Hahn Memorial at Roger Williams National Memorial

The Roger Williams National Memorial, at 282 North Main St., is home to a spring that was donated to the city of Providence by Judge J. Jerome Hahn in 1932- in memory of his father, Isaac Hahn (1845-1909), a businessman and textile manufacturer,  who became the first Jewish resident of Providence to be elected to public office.  

Judge Hahn believed that the spring was a historic and almost sacred place, as it was there that Roger Williams and his followers first found fresh water in the settlement that would become Providence.  

Isaac Hahn’s parents came to the United States from Germany in the mid-19th century and made their home in New York City, where Isaac was born and raised. They later moved upstate, where Isaac married Rose Stern. In 1870, Isaac brought his wife and young son to establish a new life for their growing family in Providence. Isaac owned a dry goods store on Westminster Street, and later invested in  banking, factories and real estate. In 1884, he became the first Jewish state representative from Providence in the Rhode Island General Assembly, in which he served one term. Isaac was also deeply involved in the Jewish community, helping to build a new  synagogue for the Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David (founded in 1854, this congregation survives today as Temple Beth-El).

J. Jerome Hahn, Isaac’s eldest son, attended law school at Boston University, and was said to be an expert on bankruptcy law. As a young lawyer, he took cases representing immigrant laborers, notably Chinese laborers brought to Rhode Island to work in violation of the Chinese Exclusion Act who were imprisoned for no fault of their own. Jerome managed to get their bail reduced by ⅔, and his father paid the bail to get the workers released from jail.

The civic-minded J. Jerome was the chair of the commission that designed and built the Providence County Courthouse (1930), at 250 Benefit St. He became a judge of the Rhode Island Superior Court in 1919 and served as an Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1931 until 1935. Like his father, Jerome was devoted to the Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David.  

In 1928, J. Jerome Hahn purchased the land around the old town spring and the building covering it. The land came with a covenant from the original owner, Gabriel Bernon, that the water should always be made available to the citizens of Providence, a commitment that Judge Hahn rigorously maintained. In 1932, he donated the site to the City of Providence for use as a town park. A modern well was built on the spot where the original town spring once flowed, and the site became part of the Roger Williams National Memorial when the national park was authorized by Congress in 1965.

Today you can see the well, although the spring that it marks has long since receded far underground.  This small portion of the National Memorial  (1/10 of an acre) was designed by famed architect and historic preservationist Norman Isham.