Entry No. 19 — the Providence file — filed under: vintage-computers
Rhode Island Computer Museum
After decades as an appointment-only warehouse operation, RICM cut the ribbon on an actual public museum at 1051 Ten Rod Road in June 2026, and it now keeps hours five days a week. The collection runs from Cray supercomputers and racks of DEC PDP minicomputers down to Apple, Commodore, and Atari micros, plus oddities like the Millionaire mechanical calculator, with volunteers documenting their restorations — a PDP-12, a PDP-9, a PDP-11/40 — in obsessive public logs going back years. The deep-storage hoard, the Fraser Archives, still lives in a separate warehouse a few miles away and still requires an appointment. Staff pitch the new space as hands-on tech education, which means some of it you're actually allowed to touch.
→ Three at a time, never the same twice — explore weird Providence
The story
The Rhode Island Computer Museum has been a 501(c)(3) since 1999, started by Dan Berman, Merle Peirce and Ron Fraser on the premise that somebody in Rhode Island ought to reach the mainframes before the scrappers did. For most of its life that meant a warehouse the volunteers called the Computer Crypt, visible only by appointment, which moonlighted as a props department — RICM hardware has turned up in Hidden Figures, Halt and Catch Fire and Maniac. On June 8, 2026 it cut the ribbon on a public building at 1051 Ten Rod Road in North Kingstown, branded the Learning Lab, and started keeping hours five days a week.
The collection rewards reading the labels. Four Cray machines — an EL-98, a J-916, an SV1ex-1 and a T3E-900 — share the building with a wall of DEC iron: PDP-8s, a PDP-9, PDP-10s, PDP-11s by the dozen, a PDP-12, plus Data General Novas and Apollo workstations. Past that come the small systems people actually grew up on — Apple, Commodore, Atari — and a calculator shelf running from HP-65s back to a Millionaire, the hand-cranked machine that could multiply directly. Volunteers publish their restoration logs: the PDP-12 blog opens in 2017, the PDP-9 gets a fresh installment every year from 2019 through 2026, and the PDP-11/40 has 2025 and 2026 chapters.
The warehouse hoard has not gone anywhere. It is now the Fraser Archives, renamed for Ron Fraser — co-founder, president emeritus, and the man who ran computer rescue missions as far as Prince Edward Island and shipped finds home from Australia and England. It sits in Building 310, Bay C on Compass Road in Davisville, still appointment-only. The mission statement talks about inspiring young people for the future workforce, which at the new building means some of the exhibits are meant to be switched on.
What it's like
From Providence it is I-95 south to RI-4, exit 3A onto Ten Rod Road, then the traffic circle where RI-102 meets RI-3; the entrance is on the right side of the building and parking is on site. Inside reads as a working shop tidied up for company: rows of front panels and toggle switches, cabinets from well before the beige era, and a greeter who is a volunteer and almost certainly has an opinion about whichever machine you name as your first. Ask before you touch — some pieces are set up to be handled, others are mid-restoration with the covers off and boards on the bench. Saturday, 10 to 5, is the longest window and the best odds of finding someone with time to walk you through a restoration in progress.
The move: Saturday, 10 to 5: take the building on the right side of the Ten Rod Road traffic circle, split up at the small-systems shelves, and each go find the first computer you ever touched — whoever's machine is older buys dinner, and the loser emails [email protected] to book the appointment-only warehouse for round two.
📍 Before you go Open Tuesday–Friday noon–4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Sunday noon–4 p.m.; the building sits at the traffic circle where RI-102 meets RI-3, with parking on site. The Fraser Archives warehouse is a separate appointment-only site. Carless? MBTA's Wickford Junction station and RIPTA routes 62, 65x, and 66 stop nearby.
- 📍 North Kingstown
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1051 Ten Rod Road, North Kingstown, RI 02852
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- New England Wireless & Steam Museum — Ten minutes up RI-4 on Frenchtown Road in East Greenwich: another volunteer-kept technology compound, except the machinery there runs on steam and spark gaps instead of core memory.
- Varnum Memorial Armory Museum — Book the armory tour for the same afternoon and you get two collections in one day that exist only because a handful of members refused to let the objects go.
- Rocky Point State Park amusement ruins — On the way back to Providence, and the exact inverse of RICM: obsolete machinery left outdoors to rust rather than rescued indoors and rewired.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
When is it open?
Tuesday through Friday noon to 4, Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 4. Closed Mondays. Hours are posted on ricomputermuseum.org, and since the place is volunteer-staffed it is worth confirming before a long drive.
Can I get there without a car?
Almost. MBTA commuter rail serves Wickford Junction with about 20 weekday stops, RIPTA routes 62, 65x and 66 run through Wickford toward Providence and URI, and parking at Wickford Junction is free around the clock. You will still want a rideshare for the last leg to Ten Rod Road.
What does it cost?
RICM is a nonprofit running on donations, memberships and Patreon, and it does not publish an admission price on its site. Call (401) 741-6997 or email [email protected] to ask what to bring, and plan on leaving a donation either way.
Can I see the big warehouse collection?
Only by appointment, and it is a separate address: the Fraser Archives, Building 310, Bay C on Compass Road in Davisville, reached via RI-403 toward Quonset. Email [email protected] or call ahead — it is not a walk-in.
Is anything actually running?
Restoration is the museum's whole personality, and the public logs for the PDP-9, PDP-12 and PDP-11/40 show it is continuous rather than finished. Which machines are powered up on a given day depends on which volunteers are in, so ask at the door.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · turnto10.com · northkingstownri.gov
last checked: 2026-08-25