1924 - Franco-American Heritage Center - Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Posted by: 
401Photos
N 42° 00.444 W 071° 30.716
19T E 291984 N 4653650
The Franco-American Heritage Center, home to the American French Genealogical Society, shares the former First Universalist Church building with the Veterans Memorial Museum in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The building's cornerstone is dated 1924.
Waymark Code: WM1666A
Location: Rhode Island, United States
Date Posted: 05/16/2022
Views: 5
The Franco-American Heritage Center, home to
American French Genealogical Society (AFGS), shares the former First Universalist Church building with the Veterans Memorial Museum in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The building's dated stone at the corner of Earle and Snow Streets is engraved "1924".
"Built in 1924 and enlarged in 1957, it is a good example of 20th-century Gothic Revival architecture. The congregation for which it was built was established in the 1820s, in part through the efforts of Hosea Ballou, an influential early Universalist minister who also had business interests in Woonsocket." (Wikipedia) It is covered in light-colored brick with an ornate double-door entryway on Earle Street.
With its origins dating from 1977, the AFGS moved into the First Universalist Church in November 1989, renting 3,000 square feet of the building's lower level. The church membership fell, the congregation disbanded, and the AFGS purchased the property for $100,000 in November 2007. That allowed the organization's expansion to 19,000 square feet over three floors. The Veterans Memorial Museum, situated in a 2,300 square foot auditorium-style space at the top floor of the building, has been a tenant since November 2015. An extensive list of repairs and renovations has been undertaken by the current owners since 2007.
Visit Instructions:
When logging a visit to a waymark in this category, please provide one or more photos taken by yourself, and note down your impressions and any background information you may have.