Entry No. 33 — the Providence file — filed under: pinball
Electromagnetic Pinball Museum and Restoration
Ten dollars a head buys all-day freeplay — no tokens, no quarters — in a Main Street space that is equal parts museum, arcade, and working repair bench, where restorer Joe Paquin fixes machines in the same room you play them. The floor reaches from electromechanical-era games like Fireball and Eight Ball Deluxe up through modern titles like Avengers: Infinity Quest and Rick and Morty, plus arcade cabinets and table games. It's a teaching operation too: the museum runs STEAM summer camps where kids build their own Pinbox machine prototypes, and it supports Project Pinball, which places machines in children's hospitals. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 9pm.
→ Three at a time, never the same twice — explore weird Providence
The story
881 Main Street in Pawtucket is the Creative Commerce Center, one more repurposed mill, and inside it is a room where the museum, the arcade and the repair bench are all the same room. Ten dollars a head buys the whole day on freeplay — no tokens, no quarters, none of the coin-slot economics the form was built on. The floor runs past a hundred pinball machines, from electromechanical-era survivors through classic Williams and Bally titles up to modern premium and limited editions and augmented-reality pinball, plus arcade cabinets (Neo Geo, fighting games, light-gun shooters, racing sims) and ping pong and foosball.
Joe Paquin is the person behind it, and the restoration half of the name is not decorative: machines get worked on where you can watch. The stated mission is to use interactive pinball exhibits to teach history, science, technology, engineering, art and math, and to argue that these cabinets are cultural heritage worth keeping running rather than parting out.
That teaching claim gets cashed in the summer, when the place runs weekday STEAM camps — mornings for ages ten to twelve, afternoons for thirteen to fifteen, $200 a week, sibling discounts. Physics teachers and engineering professionals give talks on electromagnetism, gravitation, relativity and Newton's laws, campers get free play, and everyone designs and builds a Pinbox prototype machine. The museum also backs Project Pinball, the charity that places machines in children's hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses. It is the same argument from a different angle: a pinball machine is a physics demonstration people will voluntarily stand in front of for hours.
What it's like
Park off Thurston Street, across from the U-Haul entrance and the large mural; there is an upper lot and a lower one. Inside, you pay ten dollars once and then nothing works like an arcade: there is no coin box to feed, so draining your last ball costs nothing but dignity and you simply start again. Bring your own food and drink, because there is no bar and no counter service. Walk-ins are fine Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 9pm, closed Monday and Tuesday except holidays and special events. Two party rooms rent at $150 for four hours, still $10 a head for the games, no alcohol inside them. The etiquette worth knowing: a machine with its playfield propped open is on the bench, not broken for your amusement.
The move: Go after dinner any Wednesday through Sunday — it's open till 9 — pay your $10 each and run a best-of-five tournament, alternating between an electromechanical machine like Fireball and something modern like Rick and Morty; loser covers ice cream on the way home.
📍 Before you go Open Wed-Sun 10am-9pm; closed Monday and Tuesday except holidays and special events. Flat $10 per person for all-day freeplay. Park via Thurston St, across from the U-Haul entrance. Walk-ins are fine, but call ahead for large groups or parties.
- 📍 Pawtucket
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Big night
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 881 Main St, Pawtucket, RI 02860
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Breaktime Bowl & Bar — Three tenths of a mile up Main Street in Hope Artiste Village: six hand-set duckpin lanes from the early 1900s, but private events only as of 2026, so it is the half of the day you reserve a week ahead while the pinball half needs no notice at all.
- Old Slater Mill — A mile away and free — Samuel Slater's 1793 water-powered spinning mill delivers the same pleasure as the pinball floor, visible mechanism doing visible work, with two centuries between the two.
- Providence Perfume Co. — A mile and a half south at 80 Fountain Street, appointment-only and all-botanical: put the loudest room in Pawtucket next to the quietest one and see which your date brings up afterward.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
What does it cost, and when is it open?
A flat $10 per person for all-day freeplay, Wednesday through Sunday, 10am to 9pm. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays except for holidays and special events. There is no per-game charge, so a long afternoon costs exactly the same as twenty minutes.
Where do I park?
Enter via Thurston Street, across from the U-Haul entrance, past the large mural. The building has both an upper and a lower lot.
Can we eat and drink there?
Bring your own — the museum does not sell food or beverages. Alcohol is not permitted in the rented meeting rooms.
We want to bring a group or throw a party. What's the process?
Walk-ins are fine for a few people, but call 401-465-8119 ahead for anything large. Two party-and-meeting rooms rent at $150 per four hours, with tables, seating, couches and a TV, on top of the $10 per person for the games.
Is there anything here for kids beyond playing?
Summer STEAM camps run weekdays for ages 10–15 — mornings for the 10–12 group, afternoons for 13–15, $200 a week with sibling discounts — taught by physics teachers and engineering professionals. Alongside the talks and the free play, each camper designs and builds a Pinbox pinball machine prototype.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · rimonthly.com
last checked: 2026-08-25