Smithville Seminary

{{Short description|United States Historic Place (1839–1876)}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Smithville Seminary | nrhp_type = | image = Smithville Seminary.jpg | caption = Smithville Seminary building in 2008 | location = 29 Institute Ln.,<br/>Scituate, Rhode Island | coordinates = {{coord|41.8342|-71.5830|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Rhode Island#USA | area = | built = 1839 | architect = Russell Warren (architect) | architecture = Greek Revival | added = March 29, 1978 | refnum = 78003446 | nrhp_type2 = cp | nocat = yes | designated_nrhp_type2 = August 29, 1979 | partof = Smithville-North Scituate | partof_refnum = 79000003 }}

The '''Smithville Seminary''' was a Freewill Baptist institution established in 1839 at the location of the modern Institute Lane in Smithville-North Scituate, Rhode Island. Renamed the '''Lapham Institute''' in 1863, it closed in 1876. The site was then used as the campus of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute, later the Watchman Institute, and then became the Scituate Commons apartments. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>

==Campus== thumb|200px|left|The Pentecostal Collegiate Institute in North Scituate, 1905. The buildings on the knoll were built in 1839 and comprised a large three-story central building with columns and two wings. The wings, with 33 rooms each, were separated by 20 feet from the main building and connected to it via two-story covered passageways. The central building housed classrooms, offices, staff apartments, and dining facilities, a library and reading room on the second floor, and a large room on the third floor which might serve as a chapel, while the other two buildings served as separate male and female dormitories. The two-mile-long Lake Moswansicut could be seen from the third-floor chapel.<ref>James R. Cameron, ''Eastern Nazarene College: The First 50 Years'', Kansas City, Mo.: Nazarene Publishing House (1968), 35.</ref> The buildings were designed by Russell Warren, the leading Greek Revival architect in New England in the 20th century,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wjZIkchWX5AC&q=%22watchman+industrial+school%22 Beth L. Savage and Carol D. Shull, ''African American Historic Places'', John Wiley and Sons (1995), 422.]</ref>

After the close of the renamed Lapham Institute, the campus became the site of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute from 1902 to 1919 and, eventually, the Watchman Institute in 1923.

The site became part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.<ref name="nris"/> The buildings were also renovated in the 1970s and converted into apartments known as Scituate Commons.<ref name="RIC">[http://www.ric.edu/ric150/memories/archv14.html Rhode Island College Sesquicentennial]</ref>

==History== thumb|left|Smithville Seminary in the 1800s Smithville Seminary was founded in 1839 by the Rhode Island Association of Free Baptists. At the time, the Free Baptists already had two academies, one in New Hampshire (the New Hampton Institute), the other in Maine (Parsonsfield Seminary), and the Rhode Island Baptists desired to have one of their own. Reverend Hiram Brooks was asked to start the school, and raised $20,000, all of which he put toward buildings.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ywHhZuxA7qoC&dq=%22bates+college+%22class+of%22&pg=PA66 William Howe Tolman, ''History of Higher Education in Rhode Island'', (DC: Government Printing Office 1894), 66 (accessed on Google Book Search on July 11, 2008).]</ref> The entire commitment of these monies to brick and mortar rather than an endowment fund may have caused financial difficulties for the institution, as it was unable to support itself through tuition revenue.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ahistorypublice01stocgoog/page/n420  Thomas B Stock-well, ''A History of Public Education in Rhode Island, from 1636 to 1876'', Providence Press Company (1876), 412]</ref>

The first principal was Rev. Hosea Quimby, who had come from the Maine academy to serve at Smithville. Quimby worked for the school, even buying the property when financial trouble struck, until it closed temporarily in 1854 with only 20 students (in 1845, it had an enrollment of over 300 representing 7 U.S. states). It was revived the next year when Quimby rented the property to a Samuel P. Coburn, who became principal, and enrollment again reached over 100 that year.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ywHhZuxA7qoC&dq=%22bates+college+%22class+of%22&pg=PA66 William Howe Tolman, ''History of Higher Education in Rhode Island'', (DC: Government Printing Office 1894), 66-69.]</ref> The property was sold to Reverend W. Colgrove in 1857, who operated it for another two years before it closed again, this time for three years.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ahistorypublice01stocgoog/page/n420  Thomas B Stockwell, ''A History of Public Education in Rhode Island, from 1636 to 1876'', Providence Press Company (1876), 413]</ref>

