Rhode Island

Providence Market Hall // 1773

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Located in Market Square between Downtown and College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, the old Colonial Market House stands as one of the city’s oldest and most architecturally significant buildings. Constructed between 1773-1775, this Georgian-style structure originally served as a public market and meeting space. The building was originally two stories in height with an open arcade on the first story, it was used by vendors below and town officials above. The building was expanded in 1797 with a third floor, which housed the first Masonic Lodge in Rhode Island. The Market Hall was designed by local businessman, astronomer, and architect, Joseph Brown, who was also a brother of the founders and namesake of Brown University. Over the centuries, the Market House has played many civic roles. During the Revolutionary War, it was used for military purposes, and later became a hub of commercial and political activity in the growing city. It housed Providence’s first post office, and housed the Providence City Council in the decades before the completion of City Hall. In 1948, Mayor Dennis J. Roberts signed a deed to give the building to the Rhode Island School of Design, with the provision that the exterior of the building be maintained, an early preservation win! Architect John Hutchins Cady was hired to remodel the interior with classrooms and studios, and the Market House remains as a significant piece of the RISD campus. Its enduring presence on Market Square connects modern Providence to its colonial roots, embodying a rich legacy of adaptive reuse and historic preservation.

Pawtucket Hair Cloth Mill //1864

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Despite its name, this handsome mill structure, known as the Pawtucket Hair Cloth Mill, is actually located in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The building, located on Roosevelt Avenue on the banks of the Blackstone River, is a great example of a Civil War-era mill, built for one of the many wool and cloth companies in New England. Begun in a small factory across the street in 1856, this business became successful after the acquisition of patents for weaving haircloth (most of the raw material for which originally came from Russian horse markets) for upholstery, crinolines, and inner linings. The company is said to have once been the largest producer of haircloth in the world. The Italianate style mill stands pretty much as built, besides the tower that has lost its low pyramidal cap. The building was one of the first commissions by great Rhode Island architect, William Walker, who was just 34 at the time of designing this large, and complicated structure.

Kennedy-Stafford Mill // 1825

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One of the oldest mills in Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this four-story brick building constructed in 1825 is important as one of the earliest extant brick mills in Rhode Island, at a time when such buildings were shifting from wood construction to fire-proof brick or stone construction. Built on one of the first industrial sites in the city, along the Blackstone River, the mill was originally constructed for a John Kennedy as a cotton manufactory. The complex was purchased and expanded in the 1860s by the Stafford Manufacturing Company, who built a new dam on the river and extension to the 1825 building. The structure features a five-story square end tower with freight doors, and a monitor roof which runs the span of the original 1825 building, terminating where the Stafford Company addition begins. Originally, canals flowed directly under the building, powering the building and three mills downstream, but they were filled in by 1965. Elizabeth Webbing started in the Kennedy/Stafford mill buildings in 1933. After over 70 years of making cloth straps used for seat belts, dog collars, luggage straps and more, it ceased operations in March of 2001. The complex, which included 19 nearby mill buildings, was split up and sold off. In 2007 work began on converting the former mill to residential use with the first phase of the project opening to tenants in 2009. It’s another great example of adaptive reuse into housing, the best type of project!

George M. Thornton House // c.1870

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One of the finest homes in Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this eclectic Victorian residence on Clay Street. The home was seemingly built around 1870 and modified by the end of the 19th century by later owner, George Mumford Thornton (1850-1916). Mr. Thornton was an industrialist who was elected as one of the first aldermen when Central Falls incorporated in 1895. The well-preserved house features varied siding, a rounded corner tower with spiral-columned porch and conical roof, and original multi-light sash windows. What a spectacular home.

Pawtucket-Central Falls Station // 1916

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The Pawtucket-Central Falls Railroad Station is a crumbling relic of a time once dominated by rail travel. This architectural landmark spans the border of the cities of Pawtucket and Central Falls, along with the tracks of the former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and is one of the more unique buildings in Rhode Island. The station opened in 1916 to replace separate stations in the two cities from plans by F.W. Mellor, architect for the New Haven Railroad with Norcross Brothers of Worcester facilitating the construction over a structural steel base spanning the tracks. As many as 140 trains per day once passed under this station, but in 1959, it closed. The building was purchased by a private owner and plans failed to materialize for decades, leaving us with a crumbling masterpiece in architecture and engineering. In 2007, the lot was partially developed with the addition of a suburban, soulless CVS store and parking lot, which today, directly abuts the station. In 2023, a new Pawtucket/Central Falls station opened nearby, which has brought new calls to demolish this building, with people actively seeking grants to fund the estimated $10 Million dollar demolition.

