FALL STUDY TOUR
New Bedford, Massachusetts/ Providence, Rhode Island: Study Tour Weekend
October 27, 28 & 29, 2006

The Fall tour 2006 was to two historic coastal New England cities: New Bedford, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. 

Situated on the shores of Buzzards Bay, New Bedford was one of America’s largest whaling ports in the 19th century. During the port’s heyday during the 1840s, ten thousand men were at work on New Bedford vessels, which gathered more than a half a million barrels of oil and three million pounds of whalebone in the year 1847 alone. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville described the town as "perhaps the dearest place to live in all New England…..nowhere in America will you find more patrician-like houses." Some of the mansions to which he referred are still to be seen today, including one of the highlights of our tour: the Rotch-Jones-Duff House, a Richard Upjohn-designed residence that was built in the 1830s.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum, the premier whaling museum in America, will figure prominently in our weekend as a venue for touring, a reception and a lunch. The saga of the whale and of dedicated hunters comes alive at the Whaling Museum. Built in 1904 as the old Dartmouth Historical Society, the cupola-topped museum is easily the most imposing building on the City’s waterfront. At the museum, paintings, photographs, stern boards, scrimshaw, figureheads, ship models, log books and part of a 1/4 mile panorama tell the story of whaling. A major attraction at the Whaling Museum is the Lagoda, a half-scale replica of a square-rigged whaler.

We will enjoy a walking tour of the old Waterfront District which benefited from
a quarter of a century of historic preservation efforts by those committed to the rebirth of the old whaling community. During the tour we’ll visit the Seaman’s Bethel on Johnny Cake Hill. Described in Melville’s Moby Dick, the Bethel or church was the place where crews worshipped before sailing off to distant seas.  We will tour private homes and dine in charming restaurants noted for their fresh seafood and Portuguese cuisine.

We will travel to Providence, Rhode Island via motor coach.  Over the past decade, Providence has experienced an urban renaissance that is the envy of small cities across the nation. Founded by religious dissenters from Boston led by Roger Williams, the old city is located at the confluence of the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers. Their combined waters are called the Providence River, which flows directly into the head of Narragansett Bay. After the Revolution, the City grew rich from the china trade and later from the textile and other industries.  Our visit will include a tour of the grand renaissance revival Governor Henry Lippitt Mansion, an opportunity to explore the galleries of the Rhode Island School of Design, lunch at a private club and an afternoon walking tour of the historic College Hill neighborhood.