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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Demolition Alert More Demolition Alerts
- 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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Added 25 September, 2023: An mid-19th-century mill falters in its second life but gains a third life in the late 2010s to become residential with a boutique hotel on the same property
Updated 21 September, 2023: Added four new olkd photos from the recently released PPS Slides Collection
Updated 9 September, 2023: Added three photos of the halls nearing completion
Updated 3 September, 2023: Added a YouTube video and a new story about the move from 142 Angell to 79 Brown Street
Updated 3 September, 2023: Added a panaramic photo we found from our archives shot in 2002 by Sarah Clover
Updated 3 September, 2023: Added a screen grab of an 1890 advertisment as well as extensive history from Ian O’Connor
Updated 1 September, 2023: Added a photo of the Fox Point Trolley Station with a transcription of the inscription
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The Art of Ruins — This week’s artful image
Added 1 September, 2023: This gothic revival wood frame house has been languishing since the 1990s as developers have come and gone
Added 11 August, 2023: A quaint small cottage is delicately saved by a considerate addition and rebuild while the large lot was subdivided to support monster new construction
Added 3 August, 2023: A newer complex of brick structures built up and around an almost 200-year old stone mill
Updated 30 July, 2023: Added two more photos of the demolition status as of July 1, 2023
Added 8 July, 2023: A worsted yarn mill under the same ownership for 60 to 80 years has been home to small businesses and a plastics company for at least the last 20
Added 1 July, 2023: A circa 1900 collection of mill buildings are still in use as manufacturing, small business space, and studios even though the building itself needs maintenance
Added 29 June, 2023: One of the oldest mill structures in Olneyville, this building housed a collection of 60 artists who were forced out in 2004
Updated 29 June, 2023: Added an in-depth archived news story about artist studio and small business rental prices in 2001.
Added 19 June, 2023: A large complex of mill buildings spread out over three city blocks is only partially intact and undergoing revitalization in different forms
#WhatAreTheyBuilding: Under Construction
View the list of new building proposals we are keeping an eye on.
Recent Anecdotes Subscribe
1,888 anecdotes from people just like you.
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Joseph Franco: Angela’s Hair Fashions was at 235 Meeting. Ben & Jerry’s was there in the early 90s before moving to 237 and then eventually to its current location on Thayer at the bus tunnel.
Daniel Macks on Block bounded by Brook St., Meeting St., and Euclid Ave. -
For those of us who worked there as caseworkers it was a place like none other and it was the saddest of days when it was razed. Only the fondest of memories. A unique place to have experienced
Ann Perron on John E. Fogarty Memorial Building -
Sad to say as an update but it looks like the demolition process of Building #19 has started a few months ago haven’t been by in a while last i saw there were construction workers and fencing all around
Joe on Narragansett Race Track -
My aunt owned one of these homes and ran her beauty shop angela’s hair fashions out of it. I believe it was the one that later became the ben and jerrys… so hard to tell now. I remember the IHOP across the street. My mother would drag me along on friday nights in the 70s here ...
joseph franco on Block bounded by Brook St., Meeting St., and Euclid Ave. -
I have no ties at all to this… I’m just and always have been interested in history, especially British history that overlays to the United States… I wanted to know about the mills and the towns they build, because I love watching narrow boats on the canals in the UK, and they ...
Samn Diller on Slatersville Mills -
Indeed it has been filled-in, but if you look closely along Ann Mary Street, you’ll notice that most of the concrete retaining wall along the back of the building is actually an extant section of the exposed north wall of Down Under Duckpin. Where there once was a rear/service...
Marc Berman on Down Under Duckpin Bowling -
Harry and his son Colin D. Barrett employed by GMC by way of Tiffany NY. Designers both at last decade of 1800s. Both were also of RISD as adjunct professors? Harry Barrett’s daughter married a silversmith’s son, John E. Orton, my great grandfather.
Herman Vanderwart on Gorham Manufacturing Company -
52 years ago today, my brother-in-law was working the police detail for a concert there. I was ten. He thought the band was Blood Sweat & Tears which excited me as they were all over the radio back then. Alas, it was not BS&T but he was close. It was Black Sabbath on their fi...
Jim on Rhode Island Auditorium
