The Story of Shakespeare’s Head
An Address by John Hutchins Cady at John Brown House, Providence, January 13, 1949
Among the diminishing number of pre-Revoluntionary buildings in Providence which have survived to the present day are nine of particular historic and architectural consequence. These include two public buildings — the Colony House and the Market House; one church — First Baptist; two education buildings — University Hall and the Brick Schoolhouse; and four converted dwellings erected by famous colonists — Steven Hopkins, Esek Hopkins, Joseph Brown and John Carter. It is significant that all of these buildings are well-preserved and in good hands, and six are in everyday use.
Most of them have undergone transformations. The Colony Houe, which later served as the State House for over a century and now houses the Sixth District Court, has had two additions and only one room is preserved in its original status. The First Baptist Meeting House is unchanged outwardly except for the addition of the east baptistry, but has had various interior alterations. University Hall has been disemboweled and completely rebuilt while preserving the original walls and roof lines. The Market House, many times altered in conformity to the needs of a masonic hall, City Hall, and Chamber of Commerce quarters, has not yet fully recovered from its major operation of 1938, but its recent acquisition by the School of Design is considred a good omen for its future usefulness. The Brick Schoolhouse has had various changes but has always been used for educational purposes; right now it houses a school for crippled children. The Joseph Brown house was converted into a bank a quarter century after its erection and various alterations and additions were made later. Esek Hopkin’s house, little changed, is now owned by the city and in custody of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Stephen Hopkins House was acquired by the state when the new Court House was built, and was moved across Hopkins Street and restored; it is now maintained by the Society of Colonial Dames in Rhode Island. The story of the house erected by John Carter in 1772, its narrow escape from destruction 175 years later, and its rescue by a group of persons who incorporated Shakespeare’s Head Association, I am about to relate.
The name “Shakespeare’s head,” with which Carter’s house is associated, actually antedates the erection of the house. Its earliest reference is found in the Providence Gazette for July 9, 1763, wherein are the words “Printed by William Goddard at his Printing-Office, just removed to the store of Judge Jenckes, near the Great Bridge, and published at his Book Shop just above it, at the Sign of Shakespeare’s Head.” Judge Jencke’s store was in the Abbott Still House, so called, which stood on the Town Parade some 20 feet south of the spot where the Market House was erected ten years later.
The Gazette had been published for nine months at the time of the removal of its office. Its original issue was dated October 20, 1762, with the legend “printed opposite the Court House.” The Court House, or Colony House, was just being completed at that time and the first Gazette office, apparently, was on the west side of Towne street, now North main, between Haymarket and North Court streets.
The third Gazette office is identified by an advertisement in the issue of March 16, 1765, stating that “On Tuesday next the Post Office and Printing Office will be removed to the house opposite Mr. Nathan Angell’s, near the sign of the Golden Eagle.: William Goddard was postmaster at that time, having succeeded Samuel Chase who had held that position since the Colonial Postal Service was instituted in 1758. Angell’s lot was on the west side of the Towne street between the present Steeple and Elizabeth streets and is now overpassed by the railroad viaduct. The Gazette office was on the opposite side of Elizabeth Street where the Francis W. Carpenter Memorial Building now stands. North of it was the Sign of the Golden Eagle where Joseph and William Russell sold velvets, broad-cloths, superfine, or scarlet for mens and womens long coats; also paper, looking glasses and books, alla s advertised in the Gazette. A few years later the Russels [sic] built their mansion which still stands at 118 North Main Street.
Financial difficulties, caused by burdens imposed by the stamp act and aggravated by an inability to collect payment of dilatory subscriptions, foced the suspension of the Gaztte early in 1767. William Goddard left Providence and held positions, successively, in New York and Philadelphia. Then he went to Baltiore where he published a semi-weekly paper from 1773 to 1792. He married Abigail Angell at Cranston in 1786 and six years later they returned to Rhode Island and took up their abode in Johnston in the house erected by Thomas Clemence about 1680 and purchased 60 years later by John Angell, Abigail Goddard’s grandfather.
