One of the unsung architectural landmarks in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island, can be found on Weybosset Street. The Providence Gas Company Building at 100 Weybosset Street was built in 1924 as the headquarters and offices for the Providence Gas Company, which provided services to a rapidly growing New England city. The architects, Clarke & Howe, used local precedence in their design, modeling the building as a commercial version of the 1774 Joseph Brown House on South Main Street, with its iconic ogee gable at the roof. Beyond its own ogee gable, the Gas Company building retains its columned entry and symmetrical facades. The building was converted into housing with a pub and rooftop restaurant.
Originally built in 1859 as a four-story building, this commercial block on Dorrance Street in Downtown Providence was updated in the early 20th century in its present appearance. The Case-Mead Building is brick construction and was designed in the Italianate style, notable for its round arched windows. When built, the present third and fourth stories were a double-height Infantry Hall for Rhode Island’s First Light Infantry Regiment, and hosted dances and lectures until they moved to a larger building on South Main Street in the 1870s. The building was renovated in 1906 in the Renaissance Revival style, with a full floor created from the former two-story meeting hall and the primary facades clad with stucco and new trim added. The building recently housed offices, but was renovated in 2017 into housing, creating 44 apartments with funding from State Historic Tax Credits, Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credits, and private funding.
At the corner of Westminster and Union Streets in Downtown Providence stands the Shepard Company Building, a hulking reminder of the late 19th and early 20th century dominance of the department store and the American downtown as a retail destination. The company opened in 1880 in a modest 6,400-square-foot storefront, and saw immediate success, eventually occupying an entire city block. The company grew piecemeal into neighboring buildings between 1880-1903 when the entire 300,000+ square foot block was completed from plans by Martin & Hall, architects. Architecturally, the building tells its own history in layers: it started as a modest three-story Italianate structure, and later additions brought two-story arched entrances angled into the corners at Westminster and Union, and Washington and Union, that once lured shoppers inside to terrazzo floors with a sea of merchandise. Outside, a freestanding cast-iron clock became a beloved meeting point, with generations of Rhode Islanders arranging to gather “at the clock”. A massive fire in March 1923, caused over one million dollars’ worth of damage, but the structure was restored under Hall’s supervision. Shepard’s closed in 1974 and remained vacant for almost 20 years. After advocacy from preservationists, the building was bought by the State of Rhode Island and was rehabilitated by David Presbrey, the building is now the location of the Providence Campus of the University of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Department of Education, and other state offices and education-related facilities.
This two-story commercial building at the corner of Washington and Empire streets in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island, is one of the finest structures executed in terracotta in the state. The building was erected in 1915 for the Packard Motor Company as a car showroom, with large plate glass windows to display the newest vehicles inside. Records differ on the architect, with many stating that Albert Kahn, a Detroit-based architect who designed many factories for the company, furnished the designs. He apparently did submit a design, but the company ultimately went with Rhode Island architect, John Hutchins Cady, to design the showroom. The terracotta ornamentation is similar to what is found on nearby theaters and commercial buildings downtown, making the area a sort of a museum for terracotta facades. The building has been occupied by restaurants for much of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The narrowest commercial building in Downtown Providence, the George C. Arnold Building, is only just over 12-feet wide and is one of the lesser-known landmarks tucked away amongst the larger commercial blocks and civic buildings. The block was built in 1923 for owner, George C. Arnold (1868-1938) by the local firm of William R. Walker & Son, who designed buildings all over the state. Arnold owned considerable property in Downtown and following a street widening on Washington Street in 1917, he sought to make use of his diminished lot by building the current structure rather than sell the sliver of land for a loss. The brick-sheathed building runs seven bays along Washington Street with Chicago style windows in these bays to bring light inside the building. In 2013, the building was acquired by the Providence Revolving Fund which collaborated with developer-builders Lori Quinn and David Stem to rehabilitate the building. It is currently in use as mixed-use property with two commercial spaces on the street level and three residential units on the upper floors.
The Dodge-Brown House on Thomas Street in Providence, Rhode Island, was built in 1786 by Seril Dodge (1759-1802), a silversmith and clockmaker. Seril Dodge was a middle-class resident who did well in Providence circles, as an artisan and shop keeper. The house was originally a two-story residence with central entrance that was raised up in the early 20th century to facilitate a new storefront. Seril Dodge and his family only lived here briefly before moving to a brick house next door. Dodge sold the property to Nicholas Brown II (1769-1841) who rented the home to his stepmother, Avis Binney Brown, who became the widow of one of Providence’s richest men, Nicholas Sr. It continued to stay in Brown family hands through the nineteenth century, but only as an investment. The house was raised one story above street level in 1906, when the handsome Colonial revival storefront was installed from plans by the firm of Stone, Carpenter and Willson. The original front door with elaborate pedimented and pilastered enframement is now a door to a small second floor balcony. Since 1919, the Providence Art Club has owned the building, who for years had the ground retail space occupied as an art store, but now contains a club gallery.
