Neighborhood: Downtown Providence

59 properties

  • A square, seven story commercial building converted to apartments in the early aughts — a frontrunner to the downtown residential boom

    | Built: 1898

  • Originally located along N. Main & Canal Sts., across from Roger Williams Park, Providence, the last meat-packing plant survived for about 50 years

    | Built: Between 1926 & 1937 | Demolition: 1984

  • Two distinctive buildings joined together as downtown residential lofts — both with unique features, design, and spaces

    | Built: 1870 | 1925

  • A beautiful Second-Empire style, iron storefront, six-story commercial building on the edge of Exchange Place until a fire destroyed it in 1925

    | Built: 1871-1873 | Demolition: 1925

  • A former department store turned rock club venue turned loft apartments whose conversion contributed to making Downtown Providence bustle again

    | Built: 1866, 1873, 1892 | 1897

  • A four-turned-five-story 19th-century commercial building goes residential to support 44 micro-lofts and a younger clientele

    | Built: 1859, 1906

  • The story of two central fire stations located on the perimeter of Exchange Place, now Kennedy Plaza.

    | Built: 1873 and 1903 | Demolition: 1938

  • A wonderful meeting of Brutalist and roadside architecture in a striking circular floor plan that fit the location at the apex of Broadway and Atwells Avenue quite well.

    | Built: 1968 | Demolition: 2003

  • A handsomely-detailed yellow brick commercial building with an active bar on the first floor and currently empty upper floors

    | Built: 1897

  • A mapping project to trace the origins and evolution of the Cove Basin north of Downtown and south of Smith Hill, from 1823 to present day

  • A former church mission turned into a series of unsavory businesses establishments until a 30 year old law allowing indoor prostitution was rewritten

    | Built: 1912

  • A low-slung, semi-circular mid-century modern transportation hub in downtown Providence.

    | Built: 1963 | Demolition: circa 1992

  • A non-descript downtown commercial building probably faced with enamel and steel details in the 1950s. Razed in 2005 for a condomuium tower that was never built

    | Built: 1930s, 1950s | Demolition: 2005

  • A simple building located next to the former Sportsman’s Inn (now the Dean Hotel) that was razed for a never-built hotel.

    | Built: 1915 | Demolition: 2008

  • The littlest building in downtown (not including parking lot shelters) that was once home to small coffee shops.

    | Demolition: 2018

  • At only 12 1/2 feet deep, the George Arnold building is an anomoly in the Downtown Historic District

    | Built: 1923

  • A conglomeration of possibly six 1 to 3 story structures bounded by Westminster, Union, and Weybosset Streets razed in 2005 for a proposed parking garage

    | Never Built | Demolition: 2005

  • Parcel 9: A modern, 13-story glass box reflecting the mall, the Westin, Union Station, and Waterplace park.

    | Built: 2005-2006

  • A modest hotel gets a facelift and an upgrade during the city’s development boom time

    | Built: 1966–1971

  • Parcel 12: One of a few new hotels built in the late 2010s with barely an effort made to be more than a bland off-the-highway-style, could-be-anywhere hotel.

    | Built: 2017–2019

  • A former high-art-style consumer banking lobby and offices becomes a 56,000 sf art library and housing for 500 students

    | Built: 1917-1919

  • A turn-of-the-century hotel with intact, 100-year old wood panelled bar enhanced by stained-glass windows and decorative terra cotta

    | Built: 1890, 1917

  • This converted hotel has been restored to much of its former glory, without those great vertical decorative signs

    | Then: 1900 | Now: 2006

  • The iconic “Superman” building, the tallest in the state, might be close to getting a new life as residential apartments

    | Built: 1925–28

  • A love it or hate it concrete structure in the Brutalist style — its knobby elbows sticking out as decoration

    | Built: 1967 | Demolition: 2017

  • A turn-of-the-century 6-story downtown commercial building that is now part of the RISD campus

    | Built: 1903

  • A nine-story commercial building turned residential and joined the ranks of its neightbors in the collective called “Westminster Lofts”

    | Built: 1909

  • Two 19th-century commercial buildings come together to create a unique hotel with historic character

    | Built: 1897, 1911

  • A five-story red brick former Freemasons hall in very good historic condition converted to commercial space in the 1980s

    | Built: 1897

  • An over 170-year-old congregation has served the needs of people in the center of Downtown Providence from a 120-year-old church building

    | Built: 1895, 1951

  • “That very Rhode Island, deliberately shabby den of loud music, cheap beer and all kinds of people”

    | Built: between 1926 and 1937 | Demolition: 1985

  • A new 6-story apartment in downtown with 143 studio, 1- and 2-bedroom apartments was developed by Cornish Associates and opened in 2020

    | Built: 2018–2020

  • A classically-inspired former bank with soaring vaulted ceiling finds new life as a performing arts center

    | Built: 1929

  • The OneTen tower would have been the tallest building in Providence, and the tallest residential tower in New England at the time.

