Site of Rhode Island’s First Orphanage Excavated

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND—The Rhode Island State Home and School Project, led by E. Pierre Morenon of Rhode Island College, has collected oral histories, video, state records, and conducted excavations on the grounds of the state’s first orphanage, which operated from 1885 to 1979. Its last remaining wooden building, known as Yellow Cottage, and two other buildings still stand on the Rhode Island College campus. Morenon and his team uncovered a toy soldier, pieces of roller skates and toy guns, a toy tow truck, buttons, little purses, and many marbles. “For me, there’s a lot of meaning attached to objects. I tend as an archaeologist to think that they are not just functional things, but part of a child’s life,” Morenon told The Providence Journal.