This unique Queen Anne style house at the corner of Washington and Eddy streets in Warren, Rhode Island, stands out for its use of materials and late Victorian design, a departure from the Federal and mid-19th century architecture the waterfront community is best-known for. The residence was built for Hannah and Erastus Buckingham and today remains essentially as originally built. Its slightly asymmetric massing combining multiple materials of brick and weathered shingles with diamond pane sash windows, illustrate early 20″ century design simplification while retaining the use of materials typical of late 19″ century Queen Anne style. Erastus Buckingham inherited his father’s oyster farming business, which harvested over 200 acres of beds in the bays off Nayatt, Conanicut, Quonset, Rocky Point and Patience Island before packaging and shipping to markets.
The old Carriage Shop on Water Street in Warren, Rhode Island, is an early and surviving industrial building from the late 18th century that adds to the charm and history of the great waterfront town. The two-story building has a three-bay facade with a center entrance and 48-pane fixed sash windows on the first floor and 12-over-12 sash windows on the second floor. The stepped parapet masks the low gable roof of the building behind that extends far back in the lot. The building was a workshop and paint shop for Gardner & Hoar, builders and carpenters, in the mid-19th century, and later as a blacksmithing shop and carriage shop before the turn of the 20th century. Luckily for us, the building has been preserved and while not finding a place in architectural journals, the building is an important remaining building that strongly contributes to the character of the town.
The Cranston Cottage on School Street is one of the few such Revolutionary-era gambrel-roofed cottages in the charming town of Warren, Rhode Island, and showcases how many early New England homes were originally built before later additions as families grew. The house was likely built soon after Queen Street (since renamed School Street) was laid out in 1765, or it was moved to the site after the street was laid out and house lots platted. The original owner, Benjamin Cranston, had the house built, which was then just a three-bay, two-story cottage with central chimney for heating. Over time, additions were made to the cottage, including the kitchen ell on the side with chamfered hyphen with diamond pane window.
The Warren Federal Blues is an active independent military organization of the Rhode Island militia that was founded in 1798 and today, serves primarily as a ceremonial honor guard and as historic educational organization in Warren, Rhode Island. Members originally served as marines to police navy seamen on the USS General Greene (1799), which was commanded by Christopher Raymond Perry, the father of Oliver Hazard Perry, who also served aboard the ship. The Warren Federal Blues still remain part of the Rhode Island militia but serve in a largely ceremonial and educational role using period muskets and cannon for special events. The organization purchased the historic barn of the Baker-Merchant House on Main Street in about 1990, saving it from demolition for expansion of church parking, and moved the former barn to this site, adjacent to the old Narragansett Engine House, creating a unique composition of diminutive, but spectacular buildings. The former barn, which dates to around 1860, though is likely older, features paired double-leaf doors on the facade, round-arch window in the attic, and a flared roof with cupola centered on the ridge.
One of the most historic and architecturally unique houses in Warren, Rhode Island, is this pre-Revolutionary cottage on Main Street, that was modernized in the mid-19th century for later owners. Historians state that the house was built by Jesse Baker (1708-1751), who must have died shortly after its completion. At the time of the British burning of Warren during the Revolution in May 1778, Jesse’s widow resided here and saved the modest cottage from the hot embers of the adjacent burning Baptist Church, parsonage and arsenal by wetting every blanket and sheet in the house and spreading them over the roof of the home. The once modest, gambrel-roofed Georgian cottage, was purchased in 1868 by Dr. Joseph Merchant, a physician and surgeon, who “Victorianized” the house to the eclectic beauty we see today. Dr. Merchant added the projecting two-story corner tower, two-story front entry vestibule with Rundbogenstil tripartite window which reads like a Palladian window, projecting eaves with brackets, and stickwork in the north gambrel roof. The home was later inherited by Dr. Merchant’s daughter, Mary, and her husband, Howard K. DeWolf.
The Smith-Winslow House on Warren’s Main Street is a striking two-story Italianate house with cubical massing with smooth stucco walls and bold detailing. The residence was constructed in around 1850 and was owned by Captain William Winslow captain of the schooner ‘‘Metamora’’, a trading vessel, and proprietor of Warwick’s Rocky Point, a shore resort and amusement park just across Narragansett Bay. The Winslow House was designed by Rhode Island architect, Russell Warren, who showcased his architectural prowess through the roof cupola, overhanging eaves, window hoods, and the unique Egyptian columns at the entry. Today, the residence operates as the Women’s Resource Center, a non-profit founded in 1977 to provide comprehensive domestic violence intervention and services that educate, advocate, and shelter any individual in need of assistance in the region.
The most whimsical and unique building in Warren, Rhode Island, is this architectural landmark, the former Lyric Theater on Miller Street. Built in 1914, the building historically had a large projecting marquee, and today retains the large blind arch with applied ornament in the form of Ionic pilasters, panels, frets, and swags to decorate the facade. The Lyric remained active as a motion-picture theatre until 1967 and was converted to retail use in the 1980s, becoming an antique store in 1992.
The J. R. Hoar House on Washington Street in Warren, Rhode Island, is one of the best examples of a 1-1/2-story Greek Revival cottage in the town. The house has a full Doric portico in front, an arched second-story bedroom window in the pediment and pedimented lintels over the windows. Built in the 1841 for John Rodgers Hoar, the house has been lovingly preserved and restored by later owners.