After an interval of six months, during which period the stampa ct was repealed, the Gazette resumed publication by Sarah Goddard and Company. Mrs. Sarah Goddard, mother o fWilliam, was a daughter of Lodowick Updike whose grandfather, Richard Smith, had established a trading post in 1639 at Cocumscussoc, near Wickford. Meanwhile the post office had been continued at the same location on the Towne street, John Cole succeeding Goddard as postmaster. Cole had studied law in the office of Attorney General Daniel Updike, Mrs. Goddard’s brother, had married his patron’s daughter Mary, and had served as chief justice of the colony 1764-1765.
John Carter came to Providence in August, 1767 to assist Mrs. Goddard and acquired ownership of the Gazette November 12, 1768. During those years the printing office, according to the imprint, was “At the Sign of Shakespeare’s Head” without further address. Undoubtedly it was still opposite Angell’s property for Carter was recorded as owner of the building there in 1770. The New England Almanac in that year was printed by John Carter at his printing office, the Sign of Shakespeare’s Head, near the Court House.” The Gazette continued to use the name Shakespeare’s Head with the address “in King Street near the Court House” from January to October, 1771 and “in King Street, opposiute the Court House” from October, 1771 until December, 1772. King Street was the name given to the section of Towne street extendning from the Parade to the Court House, or from Market Square to North Court Street. The words “opposite the Court House” indicate another removal to a spot 400 feet north of Elizabeth Street, possibly the original Gazette office. Carter was at time erecting his new house and may have sold his other house to help pay building costs, and hired temporary quarters pendings its completion.
Starting with the issue of December 5, 1772, the Gazette was printed “in Meeting Street near the Court House,” indicating the opening of the building now known as Shakespeare’s Head/ The imprints from 1777 throuhg 1889 have the words “at the Post Office at Shakespeare’s Head near the State House.” John Carter was post-master from 1772 to 1792, succeeding John Cole.
John Carter was Irish-American. his Irish father was killed in a naval battle during the war of 1745, a few months before John was born. His mother was the former Elizabeth Spriggs of Philadelphia. John served an apprenticeship with Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia and came to Providence at the age of twenty-two. Among his early acquantances in Providence was Captain John Updike, son of Richard Updike, another brother of Mrs. Goddard. Captain John had retired as shipmaster for Obadiah Brown and Compnay and had married Ann Crawford, daughter of Captain John and Abigail (Bowen) Crawford. Through this friendship Carter met Ann’s sister Amy Crawford whom he married May 14, 1769. Captain Updike owned the land on the south side of Meeting Street, between King and Benefit, and had erected a dwelling at the foot of the hill and a small gambrel-roofed house to the east of it which he let to tenants. The small house has been razed and replaced by a garage, but the dwelling still stands at the corner of North Main Street, its exterior walls recently glorified by the application of a type of siding in imitation of red brick. Updike deeded to Carter the remainder of the land to the east, on which Carter erected, i about the year 1772, the house which was to serve both as a dwelling and a place of business. The hillside site was ideal for both purposes; it was in the heart of the civic center but far enough removed from King Street to be free from the noise of that busy thoroughfare. From the west windows the Carters could look beyond the rooftops of the King Street houses where the waters of the cove and the distant hills provided a superb view.
The house, both in plan and detail, followed the Colonial precedent already manifest in scores of Providence dwellings. The rooms were built around a large chimney which had three fireplaces on each story, providing needed warmth during New England winters. The house differed from most others in having three full stories and a hipped roof, in contrast to the more usual two-story gable-roofed type. The rooms are well-proportioned and contain moulded wood finish in the mantels, doors and trimming. Of particular elegance are the northwest paneled room in the second story and the front stairway hall. The stairway bears a striking resemblance to the one which Daniel Updike, uncle of Captain John, installed in the Smith Garrison House at Cocumscussoc when he altered that dwelling about 1740. Carter erected a barn in the southwest corner his lot, with a paved courtyard of which some of the cobble stones still remain. He had a terraced garden farther east.
