PVD Architecture

Former Providence YMCA Building // 1889

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Founded in 1853, the Providence YMCA holds the distinction of being the second-oldest YMCA in the United States. The YMCA had been born out of anxieties around industrialization and urbanization when young men arrived to the country and were vulnerable to the temptations and sins of alcohol, so a group of evangelical churches created a space for Christian men to spend their time productively at meetings and lessons and have access to recreational facilities. The Providence YMCA was dispersed into three buildings until 1889, when this building at the corner of Westminster and Jackson streets opened to great fanfare. The Young Men’s Christian Association and architects, the Providence firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson, featured this new Romanesque Revival building in architectural publications showcasing the original proposal and the final approved design, with prominent oriel bays, spires, arched entrances and intricate roofline punctuated by dormers. The building contained a gymnasium, auditorium, classrooms, libraries, parlors, and reception areas. The 1889 building proved obsolete within a generation, and it was torn down in 1913 to make way for a new office block as the neighborhood commercialized. The YMCA responded by building larger, more purpose-built quarters further west on Broad Street, which was completed in 1915, a structure that still stands today, now repurposed to serve the city’s homeless population through Crossroads Rhode Island.

Former St. Francis Xavier Academy – Xavier Hall // 1894

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The Sisters of Mercy was established in 1831 by Mary Francis Xavier Warde, who was born in Ireland and was orphaned in her teens. At sixteen, she moved to Dublin and met Catherine McAuley, a social service worker who established the Sisters of Mercy in 1831 to provide for the education and social needs of poor children, orphans, the sick, and homeless young women. The organization flourished in Ireland before Sister Warde migrated to Pittsburgh in 1843, opening a convent there. Her educational work on behalf of the Irish immigrants in that city prompted Irish-born Bishop Bernard O’Reilly to invite the Sisters of Mercy to Providence in 1851. They started teaching Sunday school and provided food to the poor and took over the school at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. Also in 1851, the sisters opened the first Catholic orphanage in Rhode Island, the second in New England and St. Xavier’s Academy, a boarding and day school combined. The original 1856 building (extant) on Claverick Street was added onto in 1865 with a mansard wing. Before the turn of the 20th century, it was decided that a more substantial structure be built for the academy. The Providence firm of Martin & Hall architects, was selected to design this building, an E-shaped structure that includes the two earlier wings with a new Neo-Gothic/Tudor Revival style facade on Broad Street. The 1894 school building and attached chapel operated here until it ultimately closed in the 1970s. Since then, the building has been purchased by Johnson & Wales University and operates as a residence hall named after its history, Xavier Hall.

Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral Rectory // c.1878

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Built around the time of its neighbor, the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul in Downtown Providence, this handsome brick masonry building with mansard roof was constructed as the rectory for the larger cathedral next door. Like the corresponding cathedral, this rectory was likely the work of premier ecclesiastical architect, Patrick C. Keely, who designed the structure in the Victorian/Ruskinian Gothic style with polychromatic stone voussoirs, a brownstone Romanesque style arched entry with floral capitals, and a mansard roof with bracketed cornice. Since its construction around 1878, the building has been added onto and connected to the Cathedral, but still retains its architectural significance. The building is home to the Diocese of Providence offices, a library, and remains the rector’s residence.

Fleur-De-Lys Studios // 1885

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The Fleur-de-Lys Studios is of the most architecturally significant and unique buildings in New England and can be found on Thomas Street in the College Hill section of Providence. Built in 1885 and a vivid expression of the Queen Anne style and showing the emergence of the Arts and Crafts movement movement in America, the handsome building blending is the result of a partnership between artist, Sydney Richmond Burleigh and architect, Edmund R. Willson as a dedicated creative hub for working artists, a purpose it still serves today under the stewardship of the Providence Art Club, who received the deed of the property in 1939 by Burleigh’s widow. Its design draws heavily on medieval English and Tudor Revival influences, with a striking half-timbered façade, stucco panels, carved heads as hanging pendants, and projecting casement windows that break dramatically from the surrounding colonial streetscape. What truly sets the structure apart, however, is its richly symbolic ornamentation—allegorical figures representing painting, sculpture, and architecture adorn the exterior. More than a century later, the Fleur-de-Lys Studios remains both a National Historic Landmark and a living workspace, preserving its original spirit as a place where art and architecture are inseparably intertwined.

Deacon Edward Taylor House // 1786

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The oldest building on the iconic Thomas Street in Providence, Rhode Island, is the Deacon Edward Taylor House, a stunning early Federal residence built into the sloping site. The property was developed in 1786 for Edward Taylor, a chaise maker who had a shop on Main Street, also serving as a Deacon of the nearby church. Edward had bought out his brother’s half of the property and had this home built for his family. With its three-story symmetrical, five-bay facade, the house features a stately pedimented entry and flared lintels all atop a brownstone foundation. The property passed through many hands in the 19th and early 20th centuries until 1961, when it was purchased by the Providence Art Club as part of their multi-building campus.

