ROBERTS

PROVIDENCE — Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. will be in town today to mark the centennial of the federal courthouse in downtown Providence.

The visit will mark the first time a sitting Supreme Court chief justice has been in Rhode Island on official business in more than two centuries, according to Senior Circuit Judge Bruce M. Selya, a Rhode Islander who has been designated “host judge” for today’s visit.

In 1799, then-Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth came to Newport to catch a Navy frigate after then-President John Adams appointed him as a special envoy to France, Selya said. Also in the 1790s, the nation’s first chief justice, John Jay, traveled to Rhode Island twice while “riding the circuit,” he said.

“We did great at the start of the country,” Selya said yesterday. “But in the 19th and 20th century, we kind of fell behind. It’s time for us to regroup.”

Members of the public are welcome to attend an 11 a.m. centennial ceremony, Selya said. Roberts will speak for 10 or 15 minutes in Courtroom 1, which holds about 250 people, and overflow seating will be available in other parts of the courthouse where people can watch Roberts on closed-circuit television, he said.

Roberts will have breakfast with judges before touring the courthouse, and he will meet with students and faculty members from the Roger Williams University School of Law, the state’s only law school. He will have lunch with a group of judges, bar association leaders, and political and community leaders. And in the afternoon, he will swear in 123 new members of the federal bar in Rhode Island.

Roberts will not be available for interviews or a news conference, according to a U.S. District Court news release.

The visit will highlight a yearlong centennial celebration of the five-story gray granite building, which was built between 1904 and 1908 as the Providence Post Office, Court House and Custom House.

Three free lectures are scheduled as part of the celebration, including one at 7 tomorrow night at the courthouse. The court and the federal bench-bar committee are co-sponsoring the symposium, titled “Rights of Crime Victims, Witnesses and Defendants.” The panel is to include state Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr., John Jay College of Criminal Justice Prof. David Kennedy, lawyer Peter DiBiase, National Center for Victims of Crime executive director Mary Lou Leary, and lawyer Mark Mandell.

efitzpat@projo.com