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The Milk Can is a milk-can-shaped building, about 32 feet tall, built in 1931 as an ice cream stand in Lincoln, Rhode Island. It was moved about a mile to North Smithfield in the late 1980s and has been closed since 1991.
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Milk Can (North Smithfield)
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Site-level location · 41.9692° N, 71.5058° W
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Few Rhode Island buildings are as easy to explain as the Milk Can: it is a giant milk can, and for decades it has sat beside Route 146 as a landmark.
The Center for Land Use Interpretation says the thirty-two-and-a-half-foot structure opened as an ice cream shop in 1931, originally in Lincoln along Route 146. Over time the owner expanded the menu and the building, and it closed in 1968. The Boston Globe, citing the Valley Breeze, says it served ice cream, burgers and fried clams at its original location.
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PRACTICAL
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WHAT TO EXPECT
A vacant, milk-can-shaped building on private property beside Route 146. Closed since 1991 and listed for sale in May 2026; there is nothing to enter. View it from the road only.
ACCESS
Private property in North Smithfield, off Eddie Dowling Highway (Route 146). Vacant and closed; view from the road only and do not enter the site.
COMMUNITY
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WHAT'S NEXT
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TRANSPARENCY
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