Documenting Change since 2002

20 years of architectural change

We document the architectural landscape and collect the oral, written, and photographic history of important places in Rhode Island. We hope to be a safe space for storytelling, memory-sharing, and dreaming about the future of the built environment. More about A.I.R.

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1,817 anecdotes from people just like you.

  • This is great. I remember sometime in the late 80s, early 90s taking a writing class at Brown in the summer. It was for kids. I was probably 10 or 11. During one class the teacher took us on a walk down Thayer street. As a kid from West Warwick, that was like stepping out onto...
    Michael Griffin on Thayer Street (from Bowen to Waterman)
  • They had a photo booth there and we have photos we took there after our wedding that we used to get a Hostel pass for our honeymoon in Europe (1981).
    Karen McAninch on Downtown Bonanza Bus Terminal
  • (via Facebook) the photo booth! This was the common hub to and from Providence hardcore shows in the 80s, I still have pics of me and Cindy Holt from that photo booth!
    Heather Jean Toupin on Downtown Bonanza Bus Terminal
  • I’m so glad I found this. I thought I was imagining that I actually saw The Three Stooges at the park! We went often as we lived in nearby RI. Many happy memories.
    Deb Cabana on Crescent Park
  • I was born on Harris Avenue near Olneyville and have many memories of the area. Both my parents worked at Atlantic Mills. Father was a Weaver and Mother was a Carder. After the mill closed and the mills moved to the South where the cotton was grown, it later turned into a larg...
    Ken Barthelette on Atlantic Mills
  • I drove up to the store yesterday, because I saw they had moved into the smaller space on the right. It was about 3 in the afternoon, and they were closed. I looked inside and I saw only appliances. I did go awhile ago when it was still open in the larger space. It’s pretty mu...
    Carl W. on Apex Department Store
  • Not very much if anything is said about the big bands that played the Alhambra Ballroom. I know because I was in most of them. I played the trumpet and also worked at the Colonnade right next too the ballroom.
    Bob Cary on Crescent Park
  • I grew up in R.I am my life and still here. I remember weekend trips to Newport with Nana & Grandpa in the’re old Ford Crown Victoria. They had 2 of those cars over the years, a dark brown one and an Ocean State grey one, with an AMC Concorde in between. I would love going ove...
    Timothy Thurber on Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (the old one)