Westerly RI Historic Homes: Babcock-Smith House

An early Georgian-style mansion built in 1734 for Dr. Joshua Babcock, the Babcock-Smith House is one of Rhode Island's most important architectural and historical landmarks. Babcock was a prominent physician, politician, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and Major General of State Militia during the Revolutionary War. The property was later purchased in 1946 by Orlando Smith who discovered outcroppings of fine granite on the property that could be used for sculpturing monuments and transformed Westerly's economy with the boom in granite statues after the Civil War commemorating battlefields and cemeteries.

Joshua Babcock was born in 1707 to Captain James Babcock, the son of one of Westerly's first settlers. Joshua proved to be a quick learner and at 17 was the first graduate of Yale College from Rhode Island in 1724. He studied medicine in Boston and London and returned to Westerly in 1734.

He married Hannah Stanton, and built the mansion from which he would practice medicine for the next twenty-five years, became Westerly's first post office, and conducted a prosperous retail store from the home. During this time, it was said that no store of its kind had a more prosperous business between Boston and New York.

Babcock became active in politics representing Westerly in the Rhode Island General Assembly for nine years. For sixteen years he served on the Supreme Court of Rhode Island and was Chief Justice.

A friend of Benjamin Franklin who used to stay at the house traveling from Boston to Philadelphia on postal duties, Franklin appointed Babcock Westerly's first Postmaster in the 1770's operating the post office from this house. A pair of lightning rods on the roof are said to have been a gift to Joshua of Franklin's new invention.

As one of the Rhode Island's leading politicians and jurists, Babcock took a strong patriot position defending the rights of the colonists. He signed Rhode Island's repeal of allegiance to the King of Great Britain two months before the Declaration of Independence - making the colony the first to formally break with England. He was appointed Major General of Rhode Island's militia, and was a leading member of the Colony's War Council, procuring equipment for the troops and serving as paymaster.

George Washington is said to have stayed at the house more than once when traveling between Boston and New York during the Revolutionary War. No one held more important positions or was more active in Rhode Island's struggle for independence than Joshua Babcock.

Joshua Babcock died in 1783 and the house eventually passed to Dudley Babcock who experienced financial setbacks when he lost some ships in the War of 1812. He sold the house to a cousin, Oliver Wells in 1817. For years the house was a tenant farm, and it became run down and in need of repairs.

In 1846 Orlando Smith who was a stonemason from Ledyard, Connecticut literally stumbled upon an excellent outcropping of fine granite on the land that he quickly recognized would be perfect for statues and monuments. At the time, the property extended from present day Tower Street to Wells Street, then running eastward in a wedge shape for about 1 ? miles.

Smith took an option to buy the property for $8,000. His elderly mother, Sally Raymond Smith, rode sidesaddle from Ledyard with the $2,000 deposit to seal the deal. He moved into the house in 1848, and moved his stone masonry business to the top of what would come to be known as Quarry Hill which played such a prominent role in the history of Westerly.

Westerly produced four types of fine granite that is incredibly hard and can be carved down to the finest detail. There is a blue granite that is very fine grained with a blue-white color used for statuary and monuments. There are lite pink, dark pink and red granites that are fine grained with a pink to reddish hue used in monuments and buildings. Great monuments made from Westerly Granite that are now over a hundred and fifty years old show no weathering or staining.

Orlando Smith died in 1859, but three generations of the Smith Granite Company would make the quarry one of the best in America.

At the end of the Civil War in 1865, there was a great movement to memorialize the battlefields and cemeteries with commemorative statues. Because Westerly granite had become renown for it high-quality for statues and monuments, it resulted in an influx of highly skilled tradespeople to Westerly that caused the town to prosper.

Local men would pose as soldiers. Women posed as angels. Artists would first sculpt the statue in soft clay, then a plaster cast would be taken which was used as the model for the statue. Visitors to Smith Granite could select from a menu of plaster cast characters that would then be carved in granite for their monument.

Most of the statues at Gettysburg were carved from Westerly granite as well as the monuments at the battlefields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga. By 1900, 57% of Westerly's residents were employed by the local granite industry and four to five hundred workers could be seen coming down from Quarry Hill at the end of the work day.

The Babcock-Smith House was added to the National Register of Historic Places and became a museum in 1972. The mansion is beautifully furnished with pieces from the Colonial Babcock years, as well as Victorian furnishings of the Smith years. Located at 124 Granite Street, it is open for tours and occasional events and is Westerly, Rhode Island's most important historic home.

Steven Penny author of Hiring The Best People writes on the best places for your home and family in Connecticut. If you are looking for Westerly RI Homes for Sale please visit http://www.Prudentialct.com

Source: http://articles.submityourarticle.com/westerly-ri-historic-homes-babcock-smith-house-307605

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