When the house was completed John Carter set up the Sign of Shakespeare’s Head on a pole on the sidewalk. It was probably the same sign that William Goddard had placed outside his book shop on the Town Parade ten years earlier, symbolizing the treasures of literature to be found within. In the first story Carter established his printing shop, publication office of the Gazette, book shop and post office. His parlor, dining room and kitchen were in the second story, and the sleeping quarters in the third. The front entrance, with its two-way steps on the sidewalk, probably was reserved for the family and the side entrance on the east used for business purposes.
The Carters had twelve children of whom two died in infancy, one died at the age of four, and the others grew to maturity. It is interesting to speculate on the sleeping arrangeents of so large a family. The third story, which appears to have been little altered, has two romos flanking the stairway hall on the front, and a large center room on the rear flanked by two small rooms on the west and two rooms and a rear stairway on the east. Presumably Mr. and Mrs. Carter occupied the front room on the west, and their eldest daughter Ann the front room on the east. The large rear room may have been the nursery from which the children graduated to the small adjoining room. The first of the children to marry was Ann whose wedding to Nicholas Brown, Jr. took place in 1791. Assuming that the other children were residing with their parents in that year, sleeping quarters must have been provided for Benjamin (20), John (17), Rebecca (13), James (11), Crawford (9), William (6), Huldah (4), and Elizabeth Ann (1). There probably was considerable scramble on the part of the older children to have possession of the fine room vacated by Ann.
Nicholas Brown, Jr. had grown up in his father’s house on South Main Street which stood on the spot opposite the center of the new Court House. The house of his deceased uncle Joseph Brown, which I have already mentioned and which was soon to become the Providence Bank stood, and is still standing, a short distance farther south on the east side of the highway. That was before South Water Street was constructed and seagoing vessels were moored at the wharves which lined the shore. Uncle John brown recently completed his mansion on Power Street and Uncle Moses Brown dwelt in his farm house near the present Wayland Square. After the death of Nicholas Brown, Sr. early in 1791 his widow Avis Brown and his children nicholas, Jr. and Hope took up their residence in the frame house on Angell’s Lane which Seril Dodge had erected four years earlier and from which he moved into his new brick house next door. Both of these houses are now owned by the Providence Art Club. The change in dwelling must have been agreeable to Nicholas, Jr. as it was in proximity to the home of his fianceé. In the spring following his wedding to Ann Carter his sister Hope was married to Thomas Poynton Ives, then a clerk in the Brown Brother’s office. It was in gratitutde to Nicholas Brown’s gift to the college that the corporation in 1804 gave it the name Brown University.
The removal of John Carter’s printing office from Shakespeare’s Head, not long after Ann’s wedding, may have been accomplished to provide more ample accomodations for the family; or possibly it was because Captain Updike rented to a rival printer a shop in the small house between his dwelling and Shakespeare’s Head, an act which evoked Carter’s Irish-American imprecations against the name of Updike. In any event, he resigned as postmaster in 1792, to be succeeded by William Wilkinson. And late in the following year he took Wilkinson as partner and moved the printing office back to the Abbott Still House on the Parade and for the next five years the Gazette was printed by Carter and Wilkinson “at their Book and Stationary shop opposite the Market.” Wilkinson retired from the firm in May, 1[8]00 and Carter resumed full ownership at the same address. The financial difficulties to which he was subject in his later years are reflected in a pathetic notice inserted in the Gazette January 1, 1814, as follows: “War prices being attached to every article made use of in the Printing Business, as well as to the common necessaries of life, imperiously compels the Editor… to call upon all persons in arrear to him for News-Papers, Advertisements, and other Printing Work, to make immediate Payment, which will highly oblige him, at this crisis of uncommon difficulty. The several accounts will be prepared; and althoguh small, the aggregate amount would enable him to pay his Paper Maker, meet the demands of creditors he is anxious to pay, and obtain for himself and Family the common comforts of life. These are his objects and the height of his speculations.” Six weeks later failing health forced his retirement and the transfer of the Gazette to Brown and Wilson. His death occurred August 19, 1814, eight years after that of Mrs. Carter.
