Equality Park

Equality Park is a triangular-shaped park bounded by Equality Park West, Equality Park Place, and Broadway, and is one of three Broadway parks in Newport, alongside two parks called Congdon Park on the east side of Broadway that are separated by Calvert Street and are also known as Sailors Park, Vanderbilt Park, and Soldiers Park. Its historical significance reaches back to 1769, when on this common the citizens of Newport burned the boats of the H.M.S. Liberty on July 19, 1769, in what was called the first overt act of violence against Great Britain in America. Equality Park was also one of three places in Newport where the electric light first appeared, as reported by The New York Times, Newport Daily News, and Newport Mercury on the evening of July 4, 1882, when despite a heavy rainstorm His Honor Franklin turned on the light, though its bright rays were not seen until a late hour and then only by those out in the storm and those living near the parks. In 1923, the center monument, Lady Liberty, was dedicated to the memory of the citizens of Newport who served in the war with Spain. The anchor in the park came from the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes, an Alfonso XII-class unprotected cruiser of the Spanish Navy that was sunk on June 6, 1898, during the Spanish American War, then later captured by the United States Navy, salvaged, and commissioned as the U.S.S. Reina Mercedes (IX-25). The gun in the park is one of two 4.72-inch Armstrong rifles that were part of Fort Adams's Battery Talbot and were placed into service in 1899; during World War I, the U.S. Army moved the two guns from Fort Adams to Sachuest Point to protect the mouth of the Sakonnet River.

Newport, Rhode Island · United States