Providence Preservation Society Sells Historic Shakespeare’s Head Property for $750K

Providence Preservation Society Sells Historic Shakespeare’s Head Property for $750K

The Providence Preservation Society (PPS) announced on Thursday that it has sold the Shakespeare’s Head building, located at 21 Meeting Street in the College Hill Historic District.

The sale price was $750,000.

The city of Providence assesses the value of the property at $1,167,900.

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The buyer is the not-for-profit Civis Foundation for operation by the Center for Reflective History, a new nonprofit organization established in 2025 which says its mission is to “uncover, preserve, and explore the social histories associated with the building over two and a half centuries. 

The Center for Reflective History will be the sixth owner of this pre-Revolutionary property in over 250 years. 

The new non-profit, the Center for Reflective History, was just established in late April according to filings with the Rhode Island Secretary of States Office.

According to the filing, the Center’s directors are Rafal Markwat, Joshua Moon and Timothy Eric Galloway. Galloway is also a board member of Civis.

PPS has owned the property since 2015.

When the organization initiated a Request for Proposals for its purchase in the spring of 2024, staff and board leadership said they learned that the building’s first owner, John Carter, "enslaved two people in the house."

PPS says it "chose to pause the sale and commissioned local public historian Traci Picard to produce a research report last summer. Picard found that two enslaved African-American women lived and worked in the house for nearly twenty years: Ingow and her daughter Fanny. Ingow and Fanny were manumitted in 1789, but Fanny remained onsite as an indentured servant until the age of 18. In addition, an enslaved man named Primus King, enslaved by Benjamin King of Newport, worked in the house during the Revolutionary Period. He may have been involved with the printing operation, although details are still being discovered."

“I am very grateful for the opportunity to build on the work I did for PPS, and to research more deeply into the many facets of this history,” said Picard, who will continue to research the legacies associated with the site in her role as Project Historian for the Center for Reflective History. She went on to say, “This building connects people and places all over the world, through individual stories, personal and business relationships and a range of historic themes.”

“21 Meeting Street marks the Center for Reflective History’s inaugural initiative that will engage the public in a thoughtful examination of the past,” said Stephanie Fortunato, Project Manager for Civis. “The property will be named Primus House. We envision it as a dynamic space for critical inquiry, where the complex and often overlooked intersections of history are explored in ways that resonate with contemporary global issues and inform our collective future.” 

Providence Preservation Society’s Executive Director, Marisa Angell Brown, says, “This property was saved from demolition in 1937 by a group of civic leaders who came together to preserve and maintain it, establishing the Shakespeare’s Head Association that year. Providence Preservation Society was a long-time member of the Association and continued to steward the site when the Association dissolved.” She added, “Preservation work is not just about saving buildings – it is also about research, storytelling and creating new connections with the past. We are proud to have played a role in bringing the lives of Ingow, Fanny and Primus out into the light, and look forward to working with the new Center in the years to come.”