Historical Early Harris Property in RI
Situated at 216 Morgan Avenue in Johnston, RI is a colonial-era house first built in 1768 on a property well known to people of the area. It includes several well-maintained outbuildings. Now owned Anthony Ricci, for decades it was the dwelling of the colorful Mabel Atwood Sprague. However the property can be traced all the way back to Thomas Harris II and his family who lived in the 17th Century.
Thomas Harris II who purchased this land in the 1690's was the second generation of the Harris family in Rhode Island. He was the only son of the first Thomas Harris born 1613, in Kent, England and was among the first settlers of Providence Plantations. The land was willed to his grandson Nicholas Harris in 1711 by his father Thomas II.
Pictured above is a late1800 photo of the Harris property. Buildings on the far right are the Harris blacksmith and cooper shop which burned down around 1900.
Over the years the Harris property was inherited by several generations of Harris descendants until sold to Abraham C. Atwood in 1824. From that time it was owned by members of the Atwood family until purchased by Anthony Ricci.
Ricci has spent several years renovating the house, built in 1768, and has been preserving the surrounding grounds, which include a two-seater outhouse, a barn and a blacksmith shop and other outbuildings. The back property includes a cemetery and a famous landmark known as The Great Rock, Indian Rock or Hipses Rock.
Hipses Rock is a huge, isolated boulder, 20 feet high, and has been recommended for the National Register of Historic Places. As an ancient well-known landmark it was declared as marking the western boundary of the lands deeded to Roger Williams by Miantinomi and Canonicus of the area's indigenous tribe in the mid 1630s. The name Hipses probably came from the Latin word Hesperius, meaning towards the west, or the most western point.
On the property is the Atwood-Harris Lot also known as the Rhode Island Historical Cemetery Johnston #57. It has 50 burial markers from 1776 to 1876.
The property is open to view by appointment. To do so, email the Johnston Historical Society. [email protected]
Links to several articles written about this historic property:
https://quahog.org/cscm/jhs/history/nl202211.pdf
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2234446/atwood-harris-lot