So far as is known no protrait of Carter was made during his lifetime. The painting in possession of the Rhode Island Historical Society was executed in Rome, forty years after his death, by Samuel Brown with the aid of a pencil sketch made from memory by Hoppin.
Significant events in United States and Rhode Island history occurred during Carter’s editorship of the Gazette; the burning of the British revenue schooner Gaspee in Narragansett Bay; the burning of tea in Boston and Providence; the Battle of Lexington; the Declaration of Independence; the Revolutionary War; visits of Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette in Providence; the adoption of the United States Constitution; establishment of the East Indian trade; inauguration of the cotton industry in Rhode Island; the Embargo Act; and the War of 1812.
Carter’s editorial policies are summarized in an obituary printed in the Gazette, with these words: “During the whole of the revolutionary contest he was the firm champion of his country, and the columns of his paper teemed with sound patriotism and animated exhortations. After that period he manifested himself the true friend of his country, and was zealous in his endeavor to induce the people o fthis state to adopt the present Constitution of the United Sttes. Attached to that Constitution, he ever defended it from the violence of its first, and of its more modern enemies, and floried that he was a discipple of Washington, under whose administration it was preserved spotless.”
According to the vital statistics of the Carter children, Ann Brown died in 1798; Rebecca married Amos Throop Jenckes in 1801; Elizabeth Ann married Walter R. Danforth in 1811; James was last heard of on the privateer Paul Jones in 1812; John died in Providence in 1815; William died in Louisiana in 1821; and Benjamin, a physician, removed to New York where he died in 1835.
The city directory for 1823 gives Meeting Street as the adress of Crawford Carter, accountant, and 53 1/2 Westminster Street as that of Walter R. Danforth, attorney. Probably Hulder Carter resided with her brother until her death in 1842. Mr. Danforth was mayor of Providence, 1853-1854, and at that time resided at 7 Chestnut Street. Following his death in 1861 his widow, Elizabeth Ann, and probably three unmarried children, took up their residence with her brother, Crawford at 9 Meeting Street (the old number of Shakespeare’s Head). His death occurred in 1868 and Mrs. Danforth, the last survivor of the Carter children, died there at the age of 86 in 1876.
Of the three family names of Goddard, Carter and Updike, only that of Goddard has been perpetuated in rhode Island Annals. William Giles Goddard was born in Johnston in 1794, shortly after his parents William and Abigail Goddard moved into Clemence house. He graduated from Brown in 1812, married Charlotte R. Ives, returned to Brown as professor of moral philosophy, metaphysics, and belles lettres and, after retirement in 1843, became a member of the Board of Trustees. After the death of her husband Abigail Goddard sold the Clemence house to Elder Stephen Sweet. A century later it was restored and is now owned by the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities. William Giles and Charlotte Goddard had five sons and two daughters. Their eldest son William Goddard was chancellor of Brown from 1888 to 1907. None of the Carter sons were married and the Carter progeny was maintained by the Browns, Jenckeses, and Danforths and their descendants. The name of Carter is best memorialized by the John Carter Brown Library, founded by the youngest son of Nicholas and Ann Carter Brown.
The direct line of the Updikes ended with the death in 1941 of Daniel Berkeley Updike, founder of the Merrymount Press in Boston, in whose honor the Updike Collection of Books on Printing has been established at the Providence Public Library. It is significant that the birthplace of William G. Goddard in Johnston and the home of John Carter in providence have been restored and preserved, and that the recently-incorporated Cocumcussoc Association is in the process of acquiring for posterity the ancestral Smith-Updike house in Wickford.
