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.
427 properties and 10 Essays with 7,090 images. Browse more from our Categories and Tags.
Demolition Alerts More in Demolition Alert
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Demolition Alert
Updated 17 May, 2025: Added a recent photo of the still-standing buildings
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Demolition Alert
Updated 20 April, 2025: Added new photos of the demolition underway
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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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Updated 7 June, 2025: Added photos of the substation demolition occuring behind this building
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Added 4 June, 2025: Two houses will be expanded within the confines of historic character and almost double the number of available apartments
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Added 1 June, 2025: A handsome, brick double house with a converted commercial space get an additional floor and apartment renovation
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Updated 17 May, 2025: Added new photos of the recent construction
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Added 17 May, 2025: A 100-year-old theater built at the height of vaudeville, traveling acts, and the advent of movies has had a storied past and gone in and out of business at various times
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Added 27 April, 2025: A mid-century building in an older style is converted from a former rectory to residential apartments
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The Art of Ruins — This week’s artful image
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Added 26 April, 2025: A large stately building has been converted to 11 apartments as a mix of modern finishes with historic details
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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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Updated 23 March, 2025: Added photos of the damage to the top of the ziggurat and its recent deconstruction.
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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
#WhatAreTheyBuilding: Under Construction
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Updated 17 May, 2025: Added new images of the construction of phase 2
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Updated 2025-05-017 12:00: Added a recent photo of the construction progress
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Added 29 April, 2025: New apartment construction on a previously vacant lot as part of a larger block of residential renovations
Also! The list of new building proposals we are keeping an eye on.
Recent Anecdotes Subscribe
1,995 anecdotes from people just like you.
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From roughly 2008 to 2013, a part of this factory space was the home of an underground music venue known as “Mars Gas Chamber.” Important musicians such as Lightning Bolt, Russian Tsarlag, S.H.V, Laundry Room Squelchers, Humanbeast and Providence’s own Dave Public performed he...
scum on Providence Combing Mills -
My dad was stationed here during ww2 as an air craft mechanic, my mom worked at the marine base next door.
William Bright on Quonset Point Naval Air Station -
The building in the back (the substation, I think?) was being demolished a couple weeks ago (April 18). I haven’t been by there since.
Ken Zirkel on Alexander Duncan Warehouse -
I first moved into the top floor of 5/7 Steeple Street in 1993. My father and my friends and I put in all of the stud and wall board and electrical and plumbing - including a shower we made with plywood and epoxy. I lived there with many great roommates for 12 full years - all...
Matt Cottam on Congdon & Carpenter Building and the George & Smith Owen Building -
I work there in 1990 through 2001 I’m looking to find out who owned it in the later part of that time because I am due a pension and I’m trying to find out from here thank you
Ronald Towsend on Howard & Bullough American Machine Co. -
Saw Elvis in 1977 there, Bowie, Neil young, Sinatra, Steve Martin, Neil diamond
Don on Providence Civic Center -
50+ years ago my father took me for my first roller coaster ride here. Scared to death but kept riding till I enjoyed it. I miss these old smaller parks such as this place and others. Jolly Cholly’s Attleboro, Rocky Point, Warwick. Good memories. Better than these giant places...
Pete Fiore on Lincoln Amusement Park -
I remember going there with my cousins in the 70’s. Then we’d hit the China Royal if it wasn’t too late. ah, the chow mein in those metal covered pans. My parents met at the ballroom at Lincoln Park. My dad had just finished high school yet he was a WW2 veteran.
Danny ”Knuckles” Ferriera on Lincoln Amusement Park
