Beneficent House

About this Property

#Development

New housing for the elderly was part of redevelopment plan titled “Downtown Providence 1970,” written in 1961. Dexter Manor, only a few blocks away, was the first building constructed from the Downtown Master Plan in 1960. The Beneficent House was designed soon after in 1953, but funding delays pushed construction back to 1966.

Urban renewal of the 1950s and 1960s leveled buildings that were previously on the land on this block bounded by Chestnut, Pine, Claverick, and Broad Streets. Most notable of the removed buildings was the Metropolitan Theatre and the Salvation Army home.A photo of the interior of the Metropolitan was found in the Providence Public Library collection.

Urban renewal projects often used federal dollars to raze neighborhoods that were deemed depressed or “slums,” which often took advantage of immigrants and the poor who had few means to fight back for their status. As federal money leveled neighborhoods in favor of highways, Providence saw this project and others like the new post office reshaping the city. We are not sure of this fact, but would not be surprised if the older population who were forced from their homes in this area and others could not afford to live in the newly built Beneficent House.

Watch an 8 minute video from RI PBS about Brutalism in Providence

Architecture

Architect Paul Rudolph was best known as the master planner and designer for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus, 1963–1966. Rudolph worked in the style known as “Brutalism,” named such for its frequent use of raw concrete and made popular by architects like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. In French, the term “beton brut,” which means raw concrete, became the basis of the name and the movement.

Just like his work with UMASS Dartmouth, while the scale was monumental, he was interested in expressive exterior and interior spaces that retained a human scale. For UMASS, a school intended for the working class, and for this project, apartments for the elderly, he didn’t want to diminish the sense of awe and wonder with the designs. In some ways, the Brutalist design movement was rooted in utopian ideals around how design can support a sense of wonder about the world.

Architects were also enamored with construction materials. After World War II, concrete was a cheap, quick material that became the basis for many public projects including government buildings and universities. Structurally, concrete could do what traditional building materials could not. Cantilevered and curved forms fascinated these architects, along with stark lines and a monumental scale.

What makes Beneficent House interesting is the way in which the brick facing and concrete string-courses give the building a human scale. The brick certainly softens the blocky exterior forms and adds warmth, while the lines dividing each floor prevent the walls from looking like one long, monolithic plane. The irregular and alternating patterns further break the block up into smaller blocks, creating patterns and repetitions that please the eye. Unlike the Fogarty Building — another former example of the Brutalism style — this building design does not evoke the same “love it or hate it” emotions.

Residents are also pleased. The large windows give each unit lots of light and views of the city. The ways in which each window faces out and not inward supports the privacy of each unit. Another detail on the inside that no one on the outside might notice is the texture of the concrete walls. Same as UMASS Dartmouth, Rudolph instructed the builders to leave the wood texture of the concrete forms behind instead of smoothing the surfaces. The wood grain texture makes the walls also feel warm and inviting rather than cold and expressionless.

It is only a shame that the original balconies were not constructed as intended.

#Current Events

Beneficent House’s sought-after apartment spaces command a waiting list. Each unit has at least one large, floor to ceiling window creating a unique view of Downtown and the surrounding area. The units are unique and varied and mix different sizes and layouts on each floor. Some units are subsidized while some are market rate, and it is impossible to tell by unit number or position in the building which might be which. This in turn leads to a mixed-income community that all enjoy the same amenities and views.

#History

From the Guide to Providence Architecture, Providence Preservation Society: 2003 Guidebook excerpt

Paul Rudolph’s Beneficent House represents the best of the boldly articulated Brutalist buildings erected in Providence and one of a handful of recent Downtown buildings by a major twentieth-century American architect. The nine-story, brick-and-concrete sheathed, steel-frame residential building is composed of interlocking, staggered “building-block” units creating richly textural elevations. Beneficent House demonstrates a departure from the pseudo-formal, monolithic structures of the 1950s and early 1960s, and, through use of string courses, suggests a more human scale. It was built by nearby Beneficent Church at 300 Weybosset Street as housing for the elderly.

Rudolph compared the clustering of rooms present in this design to the Ponte Vecchio (Florence, Italy) or medieval hill towns. He expressed opposition to ordering his elements to fit a square or rectangular container or package, arguing that “you can’t make cities out of packages.”

— Captured 2025 March 30 from https://guide.ppsri.org/property/beneficent-house