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.
416 properties and 10 Essays with 6,958 images. Browse more from our Categories and Tags.
Demolition Alerts More in Demolition Alert
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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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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
Recently added/updated Subscribe
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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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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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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 5 January, 2025: A wood-frame mid-19th-century church in the heart of Broadway and Federal Hill stood until 1969, almost 100 years
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The Art of Ruins — This week’s artful image
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Added 28 December, 2024: A comparison of the iconic sawtooth weave shed of the Slater Dye Works over 35 years
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Added 23 December, 2024: An early-19th-century mill complex remained industrial for 100 years now has an uncertain future as industry continues to leave the state (and country)
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Added 8 December, 2024: Since its acquisition in 1902, this mid-19th-century church has been studio and student activity space adjacent to the RISD Museum
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Added 1 December, 2024: A small colonial house along Meeting St with ties to the Civil War’s “Colored” infantry and African American’s fight for equal education rights in the state
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Added 27 November, 2024: A small house gifted to Brown University was razed in favor of expanding the Life Sciences Building along Meeting St
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Added 24 November, 2024: Could the newest owner of this long neglected building finally turn it back into the jewel it used to be?
#WhatAreTheyBuilding: Under Construction
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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
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Added 2 November, 2024: Thirty “workforce’-priced apartment units in a three-story podium building occupying long vacant space on the West Side
Also! The list of new building proposals we are keeping an eye on.
Recent Anecdotes Subscribe
1,975 anecdotes from people just like you.
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Lived close by the theater… a friend and I, probably in the late 60’s or so, went to see the movie “Blue Water, White Death”… about Great White Sharks…
Kevin Lonergan on Park Cinema -
My great-grandfather, Thomas Francis Bannan, rose to be the manager of “the Boston Store.” At one time he was a buyer in Paris for elegant clothes, shoes and gloves, etc. When his first daughter was born in 1883 he was a clerk, probably there at Callendar, McAuslan & Troup.
Carole Enright on Callendar, McAuslan & Troup Store and William H. Low Estate Building -
When I was discharged from USAF in Nov of 74. Quonset and Davisville was a Ghost Town nearly all enlisted personal have vacated. Quonset chow hall still had coffee stains on the tables along with scatted dishware… Electric Boat Division shortly moved in and took over Seaplane ...
Lon St Jean on Quonset Point Naval Air Station -
Winter of 88/89, I was a first year student at Johnson & Wales College (turned University 89 or 90) living at Bell Hall, which was a couple of blocks away from Dreyfus, on the corner of Westminster and Moulton lane. Bell hall was condemned a few years later and is now the bac...
James Letourneau on Hotel Dreyfus -
I worked on the carousel the summer of 1976 i ran the carousel and also operated the rings on occasion. I also remember bob newman who also ran the carousel and he also kept the organ in working order. I had a great time working there.
gary bowden on Crescent Park -
This is the flea market a famous RI mobster was taken down for selling fake designer handbags. (from Instagram)
Mother Mystic on Valley Street Place -
This anecdote reminds me of the situation with the old Waverly Bridge in central Missouri. That bridge, which carried US 65 across the Missouri River, was also scary to cross. Needless to say, when the old bridge was replaced and demolished, many people did not miss it.
Joel Bader on Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (the old one) -
As a RISD student in the 50’s, I remember walking up to Toy Sun’s, Thayer St., East Side of Providence for a delicious late night snack/study break… a chow mein sandwich… on a hamburger roll! Invented in Fall River, btw. The price was right, too!
Joanne Egan Shea on Chinese Restaurants of the Past
