetery – Edgar Allan Poe
• “Ultima Thule” – Edgar Allan Poe
• Sarah Helen Whitman – Edgar Allan Poe
• The (Still) Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe | History | Smithsonian Magazine
• Poe Biography - The Poe Museum
• Edgar Allan Poe & Sarah Helen Whitman | curio
• Edgar Allan Poe and His Tumultuous Romances (US National Park Service)
• Edgar Allan Poe on Valentine's Day
• Poe, Lynch, and the Literary Salon Scene
• Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Letters - SH Whitman to EA Poe (early August 1848)
• Works - Letters - EA Poe to SH Whitman (September 5, 1848)
• Works - Letters - SH Whitman to EA Poe (September 27-29, 1848)
• The Last Letters of Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman
• Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Letters - EA Poe to SH Whitman (November 24, 1848)
• Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - People - Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood
• The Life and Addictions of Edgar Allan Poe
• Death of Edgar Allan Poe - Wikipedia
• Edgar Allan Poe - Wikipedia

Virginia Clemm | History of American Women

A mini episode this week, with another animal escape. Frosty the Polar Bear escaped from the now-closed Slater Park Zoo, twice!

Episode Source Material:

• Life After Slater Park
• Fanny the elephant to be freed
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, May 25, 1979, p. 13
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, May 23, 1979, p. 13
• 'JATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM flNAME flLOCATION CLASSIFICATION OWNER OF PROPERTY LOCATION

WaterFire is the quintessential Providence experience, centering around a series of nearly 100 bonfires along the three rivers that pass through the middle of downtown Providence. But just 40 years ago, you might not have even known that those rivers existed. If you think WaterFire isn’t weird, well, maybe it isn't. But the fact that, at one point, Providence completely covered its rivers, is. 

Episode Source Material: 

• Maps of the Great Salt Cove: Cove Basin and its Evolution | ArtInRuins
• About WaterFire
• Barnaby Evans, Artist | WaterFire Providence
• Music of WaterFire
• WaterPlace Park and Waterfire | Rhode Tour
• Brown to co-sponsor WaterFire Providence, host Family Weekend visitors for Oct. 16 lighting | Brown University
• Providence River Relocation | CNU
• Rudy Bruner Award - River Relocation
• "Downtown Providence: Parking Lot, Rail Yard"
• Buddy Cianci, flamboyant and roguish mayor who rebuilt Providence, dies at 74 - The Washington Post
• WaterFire - Wikipedia
• The Providence Cove | Rhode Tour
• River Relocation Project and Providence River Park
• PROVIDENCE LOSING A BRIDGE TO GAIN A RIVERBANK - The New York Times
• Chapter 6: The River Relocation Project (1984-1994)
• Revamped Downtown Isolated City's West Side — ecoRI News
• Providence River - Wikipedia.
• Moshassuck River - Wikipedia
• Woonasquatucket River - Wikipedia
• A History of the Providence River: With the Moshassuck, Woonasquatucket & Seekonk Tributaries
• Providence, the Renaissance City

The Polar Express has become a Christmas classic, but did you know it was written right here in RI by author Chris Van Allsburg? 

Episode Source Material: 

• Chris Van Allsburg
• Christmas at the Van Allsburgs' | Holiday House Tour - New England Today
• About Chris Van Allsburg
• AT HOME WITH: Chris Van Allsburg; Bad Things Happen To Good Houses - The New York Times
• A Conversation with Chris Van Allsburg by Anita Silvey – The Polar Express
• 36 Harwich Rd, Providence, RI 02906 - realtor.com®
• The Polar Express - Wikipedia. 
• Blackstone Boulevard Realty Plat
• 10 Wild Facts About Jumanji | Mental Floss
• Jumanji Author Chris Van Allsburg on the New Movie | Time
• Historic and Architectural Resources of the East Side of Providence
• An Interview with Jumanji Author Chris Van Allsburg | Lincoln School Green Light Details
• Chris Van Allsburg: From UM to world-renowned children's author
• Writer's cliffhangers hook kids – Chicago Tribune
• 8 Festive Facts About The Polar Express | Mental Floss
• The Polar Express (Pere Marquette 1225) History & Movie Review
• VAN ALLSBURG'S EXPRESS - The New York Times
• Chris Van Allsburg

The star of this week’s episode is a 58 foot long, 9 foot tall, 4,000 pound termite named Nibbles Woodaway. But you might know him better as the Big Blue Bug. 

Episode Source Material: 

• Big Blue Bug
• Get To Know Us | The Big Blue Bug Of RI, MA & CT
• World's Largest Bug, Providence, Rhode Island
• Creator of RI's Big Blue Bug dies
• The Big Blue Bug in Providence is broken. What might happen next
• Big Blue Bug gets lit for 29th year
• Nibbles Woodaway and Lou Ferrigno join forces to benefit the RI Chapter of the ALS Association
• Nibbles Woodaway
• https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/2017/06/20/graffiti-suspect-turns-himself-in-ordered-to-have-no-contact-with-big-blue-bug/20487696007/
• About Big Blue Bug Solutions | Pest Control In RI, MA And CT
• Big Blue Bug Solutions
• https://newspaperarchive.com/cedar-rapids-gazette-may-27-2001-p-45/
• https://newspaperarchive.com/nashua-telegraph-may-26-2001-p-11/
• https://newspaperarchive.com/independence-examiner-aug-05-1989-p-27/
• Reticulitermes flavipes
• Termite
• “World's biggest” roadside attractions: a history of “world's largest” tourist traps.
• Roadside Attractions Lesson Plan from the National Register of Historic Places
• Lucy the Elephant
• An Introduction to Eusociality | Learn Science at Scitable
• Roadside attraction
• 10 of the Biggest Bugs in the World
• Rhode Island Looks Up To a Two-Ton Termite

The first presidential phone call took place in Rhode Island, when Alexander Graham Bell called 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes as he attended a clambake at Rocky Point Park. 

