You can’t get there from here: 9 RI places that don’t really exist

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”

–William Shakespeare, in “Romeo and Juliet”

Some of the best-known places in Rhode Island don’t really exist.

You’re probably familiar with many of them.

You probably think you’ve been to them.

But, nope. They don’t exist. People have been lying to you.

More than a handful of Rhode Island places are known by popular names that official mapmakers just don’t recognize.

From historic grudges against King George III to honors for a 20th-century senator to superhero TV shows, plenty of Rhode Island quirks have kept those cartographers on their toes.

For this story, we consider the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a federal panel that settles disputes over the names of places, the ultimate authority, though it sometimes punts. As an example, the board won’t weigh in on what to call manmade structures, so we turn to other sources.

Here are nine places we find in Unreal Rhode Island:

Tower Hill

Most Rhode Islanders have probably passed the impressive wooden lookout tower in South Kingstown on their way to the South County beaches. Yes, it’s on a hill. And, yes, this section of Route 1 is also called Tower Hill Road.

But the hill with the tower is not Tower Hill. That’s a place a little further south off Tower Hill Road. The hill with the tower is McSparran Hill.

Narrow River

At least parts of this river are very narrow, but that’s not its name. The river – along with a nearby cove, neighborhood and prominent rocky cliff – share the somewhat-difficult-to-pronounce name: Pettaquamscutt. So, it’s Pettaquamscutt River.

First Beach

First Beach may be what everyone in Newport calls it, but the feds say we should be using Easton’s Beach. (Well, actually, because of a long-running disapproval of using possessives in place names, the the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, says “Easton Beach” is the name, but clearly no one calls it that, at least not that we’ve heard.)

Capitol Hill

The state has invented “Capitol Hill” mailing addresses for a number of government offices. 1 Capitol Hill is the Department of Administration. 2 Capitol Hill is the Department of Transportation. 3 Capitol Hill is the Department of Health.

But Capitol Hill is not one of the seven hills upon which Providence was built: Federal Jill; College Hill; Tockwotten Hill; Christian Hill; Constitution Hill, which some consider part of College Hill; Weybosset Hill, which was leveled in the 1800s to build the Turk’s Head Building; and Smith Hill, the hill on which the capitol, known better as the State House, and those state departments rest.

Amica Mutual Pavilion

This one’s a bit tricky to figure out. Undoubtedly, the arena was built as the Providence Civic Center in 1972 as a city facility.

In 2001, in a deal with Dunkin’ Donuts, the city sold naming rights to the coffee chain.

In 2005, the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority bought the building and joined it with the Convention Center.

And, in 2022, the Convention Center Authority, sold “naming and identification rights” to Amica Mutual Insurance in a 10-year deal worth at least $650,000 a year. Amica chose to identify the building as the “Amica Mutual Pavilion.”

But does that mean it’s no longer the Civic Center?

If the Civic Center still exists, no one at the Convention Center Authority is going to tell you. That’s because the deal they signed with Amica requires them to call it “Amica Mutual Pavilion” or one of several approved nicknames, such as “AMP PVD.” In fact, they even agreed to try to get everyone else to call it the “AMP” instead of the Civic Center.

But the contract governing the deal repeatedly calls it “Civic Center.”

As in this clause: “‘Civic Center”’ means the multi-purpose arena, located at One LaSalle Square, Providence Rhode Island owned by the Authority.”

Or this one: “It is the parties’ intent that upon execution of this Agreement, the name ‘Dunkin’ Donuts Center’ and all references thereto shall be removed from the Civic Center.”

And there are more than a few others like this.

So, it’s up to you to decide: Is the Civic Center no more? Or did the Convention Center Authority just agree to use another name when talking about it?

South County

Rhode Island’s southernmost county – or at least parts of it – has long gone by the fictitious name “South County.”

“South County” can be found in the name of venerable institutions in the area, including South County Hospital, as well as just about everywhere: the South County Bike Path, the South County Museum and the South County Tourism Council. There are probably more than a few Rhode Islanders who don’t even know that the county’s official name is Washington County.

The word origin is pretty simple:

When the county was formed in 1729, its official name was Kings County. But, in the 1760s, during the run-up to the Revolutionary War, Rhode Islanders had no use for the king and needed a different name. The South County History Center has found a 1767 reference to “the South County” in written testimony about taxation by Levi Whipple. The name stuck, even after 1781, when the county was named for Revolutionary War hero George Washington.

As with any fictional place, the exact boundaries of South County are hazy.

At its most expansive, some include all of Washington County and at least parts of East Greenwich in South County’s territory.

Purists, on the other hand, only consider the historic towns of Kings Towne and Charlestown – and maybe not even all parts of them – as being in South County. Kings Towne was divided into North Kingstown, South Kingstown, Narragansett and Exeter, though some would argue Exeter isn’t part of South County. And Charlestown was divided into Charlestown and Richmond. (Charlestown itself was split off from Westerly – which some think should really be part of Connecticut anyway.)

Pawtucket River

The federal government recognizes the name “Blackstone River” for the body of water that flows down from Massachusetts to the falls in downtown Pawtucket, and says, when the river goes over the falls, it becomes the Seekonk River the entire way until it joins the Providence River at India Point Providence.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, acknowledges that some people in Pawtucket want to call the Seekonk River within the city’s boundaries the Pawtucket River, but the board says no way

That has not kept some government agencies, including the state Department of Transportation, from mistakenly referring to the Pawtucket River, as in calling I-95’s crossing the “Pawtucket River Bridge.”

Newport Bridge

Local pride may be more stubborn when it comes to the name of this bridge than Pawtucket has for its river.

Built in 1969, the span linking the Connanicut Island town of Jamestown to the Aquidneck Island city of Newport was christened the Newport Bridge.

But, 33 years later the General Assembly renamed it the Claiborne Pell Bridge in 1992 to honor the former diplomat and 36-year U.S. senator, who would live until 2009.

Although come next year the bridge will have been named for Pell longer than it was officially the Newport Bridge, Rhode Islanders, especially those in Newport and Jamestown, show little sign of letting go. Though many have conceded somewhat, bridging the name divide and calling the span the still not real ‘Newport Pell Bridge.’

Superman Building

Everyone knows this isn’t the real name of the building. (Don’t they?)

But the nickname isn’t even accurate.

It derives from the building’s vague resemblance to Los Angeles City Hall, which was used in the opening of the 1950s TV series “Adventures of Superman” as the home of the “Daily Planet” newspaper.

Now bearing the pedestrian moniker, 111 Westminster, for the street address of the “back” of the building, it has had several official names, starting with Industrial Trust Co. Building and including Fleet Bank Tower and Bank of America Building, as ownership has changed.

One confirmed similarity between Providence’s Superman Building and the Daily Planet Building: the Industrial Trust Co. Building and L.A. City Hall were each built in 1928.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: UNREAL RI: Real names of places you call something else