| Watchman Industrial School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| North Scituate, RI, USA | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private Trade school |
| Established | 1908 |
| Closed | 1938 |
| Campus | Rural/Suburban |
The Watchman Industrial School and Camp, known to some as the Watchman Institute, was founded 1908 by Reverend William S. Holland in Providence, Rhode Island. It moved to North Scituate in 1923 and closed in 1938, although Holland's summer camp operated there until 1974.
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William S. Holland (born October 1866 in Virginia; died 1958 in Rhode Island),[1] the son of a former Virginia slave, founded the Watchman Industrial School at 140 Codding Street, in Providence in 1908.[2][3]
The educational program there was inspired by the work of Booker T. Washington,[4] and based on the programs at both the Hampton Institute and the Tuskeegee Institute.[5] It focused on training black youths in vocational trades in addition to academic subjects, hence the name "industrial school," although it did not produce a commercial product.[6] In lieu of seeing them enter Rhode Island's reform school or prison systems, Holland often took custody of young persons in trouble with the authorities.[3]
The Watchman Industrial School was incorporated in Rhode Island by 1910.[7] In 1917, the Watchman School was described as "a small elementary school of very doubtful management. The industrial work is negligible."[8]
In 1920, Holland acquired the former North Scituate campus of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute, which had moved to Wollaston in Quincy, Massachusetts the year before, and moved his own school there in 1923.[9] The site was originally designed for the Smithville Seminary in 1839 by Russell Warren, the leading Greek Revival architect in New England in the 20th century,[3]
In the December 1923 edition of The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded by W. E. B. Du Bois, the School was advertised as "the ideal Home for Boys and Girls age 14 years and upwards".[10]
The school was struck by a series of fires that took place throughout the 1920s and 1930s, however, and closed its doors in 1938.[3] It is suspected that these fires, in 1924, 1926, and 1934, were set by the local Ku Klux Klan,[11] although no one was ever arrested.[12]
After the closure of the school, Holland continued to operate the summer camp until his death in 1958. After his death, Holland's second wife, Viola Grant Holland (born about 1901 in Worcester, Massachusetts; died October 1986), then took over operation of the camp until 1974 when it was forced to close for financial reasons.[3] By 1969, the principal was Edward T. Duncan.[13]
The site became part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[14] The buildings were renovated in the 1970s and converted into apartments known as Scituate Commons, on Institute Lane.[15] In 1985 the site was identified as a black historic site in Rhode Island.[4]