Architecture Here and There

If Roger Williams had no face, we would have to invent one. Actually the founder of Rhode Island had a face, but that hasn't stopped us from inventing one, two, or even more. We have no idea what his face looked like, so the face that launched a thousand square miles (give or take a bay) can take any form an artist chooses to bestow upon it.

Last Aug. 6, atop "Roger Williams and his discontent," I placed a photo (left) of the head of Roger Williams in Prospect Terrace that looks out toward downtown from atop his sculpture ("Disco Roger" as I call it for reasons clear, at least to me, in the bottom photo) by Leo Friedlander (1939).

Above is a photo of another face of Roger Williams, a bust looking out at Kennedy Plaza from the front of City Hall in downtown Providence. The sculptor is unknown to me. I will post his name when I learn it. Better a face without a name than a name without a face, right?

Which Roger is the handsomer? Which fills you with the most confidence in the future of the city and state he birthed back in 1636?

 Tags  City Hall Providence RI Roger Williams

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Bill said:

I recall once hearing that the artist who did the sculpture of Roger Williams that is in RW Park in Providence assembled a group of his descendants and intuited what he might have looked like. Is there any basis to this story?

Link | October 6, 2009 11:08 AM
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