To Visit: Rocky Point Ave. | Nothing to see but a sign, but you can stand where the first Presidential phone call took place, if that’s a thing you want to do. 

Episode Source Material: 

• Rutherford B. Hayes has first phone installed in White House
• A clambake, slurs and phone sex: The long, strange history of presidential calls
• American RadioWorks - The President Calling
• Alexander Graham Bell and Rhode Island
• March 10, 1876: 'Mr. Watson, Come Here ... '
• First speech transmitted by telephone - HISTORY
• TBT: When the First Telephone Call Was Made
• Encyclopedia Brunoniana | Blake, Eli Whitney
• Image 2 of Speech by Alexander Graham Bell, November 2, 1911
• History of the telephone
• Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversy
• Elisha Gray and the Telephone Controversy with Alexander Graham Bell
• The Bell Versus Gray Telephone Dispute: Resolving a 144-Year-Old Controversy [Scanning Our Past]
• Obama’s whopper about Rutherford B. Hayes and the telephone
• Before 1929, Nobody Thought the President Needed a Telephone in his Office
• Hotline established between Washington and Moscow - HISTORY
• From the Telegram to Twitter, How Presidents Make Contact With Foreign Leaders
• Electrical telegraph
• History of the telephone
• Who answers the White House phone, anyway?
• Great Invention, But Who Would Ever Want to Use One? – Quote Investigator

Could a rumor that a sea lion escaped Roger Williams Zoo and made it all the way to the bay possibly be true? 

To Visit: Roger Williams Zoo | 1000 Elmwood Ave, Providence, RI 02907

Episode Source Material: 

Roger Williams History

• Roger Williams Park - Wikipedia
• Horace Cleveland
• Rhode Island Providence 1T<.TT.7:::: Roger Williams Park Historic District See Description #7 Providence Tiernan #2 Rhode Isl
• History of American urban squirrel
• Temple To Music

Sea Lions

• Sea Lions Return to RWP!
• The Sea Lions
• When the Sea Lion Escaped From Providence's Roger Williams Zoo
• Our History | Roger Williams Park Zoo
• Dancing And Dining With Betsey And Rhoda
• Newport Mercury | September 27, 1946

Zoo History

• History of Zoos in Parks
• Zoo Was First—New York or Philly? – Zoo Walks Through History
• Carl Hagenbeck
• Investigating the Development of the Modern-Day Zoo
• Carl Hagenbeck: The inventor of the modern animal park
• The Hagenbeck Legacy
• EVOLUTION OF THE ZOO

We’re heading to Woonsocket this week to check out a mural painted on what was an unassuming concrete wall you wouldn’t think twice about. But this concrete wall actually has an incredibly interesting backstory, one with ties to the Titanic. 

To Visit: Cass Ave, Woonsocket, RI - across from Woonsocket High School

Episode Source Material: 

• The Southern New England Railway
• Southern New England Railway - Wikipedia
• https://www.providencejournal.com/article/20140202/LIFESTYLE/302029971
• NEW HAVEN TO BOSTON
• Titanic helped sink New Haven Railroad
• New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
• New Hampshire Railroad - Historic Context Statement
• Cass Ave. railroad abutment will be a concrete canvas for high school art teacher and her students as they’ll put paint to plaster to pay tribute to Charles Melville Hays Mural in the making
• New York Times | Indict 21 in Deals of the New Haven
• New York Times | New Haven Story One of Upheavals
• Charles Melville Hays : Titanic Victim
• Biography – HAYS, CHARLES MELVILLE – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography
• Charles Melville Hays | Titanic Database Wiki | Fandom
• Founder of Prince Rupert died on the Titanic 100 years ago By DAVE KIFFER
• Why the Titanic Still Fascinates Us | History
• Cass Avenue mural recalls railroad that might’ve been
• Paint progress
• White Star Line
• Titanic
• JUST BEFORE SMASH HAYS SAID DISASTER
• Railway magnate expected rescue from Titanic
• JUST BEFORE SMASH HAYS SAID DISASTER
• The Golden Age of Rail. 
• Charles Melville Hays Biography
• The Truth about the Titanic - CHAPTER I - THE LAST DAY ABOARD SHIP

In 2006, Rhode Islander Ron Wallace grew the first 1,500 lb. pumpkin--something no one thought was possible. Then in 2012, he became the first person in the world to grow a pumpkin weighing 2,000 lbs. Now his goal is to be the first to grow a 3,000 lb. pumpkin… 

Hear about what it takes to grow a giant pumpkin, then try for yourself: Giant Pumpkin Seeds Wallace's Whoppers

Episode Source Material: 

• About Wallace Organic Wonder & Ron Wallace Organic Fertilizer
• Growing Giant Pumpkins in the Home Garden
• The Great Pumpkin | Science
• World-Record Giant Pumpkins and the People who Grow Them
• Giant pumpkin - Wikipedia
• Origin of the Giant Pumpkin – Plant Talk
• History of Pumpkins | The History Kitchen.
• Henry David Thoreau Grows the First Giant Pumpkin in America
• Henry David Thoreau - Wikipedia
• 'GREAT CAN DO' COMES THROUGH 1,061-POUND GOURD BREAKS RECORD, NETS COUPLE $50,000 PRIZE
• Giant pumpkin weigh-off crowns a new winner