Samuel B. Conant House // 1895

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Built in 1895 for Samuel Conant, president of a Pawtucket printing firm, this stately residence is one of the finest Colonial Revival houses in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Designed by the Providence architectural firm of Stone, Carpenter & Willson, the house is brick on the first floor with clapboard siding above. The Contant house has a gambrel roof punctuated by several gable dormers. The main facade has two symmetrical round bays, which rise to the roof and are topped by low balustrades. A single-story porch extends between the center points of these bays, and is also topped by a low balustrade. Recognized for its architectural grandeur (inside and out), the house was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Conant House is now used as a nursing home and while the transition to this new use has required a number of interior alterations, these changes have been made with sympathy for the character of the house and many of them are reversible.

St. George’s Episcopal Church, Central Falls // 1922

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Tucked away in the middle of a residential neighborhood in the dense city of Central Falls, Rhode Island, this Neo-Gothic style church more closely resembles an English country church than one typically found in a dense, industrial city. This is the St. George’s Episcopal Church, located at the corner of Central and Clinton streets, and built for the local Episcopal congregation there in 1922. The church was designed by the Rhode Island architectural firm of Clarke & Howe and is built of rough-faced stone with limestone trim. The highlight of the design is the large central tower with lancet, stained glass window, and belfry. 

Central Falls Police Station and Courthouse // 1914

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Built jointly by the city of Central Falls and the state of Rhode Island, this Classical Revival style building originally contained both the local police station and a district court house. The symmetrical building was designed by William R. Walker and Son, a Providence design firm, who specialized in large, civic and commercial buildings. The gray brick building is trimmed with limestone and stands three-stories under a hipped tile roof capped by decorative cresting. In the 1970s, the courthouse moved out and the entire building came into the ownership of the City of Central Falls and is today owned by the Central Falls Redevelopment Agency, which frankly worries me about the future of this important building. Does anyone know about plans for the building? 

Cogswell Tower // 1904

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The crown jewel of the nearly one square mile city of Central Falls, Rhode Island, is Jenks Park, the only large park in one of the densest cities in America. The land was a gift of Alvin Jenks, a descendant of the family which had been among the town’s earliest settlers and one of its leading industrial families, and provided a much-needed recreational/open space for the dense industrial city. In 1890, planning began on the park with consists of hilly terrain cut through by paved paths, rocky outcroppings, and large metal gazebos which were fabricated at the nearby Fales and Jenks machinery works. At the crest of the park’s hill is Cogswell Tower, a clock and observation tower given by a former resident, Caroline E. Richards Cogswell. The stone tower was designed by architect Albert Humes, who ironically, was serving as mayor of Central Falls at the time, which may represent somewhat of a conflict of interest to gain the commission… The Cogswell Tower stands 70-feet-tall and is constructed of rough stone with a pyramidal roof that was once surmounted by an eagle. Its most remarkable aspect, a circular, iron structure which surrounds the base appearing from below as a sort of Hula-Hoop to the tower. Jenks Park and the iconic Cogswell Tower remain as a source of pride for the City of Central Falls.

Benjamin F. Greene House // 1868

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Built for Benjamin Franklin Greene, a second-generation mill owner of the Greene and Daniels Thread Company in Central Falls, Rhode Island, this large, Second Empire style house is one of the finest of its style in the entire state. The house is one of only a few high-style residences left from the mid-nineteenth century in Central Falls, when industrialization’s full expansion provided manufacturers such as Greene with fortunes to be expended on their houses. Designed by Providence architect Clifton A. Hall, the ornamentation of the Greene House is extraordinary for its elaboration, relieving the severity of the simple, block-like shape of the house. The central door is set under a flat-roofed porch which is supported by trios of Corinthian columns. Above the porch a trio of round-head windows is set under a “sunbonnet” gabled dormer which caps the central pavilion, is supported by brackets, and encloses a round-head window with a small balcony. What a spectacular home!