Seril Dodge House // 1791

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Years after Seril Dodge (1759-1802), a silversmith and clockmaker, built a house in 1786 on present-day Thomas Street in Providence’s East Side, he sold the property to the Brown Family and built this stately Federal period home next-door. Built in 1791, this three-story, side-hall brick house features belt courses above the first and second stories, a hipped roof, and flared lintels over the windows and doorway. After less than a decade, Seril Dodge moved back to his hometown of Pomfret, Connecticut, and sold this property to Moses Brown, who gifted the property to his son, Obadiah. Obadiah Brown (1771-1822) was a member of the Quaker faith and was a member of the Society of the Abolition of Slavery providing local jobs for free Blacks and sponsoring them in any legal disputes. Additionally, he helped secure the freedom of enslaved Africans who escaped to the north. This property was leased to the Providence Art Club in 1886 and acquired by the organization in 1906. Under the ownership of the Art Club, the side arcaded carriage entrance was added, likely designed by Stone, Carpenter and Willson, in conjunction with their 1906 renovation to the adjoining Dodge-Brown House. Today the building is known as the “Club House” and is home to the organization’s cafe, with an its intimate bar, and two exhibition spaces that are open to the public.

Dr. George W. Carr Mansion // 1885

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Perched on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, the Dr. George W. Carr Mansion at the corner of Benefit and Waterman streets, stands as one of the most attractive and interesting interpretations of the Queen Anne style in New England. The stately home was built in 1885 for George Wheaton Carr (1834-1907) a medical doctor who served as a surgeon during the Civil War and later as head surgeon for multiple Providence-area hospitals. For his Providence home, Dr. Carr hired architect, Edward I. Nickerson, to furnish plans, which resulted in this mansion with irregular plan, four-story corner corner capped with a conical roof, varied materials in stone, wood shingles, half-timbering, and copper bays. The Carr Mansion was purchased by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1916, and has served a variety of roles for the school including as student housing and a cafe/lounge.

Pendleton House – RISD Museum // 1904

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Although the Pendleton House on Benefit Street in Providence, gives the appearance of a domestic residence, it was actually built for the purpose of displaying the once private collections of Charles L. Pendleton (1846-1904), which were given to the RISD Museum in 1904. Pendleton’s bequest, which included American and European furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, textiles, and paintings, came with the stipulation that the collection remain intact and on display in a suitable building for the benefit of the public. The stipulation occurred just before Mr. Pendleton’s death in 1904 and the Rhode Island School of Design immediately hired the local architect, Edmund Willson of the local firm of Stone, Carpenter and Willson, to furnish plans for a wing to the museum. Willson was an expert in the Colonial Revival style and sought to make the private collection of the Pendleton House befitting of a grand Providence mansion. It was Willson’s last major commission before his death. The building is crafted in a refined Colonial Revival style with symmetrical facade, traditional fenestration and Palladian motif, but is beefed up internally for is museum use with brick walls over a fireproof, reinforced concrete frame. The RISD museum has continually grown over the subsequent decades with wings connecting the Pendleton House with more contemporary buildings, all-the-while retaining the residential scale of Benefit Street in this iconic structure.

College Building, RISD // 1823 & 1936

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Spanning an entire city block on College Street between North Main and Benefit streets in Providence’s East Side, the College Building at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), is a valuable lesson in urban context and design. The building was constructed in 1936 from plans by the local architectural office of Jackson, Robertson & Adams, who had years prior, designed the Providence County Courthouse standing across the street. Designed in a plainer version of the Colonial/Georgian Revival style than the courthouse, the new College Building at RISD is broken up into multi-bay wings terracing up the slope of College Street, which breaks up the solid massing of the building in a pleasing way. Additionally, the designers incorporated the Federal period western wall of the 1823 Franklin House, an early 19th century hotel on the site. The result is possibly one of the first examples of a facadectomy in New England, if not the United States!

Waterman Building, RISD // 1892

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The Waterman Building located on Waterman Street on Providence’s East Side is architecturally significant as an example of the Romanesque Revival style, as well as historically significant as the first purpose-built building for the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). The school originally opened in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the accessibility of design education to women, in rented space within the Hoppin Homestead Building in Downtown Providence. As the school grew coinciding with the appreciation of the arts in the late 19th century, the school’s board and president sought to provide a permanent site for the young institution. A site was purchased across from the First Baptist Church and the local firm of Hoppin, Read and Hoppin was hired to furnish designs. The short-lived partnership of Providence-born brothers Howard and Francis L. V. Hoppin and Spencer P. Read, laid out the building with studios on the upper two stories lit by arched windows on the second floor and skylights on the top floor, with a museum and classrooms occupied on the first floor. With an intricate brick facade adorned by terracotta medallions, unique cornice, and lattice brickwork in the spandrels, the building is befitting for an arts institution.

