Arnold Bakery Stable & Blacksmith Shop

About this Property

#Redevelopment

The oldest portion of this small brick complex is the two-story northern portion, which historically had the address of 208 Brook Street. The one-story addition was added between 1921 and 1926 according to maps.

Previous buildings housed a blacksmith shop and the new building continued to as well. As far as we can tell from maps and directories, the blacksmith shop and wagon house were likely the storage and repair facility for a fleet of delivery vehicles and horses. Across Brook Street at 207 was a growing bakery business, which would eventually become part of the national General Baking Company (later General Host) whose primary product, Bond Bread, sold 1.5 million loaves a day from 157 plants in New England and New York.¹

The baking company grew until consolidation in the late 1960s closed the local plant. The large industrial complex at 207 Brook Street was razed between 1962 and 1972 aerial images. Around 1950, the former blacksmith shop was no longer associated with General Baking. It continued to be used for other purposes and remains to this day.

Architecture

The building is rather simple. Its early build date for a small business and location in a largely residential neighborhood tells us the owners and builders invested minimally in something that would look pretty good but was not going to be anything exceptional. The two-story portion has nice decorative brickwork under the cornice of the flat roof. All window openings have granite sills. First floor window openings have a keystone detail above the windows and doors, while only the wide garage door opening has a curved arch top. The one-story addition has bricked up window openings with a narrow row of glass blocks along the top. The 50 John Street entrance is a nice, potentially original, set of wooden doors with transom windows. To the right of that main opening is an adjusted window bay with a non-original door entry.

#Current Events

The John Street Studios is a Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Department facility for Brown University. John Street is a 15,000 square foot building that includes a wood/metal shop, drafting tables, painting spaces, and open workshop/meeting areas.

#History

Not listed (intentionally skipped, it appears) in the College Hill National Historic District or the accompanying manuscript. There are non-contributing structures noted in the manuscript that are documented but this building was not even documented.

Maps & Directories

• 1900 Sanborn Insurance Map, Vol 2, Plate 124 (page 37) — The corner of Brook and John Streets is empty. Woodframe houses (yellow) surround the property. A one-story “Blksm” (blacksmith) shop occupies the eastern side of the property along Brook street, to the west is a one story “Wagon House”, with a one and half story square cross gable roof structure to the west of that.
  Interestingly, to the east across Brook Street is a large wood-frame industrial building labelled “John Althans Bake Ho. and Cake Bakery”. A portion of the building is brick, indicated by the red/pink lines, surrounding the ovens. The postal addresses read numbers 199 and 209 on the map.
• 1900 Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, page 292 — Listed at 208 Brook Street is “Croughan James H. blckmith” and across the street at number 211 is “Althans John H. baker”.
• 1908 L.J. Richards Insurance Map, Plate 8 — These maps has less detail than Sanborns (their scale is 160ft per inch, while Sanborns are 50ft per inch), but we see that “J. H. Althans Co.” has taken over the western corner of Brook and John Streets, while its main building on the eastern side of the corner has expanded to be all brick (pink) and has expanded northward as well. The previous cement block blacksmith shop and attached wood frame wagon house has been rebuilt as one narrow but deep brick structure.
• 1909 Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, page 267 — Listed at 208 Brook Street is now “Wholehouse John blacksmith” as well as “Althans John H bakery”. Also listed at number 207 is “Althans John H Co bakers”.
• 1918 G.M. Hopkins Insurance Map, Plate 18 — On the eastern side of Brook Street, the “Arnold Bakery” has expanded to fill the block from north to south. Another business name, “General Baking Co.” spans across the street and over the now brick building at the site of 208 Brook or 50 John Street.
• 1919–1920 Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, page 168 — Listed at 207 Brook Street is “Arnold Bakery Bakers” and at 208 is “Crowley John J blacksmith” and “Arnold Bakery stable”. It seems that the main building housed all the baking equipment while the smaller building was the storage house and stable for the delivery horses and wagons. A portion was used for the blacksmith shop.
• 1920 Sanborn Insurance Map, Vol 2, Plates 23 & 24 (page 30) — In this next map, we see more detail about the interior construction of these buildings. On the east side of Brook, the main bakery building has expanded again in these two years, this time eastward with a large bake house. The map labels this section “From plans” which means the structure was in the process of being built. The new bake house was one story but the rest of the buildings were two.
  On the western side is the narrow but deep brick two-story structure labelled “Arnold Bakery” “Wagon Ho.” and “Stable”. In the southeastern corner of the building is a small room labelled “Bl Sm” for blacksmith. Over the street in the middle are both company names, “General Baking Co.” and “Arnold Bakery”.
• 1925–1926 Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, page 244 — At both 207 and 208 Brook, “General Baking Co.” is now the name being used. in the previous 1923-1924 book, Arnold Bakery was used.
• 1926 G. M. Hopkins Insurance Map, Plate 18 — We can see the same general story — all labels of Arnold Bakery have now been replaced with “General Baking Co.” Two more former house lots at 157 and 161 Williams Street have been taken over by new bakery construction. On the western side of the block, the former Arnold Stable has been expanded to the south with a new square-plan brick structure. The overall “L” shape is now present.
• 1935-1936 Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, page 213 — 207 Brook lists “General Baking Co.” while number 208 lists “Crowley John J horseshoer”.
• 1937 G. M. Hopkins Insurance Map, Plate 18 — Much like the 1926 but with slightly better detail, the footprints of the buildings have not changed these past 11 years.
• 1921–1951 Sanborn Insurance Map, Vol 2, Plate 23 & 24 (page 30) — The buildings on the eastern side of the block are all labelled “General Baking Co.” On the western side, no business name is listed. The southern addition to the former “Arnold Bakery Stable” is a one-story brick structure now labelled “Private Garage”. The northeastern portion of the building is still labelled as a “Wagon Ho.” with a small room for a “Bl.Sm.”

According to aerial photos from the Providence Historical Aerial Viewer, the buildings on the eastern side of the block were razed between the 1962 and 1972 photos. In the 1972 the area is a parking lot, but the former Arnold Bakery Stable is still on the western side of the block.