THE BRISTOL STATEHOUSE: From Capitol, to Court, to Constitutional Commemorative Hub, to Community Center

In 1980 the courts of Bristol and Providence counties were merged, and since then all cases from Barrington, Warren, and Bristol have been heard in Providence.  Biweekly sessions of the state traffic court continued in the Bristol Statehouse for a few years thereafter, but by 1986 the only user and occupant of the deteriorating building was the sheriff of Bristol County, who operated from a small first-floor office.  In that year, Dr. Patrick T. Conley  had moved to Bristol, and secured an appointment from House Speaker Matthew J. Smith to the Rhode Island Bicentennial Foundation.  As chairman of that official state agency, he selected the  Bristol County Statehouse and Courthouse as the foundation’s headquarters.  The observances of the bicentennials of the U.S. Constitution (1987), Rhode Island Statehood (1990), and the Bill of Rights (1991) were directed from this site.  In 1988 Conley also became president of the U.S. Constitution Council and moved that national organization’s headquarters to the Bristol Statehouse. 

Although this multifaceted bicentennial observance ended in December 1991, the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, the foundation continued to maintain a presence on the second floor of the Bristol Statehouse where Conley began to lobby for the building’s restoration.  To that end he created the Bristol Statehouse Foundation on March 17, 1995, with himself, George Sisson, Gail Cahalan-Conley, and Dr.  Dale Radka, as incorporators. The first major tasks for this new nonprofit organization were to appoint community leaders to the foundation’s board of directors; to acquire ownership of the building from the state; and to secure 501(c)(3) status from the Internal Revenue Service to facilitate fundraising.  Conley became the board’s founding president, and  George Sisson served as executive director.  To complete the organizational structure, Conley drafted the bylaws under which the foundation operates and prepared the lease with the town of Bristol to facilitate town maintenance of the historic structure.

The second major goal was to secure ownership of the building, so Conley worked with House Speaker John Harwood, in drafting legislation to transfer the land and building from the state to the foundation.   Pursuant to a statute sponsored by Bristol representatives Charles Millard and Lawrence Ferguson and South Kingstown’s  Leona Kelley, that task was accomplished in March, 1996, and the deed of conveyance was recorded  on October 16, 1996 as a prelude to a transfer ceremony attended by Governor Almond and the bill’s sponsors. 

While the foundation  worked on acquiring ownership, Conley, an attorney,  also devoted time to task three–gaining exempt organization status under the Internal Revenue Code, a designation essential for fundraising efforts.  This laborious job was completed in June 1997, and the path was now cleared for George Sisson to use his important experience and contacts with the Champlin Foundation to secure a renovation grant.  Conley stepped aside as president in January 1999, and Sisson assumed that position.

In late December 1996, using $5,000 donated by the Conleys, the foundation retained the Alhambra Construction Company, an experienced project manager, to prepare a construction plan in concert with local architect Lombard Pozzi.  In March 1997 Alhambra presented a “preliminary conceptual budget report” for the existing building totaling over $553,000.

George Sisson met with spectacular success from the Champlin Foundation, whose generosity exceeded the original plan and eventually allowed the foundation to construct a new two-story addition to the rear of the building.  By the conclusion of the renovation project, this essential  assistance from Champlin totaled $815,000 in four separate installments spanning the years 1997 through 2006.  

The modernized interior is ideal for public meetings, hearings,  and forums, as well as dramatic presentations and various cultural programs directed at an adult community audience.  Sisson also promoted involvement with the surrounding elementary schools and offered programs directed towards school children in the renovated building whose major tenant has become the Bristol Fourth of July Committee, the organization that annually stages the oldest continuous Fourth of July celebration in America..

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