The site of Henry Barnard’s first Rhode Island Teachers Institute in 1845, the school began giving normal instruction for teachers with public funding in 1867, but ceased in 1871 when the state's Education Commissioner re-established the Rhode Island Normal School and cut program funding for other institutions.<ref name="RIC"/>

In 1863 the school changed hands and changed its name after a minister and former professor at the school, returned in 1861 to find much of the campus dilapidated and in disrepair. With the Free Baptist Association unwilling or unable to help, William Winsor recruited Congressman Benedict Lapham, after whom the new Lapham Institute was named.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ywHhZuxA7qoC&dq=%22bates+college+%22class+of%22&pg=PA66 William Howe Tolman, ''History of Higher Education in Rhode Island'', (DC: Government Printing Office 1894), 69-70.]</ref>

In addition to its connections to what would later become Rhode Island College, the school had connections to Bates College in Maine, another Free Baptist institution.<ref name="books.google.com">[https://books.google.com/books?id=ywHhZuxA7qoC&dq=%22bates+college+%22class+of%22&pg=PA66 William Howe Tolman, ''History of Higher Education in Rhode Island'', (DC: Government Printing Office 1894), 70-71.]</ref> Its first principal, Benjamin F. Hayes, was called to a professorship at Bates, and his successor, Thomas L. Angell, was also called to a professorship there after two years as principal in North Scituate.<ref name="books.google.com"/> George H. Ricker then took over as principal for seven years before being called to Hillsdale College in Michigan in 1874. His successor was Arthur G. Moulton, a trustee of Bates, who died just over a year after taking the position. He was followed as principal by W.S. Stockbridge, under whom the school finally closed in 1876.<ref name="books.google.com"/> William Winsor was the last benefactor of the institute, and when no one replaced him, the school went bankrupt without an endowment to support it.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/ahistorypublice01stocgoog/page/n420  Thomas B. Stockwell's ''A History of Public Education in Rhode Island, from 1636 to 1876''], published in 1876, claims on page 414 that, "The school is supported at the present time by the munificence of William Winsor of Greenville, R.I., who stands instead of an endowment. Its facilities for thorough work, and for doing good, were never better than now. It has a full corps of teachers, a good library, chemical and physical apparatus, &c. The buildings are in excellent repair and its location is as healthy as can be found in New England." James R Cameron's ''Eastern Nazarene College: The First 50 Years'' published in 1968, says on page 34 that "The school finally failed for lack of a benefactor to succeed Mr. Winsor."</ref> In 1883 Winsor donated the library of the Lapham Institute to the Greenville Public Library.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Island |first=Rhode |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cb04AAAAIAAJ |title=At the General Assembly of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Begun and Holden, ... at ... Within and for the Said State, on ..., in the Year of Our Lord ... |date=1881 |publisher=Henry Ward, Secretary |language=en}} </ref>

==Notable alumni==

* James Burrill Angell, President of the University of Michigan, University of Vermont<ref name="preservation.ri.gov">{{cite web|url= http://www.preservation.ri.gov/pdfs_zips_downloads/national_pdfs/scituate/scit_institute-lane_smithville-seminary-lapham-institute.pdf|title= National Register of Historic Places Inventory- Nomination Form |publisher = United States Department of the Interior|access-date= March 25, 2014}}</ref> * Thomas L. Angell, Professor at Bates College * Lewis Boss, astronomer, director of Dudley Observatory<ref>{{cite book|last=American Educational Company|title=The American Educational Review, Volume 34|year=1913|publisher=American Educational Company|page=114|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kO0-AQAAMAAJ&dq=Lewis+Boss+smithville+seminary&pg=PA114}}</ref> * George T. Day, pastor, writer, professor * Henry Howard, Governor of Rhode Island 1873-1875<ref name="preservation.ri.gov"/> * Oscar Lapham, U.S. Congressman<ref>{{cite web|url= http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000093|title= LAPHAM, Oscar, (1837 - 1926)|publisher = Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date= March 25, 2014}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:1876 disestablishments in the United States Category:Protestant seminaries and theological colleges Category:Seminaries and theological colleges in Rhode Island Category:Educational institutions established in 1839 Category:Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Category:Russell Warren buildings Category:North Scituate, Rhode Island Category:Schools in Providence County, Rhode Island Category:Buildings and structures in Scituate, Rhode Island Category:National Register of Historic Places in Providence County, Rhode Island Category:Historic district contributing properties in Providence County, Rhode Island

Smithville Seminary

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