Rhode Island's timeless charisma and why it's important to take a minute to appreciate it

It is night in the old part of downtown, its streets bathed in the kind of lovely mist you find in New England after a winter rain.

I have just sampled Gift Horse, an artful seafood place that has drawn buzz, as do so many restaurants in a city known for one of the nation’s premier culinary scenes.

Heading home, I turn onto Weybosset, where PPAC’s lit marquee advertises "Moulin Rouge!" the theater’s opulent interior having for a century showcased the nation’s finest acts.

And I can’t help but think, what a charming, perfectly sized city this is.

And state.

It is a thing to meditate on, and embrace, as, astonishingly, we begin this remarkable colony’s 388^th year.

Now I pass the Arcade, where, in 1828, American shoppers for the first time strolled an indoor mall amid Greek Revival architecture, its survival a reminder of the many things Rhode Island has pioneered.

Moments later, I approach the cobblestoned intersection outside the Turk’s Head building, street lights glinting off the bricks, reflecting the kind of mood The Eagles once sang of in lyrics about Providence – "where the old world shadows hang, heavy in the air.”

It is a line not just about the history around us, but a mood evocative of a living past.

That is part of this state, too, its amazing journey, the world’s birthplace of religious freedom, a vision of Roger Williams, who founded this unique 48-by-37-mile place. It cannot be overstated how rebellious that was in a time when an allied clergy and royalty ruled Europe and beyond.

His – and our – defiance of that is a lively experiment that continues still.

As I leave downtown, I can see the white steeple of the First Baptist Church that personifies it, Roger’s breakaway church, the oldest of all the nation’s Baptist places of worship. Just as Touro in Newport is the country’s oldest synagogue, where George Washington famously wrote that in these United States, to bigotry, there will be no sanction, and to persecution, no assistance.

Both the state and nation had imperfections around that pledge, and do still, but I’ve long felt that tolerance is in Rhode Island’s DNA more than in most places.

And so, of course, is an engaging quirkiness, captured by native son H.P. Lovecraft, who described us thusly: “A haven of the odd, the free, and the dissenting.” Indeed.

I transit one of the many arched bridges over the city’s central waterway, host to WaterFire, where one can stroll for hours amid primal music and lit braziers, a unique thing made possible by just the right play of river width and bordering esplanades. When the gondolas pass, one imagines being in Italy.

Soon, I am on Benefit Street, which one should never take for granted, a vibrant mile of preserved architecture, the kind people travel to see in replica version in Williamsburg, but here, it’s part of the city, with folks living in homes that date to the 1700s.

Remarkably, there are even specimens from the century before.

Few places in the nation have such a long history, with examples like the amazing Thomas Fenner House in Cranston, a stone-ender built in 1677. And of course, the nation’s oldest still-operating restaurant, the White Horse Tavern in Newport, dating to 1673, a century before the American Colonies became the United States.

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Now on Benefit, I am passing one of the country’s oldest libraries, the Atheneum, where you can get lost in a symphony of books while imagining Edgar Allan Poe attempting to romance the prominent local poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who, though admiring his verses, was unimpressed with his charms.

That brings to mind the great legacy of women here, starting with Anne Hutchinson, banished by the Puritans of Massachusetts for her progressive views, finding refuge in Rhode Island where, in 1638, she founded the Town of Portsmouth.

Then up I drive past Brown University, dating to 1764 and beyond, where the East Side showcases some of the country’s most classic home styles. It also strikes me how, together with places like Mount Pleasant, Elmhurst and, just over the line, Edgewood, Providence is a rare metro area where one can own a home with a lawn minutes from a prominent downtown.

Really, the whole state offers such close-quarter gifts, most folks being within short drives to myriad destinations – oceans, farms, islands and extraordinary bike paths, as well as charming villages from Wickford to Bristol and country realms like Foster and Glocester.

And also: rivers worth kayaking, like the Wood in Hope Valley, the Narrow in Narragansett, and yes, even the Woonasquatucket downtown.

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Which is where this meditation began.

And from whence, had I more room, I could go on at length chronicling the countless other Rhode Island gifts.

It is worth remembering them all as we begin the 388^th year of this special place and lively experiment.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI remains a charming state on 388th anniversary: Patinkin