List: Provisions Warehouse Historic District

6 properties

HABS RI-408, submitted 1998 — This district is comprised of 11 buildings on Kinsley and Harris Avenues and Terminal Way constructed between 1894 and 1947. The buildings are associated with local food storage, processing, and distribution. All of the major warehouses were connected via a spur line to the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad. A series of underground tunnels connected Merchant’s and neighboring distributors who depended on the warehouse for their cold storage.

  • A part of the Provisions District met the wrecking ball in 2011. Owner of this and nearby buildings, The Providence Journal Company, used deferred maintenance as an excuse.

    Smith Hill | Built: 1895-1908 | Demolition: 2011

  • A former Providence Journal distribution center that was previously a milk processing plant is becomming a graffiti playground

    Smith Hill | Built: 1923–1926
    Added to NRHP: June 10, 2005 | NRHP Reference Number: 05000583

  • This imposing, 6-story cold storage facility ran continuously for 98 years. It fell to the wrecking ball before converting these buildings became the cool thing to do

    Smith Hill | Built: 1894-1911 | Demolition: 1998

  • A long, low slung industrial building west of the highway and in the shadow of the Providence Place Mall. Neglect over ten years as well as some nefarious local dealings took the building down.

    Smith Hill | Built: 1929 | Demolition: 2008
    Added to NRHP: June 10, 2005 | NRHP Reference Number: 05000583

  • A 60-year history slinging good, hearty diner food evaporated into a cyclone of legal battles. The diner itself is still unrestored.

    Smith Hill | Built: 1937

  • A narrow 3-story building built as infill when rail lines were removed in the Provisions Warehouse District. Most recently a set of nightclubs.

    Smith Hill | Built: 1937