Maine Creamery Company

About this Property

This property is the first location of the H.P. Hood Company, which purchased it in 1926. H.P. Hood later also purchased a building at 135 Harris Avenue in 1929. The Harris Ave building is included in the Provisions Warehouse Historic District while this building is not.

#Redevelopment

Shortly after a survey of industrial buildings in 2002, the Bay State Florist Company closed shop. They had been occupants of this location since maybe the 1960s. Before that, the H.P. Hood Company occupied it since 1926.

After sitting fallow for about 10 years and even suffering some fire damage, the cube-like office building at the front of the property was saved while the remaining storage and loading bay structures were razed in 2011 and 2012.

The site was redeveloped into a $6.5 million laboratory extension of the neighboring Rhode Island Blood Center. A new 23,000 square foot building was constructed behind the historic former office building and retained some of the same massing and facing as the original loading bays. There is a complex procedure where blood product is brought into the building, tested, processed, stored, and then distributed to local hospitals. The facility is a full-service regional blood center, providing testing, collections, marrow, and cord blood programs, as well as in-hospital patient programs.

View more photos from Vision 3 Architects.

#Current Events

This building is now part of the Rhode Island Blood Center as its main laboratory. The Blood Center expanded into this adjacent property in 2012.

#History

Google Book results shows the following related passages:

The Maine Creamery Co., manufacturer of ice cream, has purchased the plant of the Regealed Ice Co. on Promenade street, just west of the Brown & Sharpe plant, and will immediately alter and refit the plant for the manufacture of ice cream. The building is of brick and has 12,000 square feet of floor space.¹

In Board of Alderman, May 1, 1919. […] From the Inspector of Buildings is received the application of the Maine Creamery Company for permission to locate and operate a steam boiler of about 75 horse power in the building at 395 Promenade street and upon his recommendation, said application is granted. ²

Approved May 20, 1919. Resolved, That The Main Creamery Company is hereby granted permission to erect a brick building on Promenade street, between Pleasant Valley Parkway and Calverley street, on Lot No. 340, Assessor’s Plat 67, for a public automobile garage […] ³

From the “Industrial Sites and Commercial Buildings Survey (ICBS)” by PPS and the AIA, 2001-2002

The primary structure is a two-story, 4-by-5-bay, flat-roof structure with a corbelled cornice and stone trim. According to historic maps, this block was used for office space and storage. Fenestration consists of segmental-arch openings with replacement 1/1 sash on the upper story and glass block infill with fixed sash below. All windows on this block have stone sills. Attached to the rear (north) elevation of this block is a wider, two-story brick block with loading bays along its east elevation. This block has several infilled window openings and replacement sash. According to historic maps and the current assessor’s card for the property, further north are a one-story, concrete block ell and a large greenhouse. (Due to limited access of the site, these ells were not field checked.) A long, one-story flat-roof, concrete block garage stands to the rear of the site, at the northern-most end of the property. According to Sanborn maps, the garage was constructed in 1919.

H.P. Hood & Company, manufacturers of ice cream, bought this building in 1926. Before that the Regealed Ice Company of Providence (1910), the Hygienic Ice Manufacturing Company (1917-1919), and the Maine Creamery Company (1919-1926) occupied it. The building was one of two ice cream plants in the immediate vicinity. The 1919 map identifies the building as Maine Creamery Co. “Building being remodeled” and shows a very similar footprint to the current shape of the building. In 1919, the square, steel frame ell at the rear of the building was a long, rectangular, one-story addition (not extant). H.P. Hood & Sons are recorded on both the 1937 and 1944 Sanborn maps as occupants of this building. The building is now occupied by the Bay State Florist Supply Company.