    | Never Built | Proposed 2005

  • A mid-century, pre-Brutalist retail amenity in downtown was razed only to avoid maintenance costs

    | Built: 1963 | Demolition: 2011

  • A handsome yellow brick, seven story building with ornate white brickwork designs has become a dozen luxury residences with ground-floor retail

    | Built: 1915, 1916

  • A six-story early Moderne former bank lobby and upper-floor offices was redeveloped in fits and starts into residential apartments

    | Built: 1949

  • A plethora of pithy postcard images from the turn of the century.

  • This freight house was part of one of the first major railroad stations in America and one of the few only surviving structures of its architect Thomas A. Tefft

    | Built: 1847-1848 | Demolition: 1973

  • A relatively recent construction for large sporting and entertainment events, modernized in the late 2000’s to connect to the Convention Center

    | Built: 1972

  • A neo-Georgian building that was home to the original home to the Providence National Bank Company. Razed for a proposed hotel that was never built.

    | Built: 1929, 1950s | Demolition: 2005

  • This 60 year-old Art Deco structure was vacated in 2000 for new digs across the highway. It stayed vacant for 6 years until a proposed condo structure took it down.

    | Built: 1940s | Demolition: 2007

  • A sliver of an 1829 structure survives under this turn-of-the-20th-century vaudeville theatre turned movie house turned commercial storefronts

    | Built: 1829, 1902, 1950s

  • A new building takes advantage of a small space to introduce additional density in an already dense edge of downtown and the Jewelry District

    | Built: 2024

  • This mid-1800s structure was one the few examples of Providence’s eminent architect Thomas Tefft but burned in 2006.

    | Built: 1847-1849 | Demolition: 2006

  • A former downtown bar forced to move after the building was razed for a hotel that was never built

    | Opened: 1982 | Closed: 2007

  • This over 190 year old structure survived 170 years as an indoor mall but now is a collection of retail and micro-loft styles residential condos

    | Built: 1828

  • A three-quarters of a billion dollar investment in Downtown Providence, 2005, that was too good to be true

    | Never Built | Proposed 2005

  • A photo recreation series of a RISD student portfolio taken in 1975 and 1976 — recreated in 2008

  • A late 19th-century investment building used as commercial space for over 100 years recently turned into residential upper floors.

    | Built: 1893, 1954

  • A masterpiece of the Italian Romanesque style designed by a young newcomer who would later become an architecture star in his relatively short life

    | Built: 1848 | Demolition: 1896

  • This 120-year old station has see fires and rehabilitation, but the remarkably handsome structure is still standing and useful and full of tenants

    | Built: 1896-98

  • Old aerials of Providence taken from different vantage points and at different times in its development.

  • A small mercantile-style building razed for a never-built Sierra Suites Hotel in 2008. This building housed a few well-loved storefronts — New Japan, Cuban Revolution, and the Talk of the Town bar.

    | Never Built | Built: between 1920 and 1939 | Demolition: 2008

  • Parcel 2: A pair of residential towers built during the mid-2000s post 9-11 boom — condos selling at the time for $300k to $1m.

    | Built: 2006-2007

  • A mix of retail, parking, hotel rooms, and upscale condominiums. At 31 stories and 358 feet tall, it is currently the 3rd tallest structure in Rhode Island.

    | Built: 2005-2007

  • The Fletcher building marks the first foray into downtown Providence for RISD and its graduate students

    | Built: 1895-1903

  • A small, five-story commercial building that underwent a modern renovation into 12 apartments on a busy downtown street

    | Built: c.1900

  • Smaller than its neighbors, this 2-story commercial building joined the ranks of its neightbors in the collective called “Westminster Lofts”

    | Built: c.1925