North Main Street, #905

About this Property

#Redevelopment

No doubt some of the same forces that closed other locally-owner pharmacies were at play when Green Line made the decision to close. As with Simpson’s Pharmacy in Pawtucket, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) earn big money as the middlemen, often making it very difficult for family-owned pharmacies to make a profit.

The added nostalgia of Green Line’s soda and ice cream counter along with their retail business of hand-made soaps and boutique-quality chocolates, skin care, and over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and supplements were not enough to keep the business profitable.

Personally, we will miss the aesthetics of the place, which felt much less like a CVS or Walgreens and much more like a speciality shop in an artsy town. Once COVID shots could be had at local pharmacies, the promise of ice cream after a vaccination for anyone under 10 will be greatly missed. As a parent to two during that time, the calming retail vibe and the fancy ice cream sundae in a fluted glass dried any tears and calmed any anxieties about getting much needed shots.

It did always bother us slightly that the upper floors had practically no windows to speak of — any previous openings were covered over in vinyl siding. It is nice, therefore, to see that in its redevelopment into residential, the upper floors will once again put window into some of the original openings.

#Current Events

The former ground floor retail with office and storage in the floors above is being converted into residential units. There is a website, 905northmain.com, and they mention “residences” plural, but we have not found details as to how many residences and what their expected size (number of bedrooms) might be.

#History

The building is not part of a historic district, so there is little information available. We tried to find a more exact build date using Providence City Directories, but the address did not appear in the 1900 or 1901 directories even though Sanborn Maps show the building in 1900. Keyword search in optical character recognition (OCR) documents can be inaccurate, so we searched for alternate combinations of possible character misidentification (905, 935, 985, 305, 385, etc.).

The 1915 Providence Directory finally listed this address with a “Kindelan Bernard L grocer 905 N Main h 903 do,“ which means Bernard L Kindelan works here and resides also at 903 (“do” stands for “ditto,” we assume meaning the same address).¹ No business name was listed with this address but Kindelan’s occupation is grocer. A relation is also a grocer and works and resides next door: “(Kindelan) Catherine A grocer 851 N Main h 6 York.”

The first mention in the Providence Journal of the “Rhode Island Aquarium” is from April, 1974. Previous mentions start in 1971 with a location in Pawtucket, but by 1974, new stories listed their location on North Main Street.² Ads for the business would start to appear in the Journal in 1977. The last Google Streetview with RI Aquarium signage in place is from September 2011.

For a short time, ZEAL Hockey equipment was located here (web archive of ZealHockey.com). Google Streetview shows their banner in 2016 and 2017, and they seem to be the ones who added the chamfered corner with large plate glass window that later became the retail level main entrance.

Maps

• 1900 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 143 (page 58) — At the corner of York and North Main is number 903–905, a two and a half story wood frame strucrure labeled “S” for store. The rectangular shape of the structure does not yet have the first floor commercial space addition that meets the street at an angle.
• 1920–1921 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 83 (page 92) — Same corner, same structural outline. No change in postal address either.
• 1921–1951 Sanborn Insurance Map, Volume 2, Plate 83 (page 94) — The structure now has a one story expansion on the first floor, and a portion of it is cinder block construction.

#In the News

Brand New - A sweet step back in time - Green Line Apothecary adds a Providence location, serving up old-fashioned treats

by Jenna Pelletier
Providence Journal |May 1, 2019 (abridged)

[…] Outfitted with an authentic soda fountain that serves old-fashioned treats like lime rickeys, coffee cabinets and chocolate phosphates, the independent pharmacy is Green Line Apothecary’s second location. Christina and Ken Procaccianti opened their first store in Wakefield in 2016.

“As the pharmacist, it’s fun to add some whimsy to a very serious business,” said Christina, who is also Green Line’s head pharmacist. “We’re trying to make this a pleasant place for people and so much of that had to do with re-creating the soda fountain experience.”