Even before Mrs. Danforth’s death in 1876 the environment of Shakespeare’s Head had changed in character and many of the North Main and Meeting Street residents had moved to less congested neighborhoods. The Russell house on North Main Street, for a long time the residence of the Allen family, was vacated by Zachariah Allen who erected a new house on Megee Street, and was converted into Clarendon Hotel. Other houses on that street were used for stores and tenements. In course of time Shakespeare’s Head became a lodging house and from then onward its character was down-grade.
When the New Haven Railroad erected the tunnel and viaduct in 1908, through which electric trains were operated during the next 30 years, it acquired the land extending northerly to Meeting Street, including the Shakespeare’s Head estate. The State of Rhode Island re-purchased the lot on the corner of Benefit Street to which it moved the Arsenal from its former site at the tunnel portal. James M. Stockhard, owner of What Cheer Garage at the north-east corner of Benefit and Meeting Streets, bought the Shakespeare’s Head property as a safeguard against the erection of a rival establishment. Some of the rooms in the house were rented for a while as artists’ studios. Subsequently the house became un-tenanted, its windows broken, and its doors swinging open for the entry of tramps and marauders. That was the condition when the Evening Bulletin on April 2, 1937, reported that the Inspector of Buildings had ordered the owners to repair the house and, being advised that they were unable to do so, had condemned it for destruction.
Within a week a small group of persons met together with the determination to effect [sic] the purchase and restoration of John Carter’s house. They raised sufficient funds to secure an option to purchase the property and to make such preliinary repairs as were required by the Building Inspector as a condition for his agreement to waive the condemnation order. In January, 1938, the group was incorporated as Shakespeare’s Head Association, whcih was organized with the election of officers consisting of Henry C. Hart, president, Mrs. Howard D. Day, vice president, John H. Wells, treasurer, and Philip D. Creed, secretary. By means of further donations full payment was made for the portion of the property on which the house stood, to which was added a strip of land to the east which was given in memory of James M. Stockard by heirs of his estate. The association acquired title to the whole property January 17, 1938 and in the following April the work of rehabilitation was commenced.
The restoration of Shakespeare’s Head was carried out over a period of years as funds for the purpose became available. The original plan was to use the building as a museum for the printing arts and to fit up a tea room as a means for providing revenue. As the Providence building laws impose certain restrictions in the use of wooden buildings erected or altered in the fire district the permit for alterations granted by the Inspector of Buildings restricted the use of Shakespeare’s Head to museum pruposes and the tea room had to be abandoned. The first stage of the work included exterior repairs and painting, the installation of new window sash and doors, new asbestos shingle roofing, new gutters and conductors, repairs to the chimney and fireplaces, and certain interior rehabilitations including electric wiring, plaster patching, and the construction of new cellar stairs. Shortly afterwards the second story room on the northwest corner was restored by the Society of Colonial Dames in Rhode Island under direction of a committee composed of Miss Alice Appleton, Mrs. Colt Anthony, Mrs. Howard D. Day, Mrs. Thomas E. Steere, Mrs. Sidney Clifford, and Mrs. Kenneth Wood. Miss Appleton added a personal touch by stenciling the walls of the adjoining south room. The northwest first story room was restored, and identified as Gregory Dexter Room, by gift of Mrs. Elizabeth White. An iron rail at the entrance steps was donated by Mrs. C. Gordon MacLeod.
In 1940 the Board of Directors petitioned the Building Board of Review for authority to make further improvements to the house in order to make it available for rental purposes, having in mind the postponement of museum plan until such time as the association would be self-supporting. The Board of Review finally granted permission for renting the rooms, excluding however any granted permission for renting the rooms, excluding however any granted permission for renting the rooms, excluding however any provisions for kitchen facilities or sleeping quarters. Heating and plumbing systems were then installed the first two stories were altered and renovated. As finances were running low the interior painting at this stage was accomplished by a volunteer group of women.
