Unique places have special stories
ArtInRuins documents the architectural landscape to collect the oral, written, and photographic history of important places in Rhode Island. We are a safe space for storytelling, memory-sharing, and dreaming about the future of the built environment. More about A.I.R.
401 properties and 9 Essays with 6,793 images. Browse more from our Categories and Tags.
Demolition Alerts More in Demolition Alert
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Demolition Alert
Added 28 August, 2024: A beautifully detailed late 19th-century double house will succumb to the wrecking ball in favor of more of the same modern apartment building design
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Demolition Alert
Added 30 December, 2023: A rare “Collegiate Gothic”-style high school faces potential demolition as educators and the public struggle with the complex emotions surrounding a quality public education
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Demolition Alert
Added 16 September, 2023: Two buildings on a prominent corner of Wickenden Street face demolition in favor of a five-story 62 unit apartment building
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Demolition Alert
Updated 28 August, 2023: Added links about the small chance that a private owner may save the stadium
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Added 22 September, 2024: A history of the diner, from lunch wagon to prefabricated, quick to install and affordable to purchase restaurant, slinging all the breakfast and lunch standards we have come to love
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Added 20 September, 2024: An almost 10-acre property on the corner of routes 2 and 102 in North Kingstown are soon to become 22 apartment buildings
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Added 17 September, 2024: A beautiful Second-Empire style, iron storefront, six-story commercial building on the edge of Exchange Place until a fire destroyed it in 1925
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Updated 9 September, 2024: Added photos of the demolition provided by David Lawlor
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Updated 30 August, 2024: Added a recent news story about the pending sale of the property
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Added 16 August, 2024: The two types of Historic Districts are very different, and in Providence, while 28% of the City is documented on the National Register, only 7% has the protections that Local Historic Districts can offer.
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The Art of Ruins — This week’s artful image
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Added 15 August, 2024: A former catholic school has been vacant since 2009 while plans to create new residences have yet to happen
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Updated 10 August, 2024: Added three more images of the now empty lot from Chestnut Street
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Updated 10 August, 2024: Added three new photos of the final renovations
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Updated 10 August, 2024: Added photos of the Gano Stret entrance
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Updated 10 August, 2024: Added two more images of the building, one only possible because the three houses to the west have been demolished.
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Added 21 July, 2024: A four story former mill on the south side of Providence that has been under the radar as large industrial-style studio and living spaces
#WhatAreTheyBuilding: Under Construction
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Added 6 September, 2024: A contemporary white box sits atop a ribbon of glass and contains a flexible set of performance spaces that can be configured in multiple ways
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Added 29 August, 2024: A new five-story, 127-unit development breaks ground with phase 1 in 2023
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Updated 16 August, 2024: 2024-08-16 11:00
Also! The list of new building proposals we are keeping an eye on.
Recent Anecdotes Subscribe
1,967 anecdotes from people just like you.
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In response to Leslie Richards, Pauline Fay Lazarus was my aunt, my fathe’s sister. Woodrow’inds Modern Age was a happy part of my childhood.
Pamela Stacey Lazarus on Lilly Building -
In 1957 I had a summer job working in the woolen tubular jersey drying room of the factory. It was very uncomfortable working in a hot, humid room with floating lint and smelling of lanolin while sitting on a stool in front of a wire drying rack that was mounted over a hole in...
David Carp on Lebanon Mill Company -
Since i was young child I had dreams of this walkway. Every now and then it would repeat. I didn’t know where it was until I recently saw a picture on the Internet. So now I’m reading all this fascinating information. I was born in 1953 so there is no way my dream could be a m...
Therese Loranger on Vanity Fair Amusement Park -
I was hired to sing and play guitar with a friend of mine at the Providence Goff’s back in 2000 and 2001. It was a great spot. Also played and sang at the Bristol location around 2003-2005. Great times!
Tom C. on James C. Goff Company Office Building -
I pop into your sight from time to time when I’m in a nostalgic mood. In the mood today 😬. I brought a league there back in 80s. We used to bowl at Seekonk Lanes but when they were bought out and demolished it to build a Pet Boys we had nowhere to go and it was only a month or...
Greg Motta on Down Under Duckpin Bowling -
When the Nelson Fitness Center was built, I wrote about architecture for the Providence Journal. I learned that Jonathan Nelson ‘77 (an entrepreneur and Rhode Island’s only billionaire at the time) had refused to give money for the fitness center as designed by SHoP Architects...
David Brussat on Nelson Fitness Center, Brown University -
I metal detect as a hobby. Digging in my yard, I uncovered a snap fastener inscribed “ROME” NEW HAVEN. I live not far from Milford, CT where the ROME FASTENER corporate building is located. Milford is in New Haven County. I am trying (unsuccessfully) to learn what year(s) this...
Lorraine Zuba on Perkins Buildings -
My first 21 years of life starting from 1949, I grew up on Jamestown. So many lovely stories. 1967, On Fox Hill Farm, we started cutting hay fields on Wednesday June 14th and started bailing hay as soon as it cured, right into Father’s Day, June 18th. While frantically bailing...
Walter Williams on Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (the old one)