To do so, the couple bought a 1940s-era soda fountain that was formerly used in a department store in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and restored it to its current gleaming glory. “The building owner had disassembled it and it was just sitting in the basement, so we had it shipped out,” said Ken. […]

Christina likes to use the feature as a way to remind people that pharmacists invented sodas, initially marketing them as healing tonics. Soda fountains had their heyday in the early-to-mid 1900s, and then began to decline as pop became available in bottles and cans. Delekta Pharmacy, in Warren, well known for its coffee cabinets, is one of the few remaining original soda fountains in the area, but it stopped filling prescriptions in 2017.

Behind Green Line’s counter, the soda-making process involves mixing syrups, including orange, cola and cherry, with fresh seltzer. “The equipment is original, so there are a lot of quirks,” said employee Louie Patterson, 23. “Each pump for each flavor has a different kind of maneuver to it.” […]

The name of the pharmacy, which fills the same range of prescriptions as chain stores, was inspired by Boston’s Green Line subway. The Procacciantis met on a train while students at Northeastern University. “I later proposed on a train platform as well,” Ken said.

After graduating from pharmacy school, Christina found inspiration for her own business in the independent drug stores she used to visit with her father, a greeting card salesman, as a kid in New Jersey.

“We loved the idea of paying homage to the mom-and-pop independent drug stores of her youth,” said Ken. “It isn’t just about serving ice cream - it’s about that old-fashioned sense of customer service as well.”

Pelletier, Jenna. “Brand New: A sweet step back in time” Providence Journal (RI), sec. RI Features, 1 May 2019, p. C1. NewsBank: America’s News – Historical and Current, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=D4BD6B42F1AB4706B5E1244D477DEE03&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/17329A3A8775E980. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.

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Green Line Apothecary will exit pharmacy business

by Antonia Noori Farzan
Providence Journal | November 14, 2024 (abridged)

Green Line Apothecary is exiting the pharmacy business and plans to close its retail stores so that the owners can focus on other business ventures, such as their line of ice cream.

Founded in Wakefield in 2016, the company later opened a second location in Providence and became a popular alternative to large corporate giants such as CVS and Walgreens. A smaller, more personal alternative to the chains, it also offered an old-fashioned soda fountain serving ice cream floats and egg creams.

“We set out to modernize and humanize the pharmacy experience,” founders Christina and Ken Procaccianti said in a Wednesday announcement posted to Green Line’s website. […]

How much longer will the stores be open?

In Providence, the pharmacy’s final day of operations will be Dec. 3.

In Wakefield, the pharmacy’s final day of operations will be Dec. 4. However, the store and soda fountain will remain open until Dec. 20. You’ll be able to shop and eat, just not fill prescriptions.

The Wakefield building “will be available in the new year,” according to the announcement. The Providence building is not going on the market: Green Line’s owners say they plan to redevelop it into a “mixed-use residential and commercial building that will help energize the neighborhood.” […]

The Procacciantis own a number of other business ventures, including Town Made, a shared kitchen and retail space; Lineage, “a brand innovation and venture studio”; Green Line Supply, which provides pharmacy services for health care organizations and their patients; and Green Line’s popular line of ice cream.

They’re leaving the retail pharmacy business in order to focus on all of those ventures, they said on Wednesday.

Customers will be able to get their ice cream fix at a growing number of grocery stores, including certain Dave’s Marketplace and Roch’s locations, according to the company’s website. Additionally, Green Line’s exclusive products — which include vitamins, soaps and lip balms — will still be available at greenlineapothecary.com, […]

— Farzan, Antonia Noori. “Green Line Apothecary will exit pharmacy business.” Providence Journal (RI), PFO-Journal ed., sec. News, 14 Nov. 2024, p. A5. NewsBank: America’s News – Historical and Current, https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=AMNEWS&req_dat=D4BD6B42F1AB4706B5E1244D477DEE03&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews/19CD745DF05926C8. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.