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.
421 properties and 10 Essays with 7,019 images. Browse more from our Categories and Tags.
Demolition Alerts More in Demolition Alert
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Demolition Alert
Updated 23 March, 2025: Added photos of the damage to the top of the ziggurat and its recent deconstruction.
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Demolition Alert
Updated 6 January, 2025: Added two recent photos of the building as it still stands, two years after a decision to raze it
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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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Updated 13 April, 2025: Added a photo found in the PPS Architectural Slide Collection
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Added 13 April, 2025: A 150-year-old firehouse annex gets a third life as an expanded residence and art studio after a residential conversion in the 1990s
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Added 30 March, 2025: Designed by star-chitect Paul Rudolph, this “modern” building by some standards shows the softer, human side of the Brutalist style of the 1960s
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Added 10 March, 2025: A highly decorative example of Art Deco municipal buildings constructed at the height of publically-funded Depression-era projects
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Updated 23 February, 2025: Added two recent photos from last fall as the building slowly decays
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The Art of Ruins — This week’s artful image
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Added 1 February, 2025: A small summer-time location offering shakes, cold drinks. and ice cream along the East Bay Bike Path
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Updated 20 January, 2025: Added an image of the Rusty Scupper restaurant sign taken in 1977
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Added 10 January, 2025: A two-unit commercial strip once home to a 100-year-old bakery business is razed in Wayland Square
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Added 8 January, 2025: Providence has 8 historic districts covering over 2,600 documented properties. Staff and volunteers at the Providence Historic Districts Commission review and weigh in on any and all exterior changes in order to determine if they are consistent with the character of the historic district. And we think this semi-public has been working well.
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Added 5 January, 2025: An unassuming commercial building gets a makeover in 2025 as a community gathering space and offices for a new non-profit
#WhatAreTheyBuilding: Under Construction
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Added 25 January, 2025: A new infill home thoughtfully designed to fit the neighborhood while adhering to modern building practices
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Added 5 January, 2025: An unassuming commercial building gets a makeover in 2025 as a community gathering space and offices for a new non-profit
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Added 9 November, 2024: Six new apartments in a trendy-styled contemporary building sited on a once vacant lot overlooking a historically significant part of the city
Also! The list of new building proposals we are keeping an eye on.
Recent Anecdotes Subscribe
1,985 anecdotes from people just like you.
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I am surprised no one has talked much about the amazing shows that happened at the Safari Lounge in the early 2000s. I went to a few, and they all blur together now. Sawz’all, Lighting Bolt, Mahi Mahi, Chinese Starsm, maybe Tiny Hawks? Many shows would spill out into the stree...
JH on Second Universalist Church -
495 vehicle capacity. I was the managing partner, operating the theatre in its final season, before the screen went dark for all eternity.
David Lounder on Sutton Motor-In -
I really enjoyed living at Beneficent House. The overall layout is very thoughtful. The apartments aren’t shoeboxes in a grid, they emerge and recede from the facade to maximize sight lines. From east to west, each new row of windows comes a bit further to the north, so views ...
Matt O. on Beneficent House -
In 1901 my great-great uncle moved from the mill towns of Northern England (UK) to work in the USA. By 1906 he married Florence Edgerton and worked as an overseer in the Rhode Island Silk company on High St, Central Falls in about 1918. They had a son Stanley Clifford Hothersa...
Rachel Fox on The Silk Works and Power Company -
The 3 1/2 story building at 144 Spruce St. Was once my family’s bakery: E. Tanzi and Sons until the late 60s. My grandparents ran the bakery including with their kids when they got older. My grandfather Emilio came to the US from Italy in 1922 and died in 1950. My grandmother ...
Ron Tanzi on Rialto Furniture -
In the late 1980’s, I arranged a tour of this Plant for the Director of Save The Bay RI. I worked for Blackstone Valley Electric at that time.
Peter J Sheil on Bridge Mill Power Plant -
I still have the first purchase I ever made as an adult. A sweater from the gap. I love it and still ware it today. It was oversized… the 80’s lol
Ann Oulette on Lincoln Mall -
My father served on the USS Essex at Quonset and I used to fish off the carrier pier as a child. We shopped at the PX every other week and I remember the planes, hangars, Quonset Huts and the SeaBee. I later served in the US Navy on the USS Saratoga and after an honorable disc...
Mark Cagle on Quonset Point Naval Air Station
