The Rice City Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Coventry, Rhode Island Coventry is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 35,688 at the 2020 census and is part of the . Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it ...

. It encompasses the 19th-century village of Rice City, extending along Plainfield Pike (

Rhode Island Route 14 Route 14 is a numbered state highway in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It runs approximately from Connecticut routes 14 and 14A at the border with Sterling, Connecticut, to Route 6 in Providence. Route description Route 14 starts at the Conn ...

) for several miles between Sisson Road and Gibson Hill Road in the northwestern part of Coventry. The main village center is at the junction of the Pike and Vaughn Hollow Road, and there is a former industrial and commercial center at Fairbank's Corner, the junction with Flat River Road (

Rhode Island Route 117 Route 117 is a state route in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Its western terminus is at Route 14 in Coventry, and its eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 1A (US 1A) in Cranston. Route description *Coventry: 14.0 miles (22.5 km); Route 14 ...

). The architecture of the district is predominantly rural and residential, with Greek Revival and Federal style housing predominating. Rice City village is dominated by Rice Tavern (built 1804), which used to serve travelers on their way to Connecticut, as well as the Rice City Church (1846), the Democrat Schoolhouse, and the Obadiah Potter House (1846), all a short way up Vaughn Hill Road. At the western edge of the district, the modern Pike alignment diverges from the historical one at Gibson Hill Road, where the foundational remnants of agricultural settlements may be found. The area was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980; an erroneously omitted property was formally added to the district in 2000.

References

Historic districts in Kent County, Rhode Island Coventry, Rhode Island Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island {{KentCountyRI-NRHP-stub

See also

References