Entry No. 20 — the Providence file — filed under: antiquarian-room
Charles Whipple Greene Museum
Up the stairs at the George Hail Free Library — an 1887 Romanesque Revival building by Providence architects William Walker and Sons on Warren's Main Street — a room set aside in 1889 as the "Antiquarian Room" has simply stayed a museum ever since. The cases hold whaling logs and scrimshaw, sextants, muskets and swords, candle molds, a Revolutionary War soldier's spectacles, and the paper trail of Warren's schools and fire department, along with Warren Times newspapers back to 1866. The library runs it, admission is free, and the open window is narrow: Wednesday afternoons, every other Saturday, or a private viewing if you call ahead. Most people checking out books downstairs have no idea it's up there.
→ Three at a time, never the same twice — explore weird Providence
The story
Warren's library began in 1871 as the Warren Public Reading Room Association, one floor above a commercial building at Main and Market. In 1882 Martha Hail made a large gift in memory of her late husband on condition that the library take his name; the trustees then raised a granite Romanesque Revival pile on Main Street between 1887 and 1888, designed by the Providence firm William Walker and Sons in the manner of H. H. Richardson, for just over $16,000. It opened in January 1889 with Hattie Butterworth as librarian, and it is still the town library.
At the dedication on January 8, 1889 the trustees set one room aside as the "Antiquarian Room." A Providence Sunday Telegram piece from January 1899 credits the idea to Judge Benjamin M. Bosworth and Theo Warren, who chaired the new antiquarian committee. Nobody has repurposed the room since, which is the point: a municipal cabinet of curiosities that was simply kept.
The cases sort themselves the way a nineteenth-century seaport does. Maritime: scrimshawed whale teeth, astrolabes, sextants, ships' papers, a section of the whaling log of the ship Chariot. Domestic: candle molds, foot warmers, cradles, a hearing horn, a dog muzzle. Military: bullet molds, cartridge belts, muskets, swords, and the spectacles of Barnard Haile, a Revolutionary soldier. Warren itself: an original town police badge, school and fire department memorabilia, the Warren Times from 1866 to 1992. On paper: two journals Luther Cole kept during the California Gold Rush, a George Washington signature, the papers of naval officer L. E. Simmonds. The library director runs it, admission is free, and the site's standing appeal is for volunteers with museum or local-history experience: two hours a week is all the staffing supports.
What it's like
You come in through a busy small-town library — story hour, holds shelf, someone printing a boarding pass — and go up to a room most of the people downstairs have never entered. There is no ticket desk, no shop and no audio guide; there is a librarian who will point you at the cases and answer questions if you ask, and otherwise leave you to it. The window is genuinely narrow, Wednesday 2 to 4 plus the second and fourth Saturdays, so an hour is a full visit and you should treat the posted close as real. Nothing is interactive. Ask before photographing, keep your voice at library volume, and if you want longer or a different day, call and book a private viewing rather than chancing it.
The move: Wednesday at 2 p.m.: climb to the library's second floor, take a slow half hour with the scrimshaw and the whaling logs, then walk down Main Street to Warren's restaurant row for oysters before the museum's 4 p.m. close has even passed.
📍 Before you go Free. Museum hours are Wednesdays 2–4 p.m. plus the second and fourth Saturdays (check the library's events calendar for Saturday times); call 401-245-7686 to arrange a private viewing or tour. The museum is on the library's second floor; street parking along Main Street.
- 📍 Warren
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 530 Main Street, Warren, RI 02885
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Musée Patamécanique — Bristol is the next town south, and the contrast is the joke: an 1889 room of real objects labeled in earnest, then ninety minutes of automaton theater from a museum that declines to confirm it exists.
- Green Jacket Shoal Ship Graveyard at Bold Point Park — The East Bay Bike Path runs from Bold Point down to Warren, so you can study the scrimshaw and the Chariot's whaling log first and then go stand over actual rotting hulls at low tide.
- Purgatory Chasm (Middletown) — Keep going south over the Mount Hope Bridge for the geological counterweight: a fifty-foot cleft in the puddingstone that Newport papers were writing up by 1831, with no cases and no opening hours.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
Where is it, and where do I park?
530 Main Street in Warren, inside the George Hail Free Library. Street parking runs along Main Street, and the building's accessible ramp entrance is around the corner on Croade Street.
What does it cost?
Nothing — it is a free public library museum. A donation to the library is the polite move, and they will happily take volunteer hours instead.
When is it open, and can I book a private visit?
Wednesdays 2 to 4 p.m. plus the second and fourth Saturday of each month; check the library's events calendar for exact Saturday times, which vary. For a private viewing or a group tour, call 401-245-7686 or email [email protected].
Is it accessible?
The museum room is up a floor. The library has an accessible ramp on the Croade Street side, but call 401-245-7686 before you go to sort out access to the museum level itself.
Can I do real research there?
Yes, and some of it from home: the museum keeps an online catalog and digital collections, and the Warren Times from 1866 to 1992 plus Warren yearbooks and school reports are digitized. Rhode Island history, local genealogies and city directories sit in the Reference Room downstairs.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: georgehail.org · historicwarren.org
last checked: 2026-08-25