RISD Museum – Chace Center // 2008

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The Chace Center, also known as the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, is a contemporary infill project that serves as both an expansion of one of the region’s premier art museums as well as a front-door to a prestigious world-class college. The college hired the firms of Rafael Moneo Arquitectos of Spain as design architect and Perry Dean Rogers as the architects on record, for the project, which includes an auditorium, student exhibit spaces, museum shop, cafe, and information center as well as being an important connector between various buildings within the block, including Memorial Hall, a significant former church built in the 1850s, and the People’s Savings Bank, a 1913 Neo-Classical building. The $34 million center was built on a former parking lot in one of the few remaining open spaces near RISD, and it was named in honor of the late Beatrice and Malcolm Chace. It is not easy to fit a contemporary museum on a tight site surrounded by historic brick buildings, but the RISD Museum does just that, with the use of contemporary brick to set the building within its context with the contrasting pearl-glass volume at the facade providing a face to the steel and glass towers in Downtown Providence.

Former Central Congregational Church – Memorial Hall, RISD // 1853

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An early example of the Romanesque Revival style, the former Central Congregational Church on Benefit Street in Providence’s East Side is architecturally significant as one of the remaining designs by architect, Thomas Tefft and built from 1853-1856. Thomas A. Tefft (1826-1859) was one of the nation’s first professionally trained architects and was a master of Rundbogenstil, a German-branch of the Romanesque style until his untimely death in Italy when he was just 33. When this church was completed in 1856, Tefft was just thirty years old. The brownstone facade is adorned by triple-arched entrances and corbelling. The congregation grew and decades later, acquired a site in the neighborhood for a larger, Carrere and Hastings-designed church, vacating this building in 1893. The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) purchased this former church in 1902 following a donation by Eliza Radeke and her brothers who named the building Memorial Hall. The firm of Hoppin and Ely was hired to update the former church for use by the college, which primarily took place on the interior. The original pair of tall bell towers were damaged during the 1938 hurricane and later were removed in 1950, truncating the verticality of this great Tefft-designed building, but she still shines! Memorial Hall has been incorporated into the RISD campus and houses studio spaces.

Daniel Smith House // c.1750

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The Daniel Smith House at 362 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, stands out in the neighborhood as an uncommon gambrel-roofed Georgian-era residence, but it was not built here! The home was built by about 1750 for Daniel Smith, and may possibly date to around 1725 a year after he was deeded land from his father and the same year he married his wife, Dorcas Harris. If the home does indeed date to around 1725, it would likely be the oldest extant house in Providence! The home was originally located across town on Chalkstone Avenue, and moved to the present site on Benefit Street in 1982 to save it from institutional expansion by Roger Williams Hospital. The hospital set a date to demolish the farmhouse, then covered in asbestos siding, and offered the building for free to someone who could move it off the site. After tense weeks and a nearing deadline, Angela Brown Fischer, a real estate executive, agreed to pay the costs to move the building across town to a site on Benefit Street, where it remains today. The home was put back together and restored by Newport-based architect, Richard Long, who worked as principal architect for the Restoration Foundation of Newport before opening a private architectural practice. What a great preservation success story!

John Larchar House // c.1820

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The John Larchar House at 282 Benefit Street in Providence is one of the many stately Federal period homes in the city designed by great architect, John Holden Greene. John Larchar (also spelled Larcher), was born in Providence in 1787 and worked in local businesses, eventually becoming a bank director that was involved in many mercantile pursuits. The residence remained in John’s family long after his death in 1863, and has been maintained so well by subsequent owners. The 2½-story, brick Federal house features stone trim, four chimneys, a central elliptical fanlight doorway, modillion cornice and amazing 12-over-12 windows. The cupola at the roof appears to be a is a mid-19th-century addition, possibly after John’s death. The garage and two-story side addition dates to the 1960s but does not detract from the architectural integrity of the home. 

Thomas Peckham House // c.1824

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The Thomas Peckham House at 395 Benefit Street is a stately, modified Italianate style residence typical of the middle-upper-class residents of Providence’s East Side neighborhood in the middle of the 19th century. The house here was built sometime before 1824, likely around that time for Thomas Peckham (1783-1843), who worked as the Deputy Collector of the port of Providence. The Peckham House was likely built as a brick, two-story Federal style house, that was expanded by his heirs in 1853 in the Italianate style, boxing off the building’s roof. Emblematic of the large Italianate homes on College Hill in Providence, the Peckham House features a boxy form, shallow hip roof with monitor, and bracketed cornice and door hood, which has engaged columns.