Entry No. 21 — the Providence file — filed under: militia-armory
Varnum Memorial Armory Museum
The Varnum Continentals — a ceremonial Rhode Island militia unit chartered in 1907 by veterans of the Kentish Guards to honor Revolutionary general James Mitchell Varnum — keep their 1913 crenellated stone armory on Main Street stuffed as a military museum. The exhibits march from the Revolution through the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Global War on Terror, with the original Dorr Rebellion flag as the centerpiece relic of Rhode Island's 1842 almost-civil-war over who got to vote. The building quartered State and National Guard units from 1918 to 1996; now member volunteers open it for tours when someone asks. There are no posted hours, which is precisely why almost nobody in East Greenwich has seen the inside.
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The story
The Varnum Continentals formed in 1903 and were chartered in 1907 by former Kentish Guards members who wanted the old traditions kept, taking their name from James Mitchell Varnum, the Revolutionary general who helped found the Guards. Reactivated by Governor Bruce Sundlun in 1992, they remain part of the Rhode Island militia and still parade with period muskets and cannon — but the day job is the museum.
In 1913 they began a medieval-style brick armory at Main and Division in East Greenwich, on the mid-1800s site of the Rhode Island Central Bank, the town's first. It went up in about a year around a 40-by-110-foot drill hall. From 1918 to 1996 the state leased most of it for National Guard units — one of very few armories the state did not own that housed one — and in the Second World War a civilian-staffed aircraft spotter's post for the Army Air Corps coastal warning network sat on the north tower. It is on the National Register, and a $43,450 state grant paid for window restoration.
It is billed as the largest collection of Rhode Island militaria anywhere, and for a volunteer outfit the specifics startle: the Byfield Flag of 1695, claimed as the oldest flag in America; a letter written by a formerly enslaved Black soldier of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment in 1778; wartime letters from George Washington and Nathanael Greene; a 1775 leather artillery hat marked to the United Train of Artillery. In the president's office hangs the painted flag the ladies of Warwick and Cranston gave the Rhode Island Guards for "their Patriotic Services on the Eighteenth of May, 1842" — the night Thomas Dorr's men marched on the Cranston Street arsenal and their cannon fired water. It honors the side that beat Dorr, not Dorr, and it arrived in 1941 from descendants of Col. Christopher Greene.
What it's like
There are no drop-in hours. You either catch a free public open house — posted on the Varnum calendar, usually 11 to 3 on a Sunday, occasionally a weekday evening — or you book a private tour. Either way you come in through the big front doors, unlocked when they are expecting you. At an open house you move through the rooms at your own pace with docents around to answer things. A private tour is the better experience: 1.5 to 2 hours led by the curator or a docent, pitched at whatever your group already knows, often including the conservation lab where textile and document conservators are mid-project, and private groups sometimes get to handle artifacts. Otherwise, hands off. Photography is fine. Reaching the museum means stairs.
The move: Call 401-884-4110 this week and book a private tour for two — you'll likely get a Varnum member walking you case by case from flintlocks to the Dorr flag — then step out onto East Greenwich's Main Street restaurant strip, which starts at the armory's front door, and argue over dinner about whether Thomas Dorr had a point.
📍 Before you go No walk-in hours: tours are arranged by calling 401-884-4110 or through the inquiry form on varnumcontinentals.org, so plan a few days ahead. Street parking along Main Street in East Greenwich. The same organization also runs the Gen. James Mitchell Varnum House Museum a few blocks away if you want the double bill.
- 📍 East Greenwich
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 6 Main Street, East Greenwich, RI 02818
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- New England Wireless & Steam Museum — Also in East Greenwich, out on Frenchtown Road, and also run by volunteers keeping century-old hardware in working order — make it the morning half and the armory the afternoon.
- Rhode Island Computer Museum — Fifteen minutes down RI-4 in North Kingstown, and the same species of institution: a hoard rescued by enthusiasts and shown to you by the people who did the rescuing.
- Rocky Point State Park amusement ruins — Twenty minutes north in Warwick for air and water after two hours of indoor cases, and a different sort of Rhode Island ruin — an amusement park's bones instead of a militia's.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
How do I actually get in?
Two ways. Free open houses need no reservation — check the calendar on varnumcontinentals.org. Private tours must be booked and confirmed in advance: call 401-884-4110 or use the inquiry form on the site, and give them a few days.
What does it cost?
Open houses are free, donations encouraged. Private tours are $75 total for one to five adults, or $15 per person for groups of six or more; children under 18 and Varnum Continentals members go free. Thirty people is the cap.
Where do I park?
Main Street, Division Street on the north side of the armory, or the small lot behind the building in front of the green five-bay garage — those no-parking signs are the Varnums' own, and they tell visitors to ignore them.
Is the museum accessible?
No. Reaching the museum requires a staircase, and there is currently no elevator or ramp to it. Call 401-884-4110 before booking if that is a problem.
Is it suitable for kids?
The organization's own guidance is to use judgment: this is war history and the tools of war, and much of it is not aimed at younger children. All modern firearms on display are deactivated, and the rule for everyone is do not touch the artifacts.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-25