Photo Gallery FC

The small village of Foster Center, which began in the mid-18th century, has been the seat of town government since 1781. As Foster's most important community center and one of the best preserved, Foster Center was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.* The buildings shown are from left to right, Foster Center Christian/Baptist Church, Welcome Rood Tavern and carriage house, a residence and the Foster Center School/Foster Library.

* ( text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

The Town House was originally built as the meetinghouse of the Second Baptist Church in 1796-1797, using funds raised by a lottery. The money proved insufficient and the interior remained unfinished until 1822 when church and town put up $86.00 apiece for needed repairs, and the church deeded its meetinghouse to the town. Town meetings had been held here since 1801---as they are to this day. ( text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

The Town House was originally built as the meetinghouse of the Second Baptist Church in 1796-1797, using funds raised by a lottery. This original lottery ticket has been preserved by the Foster Preservation Society.

This view from the Town House grounds is looking north. The Old Jail is visible near the bottom right of the photo. In the distance, near the center of the photo is the Colegrove-Hammond House, location of the first Town Meeting in 1781.

The meetinghouse follows a simple plan with a central aisle leading to a raised dais, where two pulpits, the Elder's above and the Deacon's below, originally stood. On either side of the aisle are plank benches with open rail backs. At each of the western corners a staircase leads up to a gallery above, which runs around three sides of the meetinghouse, supported by heavy, evenly spaced turned wooden posts with thick square bases. The facing of the gallery rail is solid horizontal planking.

( text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

Built as a farmhouse by Stephen Colegrove about 1755, it was sold by a subsequent owner in 1767 to Thomas Hammond, who with his son John kept a tavern here. Hammond’s Tavern was the location for the first Foster Town meeting November 19, 1781.Hammond sold the property in 1783 to John Williams, an Elder in the Baptist Church at Hopkins Mills, the first Town Moderator, and one of Foster’s first two Deputies to the General Assembly. Elder Williams lived here till his death in 1817. The property returned to the Hammond family in 1825 when Reuben Hammond bought it and set up his blacksmith shop on the premises. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

Nehemiah Angell built the house on thirty-five acres of land he had purchased in 1819. After a series of owners, Eli Aylsworth purchased the tavern stand and building in 1831; he sold the tavern in 1841. It appears that Nehemiah Angell, Israel Manchester, William Kent, and Eli Aylsworth all operated a tavern here. The 1851 map indicates that the post office was located here which strongly suggests that then-owner Field Burgess also kept a tavern. The Town of Foster acquired the property in the 1960s and today it is used for Police Headquarters and for other town offices. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

This rambling, clapboarded building, was a focus of community life in Foster Center throughout the 19th century. The main section was built by Welcome Rood in 1824 to serve as a store, tavern, and on the second floor, a Masonic meeting hall. The hall was used by the Masons until they were evicted at the height of anti-Masonic sentiment in 1834. The building was used as a hotel, residence, Town Clerk’s home and office, post office, store, and the location of many Town Council meetings for the remainder of the 19th century. Today it is a private residence. Despite the fact that all the outbuildings, including a large 19th century arcaded carriage house to the east, are gone, Welcome Rood Tavern remains a key historical and architectural focal point in Foster Center. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

A Christian church had gathered at Foster Center in 1834 and reorganized in 1851. The congregation met in the Foster Center School and in the Second Baptist Church, the Town House. In 1881 a subscription was taken to build a Christian meetinghouse which was dedicated October 31, 1882. In 1927, the twelve remaining church members joined the Rhode Island Baptist Convention; in 1965 the Church became an independent Baptist Church. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

This former 1-room schoolhouse, with paired entrances and open belfry, was somewhat remodeled in the 1830s or 1840s. It was used as a school until school consolidation in 1952. In 1957 it was reopened as the Foster Public Memorial Library. Two gable roofed ells, carefully designed by Richard Colwell to be in keeping with the schoolhouse, were added in 1964 and 1970 to accommodate library expansion. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

Dr. Mowry P.Arnold, a physician for over sixty years in Foster, began his practice in the town in 1828; in 1830 he purchased this farm from Andrew and Sally Hopkins. Arnold, who served as school commissioner forty-six years and Town treasurer twenty-three years, died in 1890. His son Mowry followed in his medical footsteps. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

This store, no longer existing, was located in front of/to the left of the Dr. Mowry Arnold House (just visible in the rear of this photo).

This large center chimney house has been altered by early twentieth remodeling and the addition of an enclosed porch on the mid-nineteenth century western ell. A shed to the northwest served as housing for the help when the tavern was in operation next door. Parallel four-foot stone walls cross the front lawn of the property and mark the course of Foster Center Road before twentieth century straightening. (Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

This large, 2-story, gable-roofed, clapboarded and shingled, late 19th century structure was built as a barn by James Bennett when he owned the Captain Abraham Phillips Farm. It was converted for use as Oak Tree Tavern in the early 20th century-the barn doors were removed, windows were added, and the 2-story section at the north was built-probably by James Seagraves who kept the tavern. The structure was converted into a residence, with a large, open, 2-story, galleried, central living space, by the Grays about 1974.

(Text from Foster, RI, RIHPC Report, P-F-1, 1982)

Currently this building is being used as the Foster Center Library