Wood clapboard and brick houses from the 1700s and 1800s line Benefit Street's steep run, and Prospect Terrace Park is where There's Something About Mary shot its mini golf scene.
What College Hill looks like
Benefit Street runs downhill for over a mile between North Main Street and Wickenden Street, lined its whole length with wood clapboard and brick houses from the 1700s and 1800s. Doors on the smaller Federal houses open straight onto the brick sidewalk, with no yard or stoop between them. Gas lamps stand along several blocks, and overhead wires are largely absent.
The , built in 1707, stands near the top of the hill. Downhill from it, the is a brick Georgian mansion completed in 1788 at the corner of Power and Benefit Streets. The wood frame next door followed in 1792. It is one of the largest wood frame houses from the 1700s still standing in the country.
At the top of the hill, Brown University's campus opens onto the street through a wrought iron gate set into brick and stone piers. The , a Greek Revival library on Benefit Street, was built in 1844. The , a block over on North Main Street, was constructed in 1775.
sits on Congdon Street at the hill's western edge, an open lawn behind an iron fence with a granite monument to Roger Williams. The view west from the lawn takes in downtown Providence and the State House dome. has the neighborhood's shops and the Avon Cinema, a movie theater from the early twentieth century.
Shot in College Hill
College Hill's own streets have stood in for another place on screen. Hocus Pocus 2 redressed Benefit Street's colonial houses as Salem. There's Something About Mary shot its mini golf scene at Prospect Terrace Park.
Hocus Pocus 2, 2022
Played Salem, Massachusetts, present day
Hocus Pocus 2 recreated Salem's streets along Benefit Street for exterior filming, redressing storefronts and signage for the shoot. The dressing included a mocked up Haunted Salem Tour Trolley parked along the street. Street View
There's Something About Mary, 1998
Prospect Terrace Park
There's Something About Mary shot its mini golf scene between Ted and Dom on the lawn at Prospect Terrace Park, below the granite monument to Roger Williams. The scene plays out with downtown Providence visible behind them. Street View
What College Hill can double for
Beacon Hill in Boston, Massachusetts
Beacon Hill's brick Federal rowhouses, black shutters and gas lamps read close to College Hill's own streets from the 1800s through the 1830s. Chestnut Street and Louisburg Square carry the same brick sidewalks. College Hill's houses are mostly detached wood frame rather than Beacon Hill's attached brick rows, so a wide comparison shot works best on Benefit Street's own brick faced stretch near the Athenaeum. Try searching brick Federal rowhouses gas lamps now.
Society Hill's colonial brick rowhouses and cobblestone side streets share College Hill's density and its 1750s to 1830s period range. Willings Alley holds some of the closest brick and dormer combinations. Society Hill is flatter and more uniformly brick, so College Hill's steep grade and wood clapboard fronts need to stay out of a wide comparison shot. Try searching colonial brick rowhouses cobblestone now.
Old Town in Alexandria, Virginia
Old Town Alexandria has a similar run of colonial and Federal brick and wood houses close to the street, from the 1750s into the 1810s. Alexandria is flatter along the river and its brick sidewalks are wider, so a College Hill match works best on a narrow side street away from the main King Street front, not the broader main drag. Try searching colonial Federal houses narrow street now.
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