Woonsocket City Hall

The Woonsocket City Hall, (also known as the Harris Institute) is located at 169 Main Street in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Woonsocket City Hall
LocationWoonsocket, Rhode Island
Coordinates42°0′8″N 71°30′53″W
Built1856
ArchitectCole, Albert B.
Architectural styleItalianate
NRHP reference No.74000007 [1]
Added to NRHPMay 1, 1974

Edward Harris, a leading Woonsocket industrialist, constructed the earliest part of the building in 1856, and it was known as the Harris Block, with stores on the first floor, and an auditorium hall seating 1,100 on the third floor. This brick structure has elements of Italianate styling, including round-arch windows and a heavily dentilled cornice. A major Richardsonian Romanesque addition was made to the rear of this structure in 1891. In 1902 the city purchased the building for use as city hall.[2]

The building served as the first public library in Rhode Island, housed on the second floor, which is now the Woonsocket Harris Public Library.

In March 1860 Abraham Lincoln spoke to a packed crowd in Harris Hall, which at the time contained one of the largest assembly rooms in the state.[3]

  • Edward Harris, founder of the Harris Institute, the first public library in Rhode Island

See also
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Woonsocket City Hall" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved 2014-08-09.
  3. "Abraham Lincoln and Rhode Island". Abraham Lincoln's Classroom. The Lehman Institute. Retrieved 16 September 2015.


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