Meanwhile the Rhode Island Federation of Garden Clubs had undertaken the development of the grounds under direction of a committee composed of Mrs. Francis E. Bates, Miss Ruth Ely, Mrs. Robert L. Knight, Mrs. Peter P. Chase, Mrs. Wallace Campbell and Mrs. Kenneth Wood. The rising ground at the rear of the house was covered with ashes that had accumulated for several generations, and when these were removed the old terrace walls of the Carter garden were disclosed. The landscape plan was made by James Graham, in cluding a formal garden at the lower level and additional beds on the reclaimed terraces to the east. Individual garden clubs in the federation donated plantings for designated areas and provided such features as garden steps and a sundial. The Meeting Street fence was the gift of the Providence County Garden Club and the heavy wire fence along the back lines of the property was donated by Mrs. Wood. Two memorial linden were planted in honor of Mrs. Daniel A. Clarke and Prof. John E. Hill, past presidents of the federation, and flowering crab trees, quinces and lilacs were set out at appropriate locations. The beds of the formal garden were outlined with box and an herb garden was laid out on one of the terraces. The work of rebuilding the terrace walls, laying the paths, and planting the flower gardens required more than a year for completion and, through all of that time, was under the personal supervision of Mrs. Bates. It is principally through her untiring efforts that an ash dump has been transformed into one of the most attractive small gardens in Providence. It is a quiet and pleasant retreats, except on occassion when a train of oil cars passes by, drawn by a steam locomotive and belching clouds of black smoke.
The first tenants of the association were the Girls Scouts who took over the first story in February, 1941. In the following July the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects rented the northwest corner second story room which it fitted up for use as a library. And in 1943 the Junior League established quarters on that story. In that year the garden clubs were given the use of the south basement room, which was rehabilitated by means of funds subscribed by friends of Miss Mauran and named in her honor Julia Lippitt Mauran Garden Room.
More recent restoration work has consisted principally in structural reinforcements to strengthen some of the floors, and provisions for keeping the house warm, including the erection of a vestibule at the east entrance, the plugging of air leaks in the floors and basement walls, the installation of storm windows, and the unsulation of exterior walls, the latter project made possible by a gift from Mrs. Day.
It is gratifying to be able to report that Shakespeare’s Head Association is free from any indebtedness. The purchase of the property and the major reconstruction projects have been made possible throuugh generous gifts. The association is particulalry inexpensive. The annual receipts from rentals and from the dues paid by members now enable the association to pay the cost of taxes, insurance, heating, lighting, janitor service, minor repairs, and other items of overhead expense. A larger income is needed, however, to defrey the cost of exterior and interior painting which cannot be delayed much longer. An increase in the scale of rentals which went into effect the first of this year, will provide a measure of relief, and it is hoped that this may be augemented by the receipts of dues from a greatly enlarged membership.
Two of the officers, Mrs. Day, vice president and Mr. Wells, treasurer, have served continueously since Shakespeare Head Association was organized. mrs. Edward S. Spicer succeeded Mr. Creer as secretary in 1945. Membership on the Board of directors has included Mrs. A. M. Burgess, Mrs. George E. Dowing, Mrs. Robert H. I. Goddard, Mrs. Robert L. Knight, Mrs. Thomas E. Steere, Mrs. Francis E, Bates, Mrs. Frederick L. Chase, Jr., Miss Alice Appleton, and Mrs. Robert L. Knight, Jr. About 75 persons now constitute the membership in the association.
I wish to express our gratitutde to those persons who, by direct gifts and by the payment of membership dues, have made possible the purchase, restoration and maintenance of Shakespeare’s Head and the garden. I hope that the accomplishments of the association may prove an incentive toward the preservation of other Rhode Island landmarks.