Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Harrisville yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Harrisville is a census-designated place (CDP) and village in the town of Burrillville, Rhode Island. As of the 2020 census, Harrisville had a population of 1,745. Much of the community composes a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The village was named after nineteenth century manufacturer Andrew Harris. It was previously named Rhodesville, after eighteenth-century privateer Captain William Rhodes.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,605 to 1,745 (+9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Harrisville in 1891
Passages that mention Harrisville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Providence County, Rhode Island1891 · page 565Read the page →
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There are three churches in the village of Harrisville: the Catholic above mentioned, which is the largest: the Episcopal, which is but a missionary chapel, in which services are seldom had, and the Universalist church, which had an edifice erected in 1887 at a cost of $12,000. Religious services by this denomination were instituted here by Reverend Adin Ballou before the late war, the meetings being held in the old town house. Following him came Mr. Boyden from Woonsocket, who occasionally preached to this people. No regular pastorate began,
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History of Providence County, Rhode Island1891 · page 564Read the page →
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An Episcopal church was built at Harrisville about 1857. The early records of this society have been lost. The first pastor was Reverend J. H. Earnes, who gathered the church. He afterward was located at Concord, N. H. This is at present a missionary station, there having been no permanent rector since 1876. The church is located on Chapel street, in the village of Harrisville, and services are held only at long intervals.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Harrisville, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1902
c. 1975
2012
2012
2012
2008
