USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 23
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25 . The building was later extended northward to the tunnel portal.
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promotion of virtue and piety and learning in such of the languages and liberal arts and sciences as shall be recommended from time to time by the corporation." As a site for the college an 18-acre tract at the intersection of Eaton Street and River Avenue was pur- chased. The adjoining Bradley estate26 was acquired in 1926 which, together with later purchases, increased the property to about 46 acres. The first academic building was Bishop Harkins Hall (illustration below), a four-story brick and limestone structure erected in the Gothic style in 1919, containing lecture rooms, laboratories, an auditorium and a library. Matthew Sullivan was architect and John W. Donahue of Springfield, Massachusetts, designed a subsequent addition. Hendricken Field for athletics was established on the grounds.
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Bishop Harkins Hall, 1919, Providence College.
Most of the ecclesiastical architecture of the period followed Gothic tradition. Among the buildings were three large Catholic churches designed by Murphy, Hindle and Wright. The Assumption (1910-12)27 on Potter's Avenue, near Cranston Street, is English Gothic
26. See page 126. The adjacent Bailey estate was acquired by the House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic institution for wayward girls. A three-story school (Murphy, Hindle and Wright, architects) was erected in 1917 and the homestead was converted into a convent. The land and buildings were transferred to Providence College June 23, 1955.
27. The first Church of the Assumption was built on Potter's Avenue in 1871; the new building adjoins it on the west.
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with two towers in the nave; Saint Michael's (1891-1915)28 on Oxford Street (illustration below), a brick edifice, has a high nave with clerestory windows and a massive square tower; and Saint Patrick's (1903-16)29 on Smith street (illustration, page 246), near the State House, is built of yellow brick and terra cotta with a square tower at the angle formed by the nave and transept. The Fourth Baptist Church at Hope Street and Rochambeau Avenue (Arthur Eaton Hill, architect, 1910), which succeeded the original edifice on Howell
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Saint Michael's Church, 1915, Oxford Street.
28. Saint Michael's was organized in 1856, as Saint Bernard's, in the former South Baptist Meeting House on Prairie Avenue (then in Cranston). A small brick church was built in 1861 and named Saint Michael's. The basement of the church on Oxford Street, designed by Martin and Hall, was built in 1891 and roofed to provide a temporary room for services. The superstructure, started in 1906, was designed by Murphy, Hindle and Wright.
29. The church was erected adjacent to the original Saint Patrick's (page 111) which later was razed. The basement was started in 1903, roofed temporarily, and occupied the next year; the superstructure was com- menced in 1912.
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Street (page 86), has a square corner tower with clock faces; an addition was built in 1929 (Clarke and Howe, architects), including a gabled facade on Hope Street with a large pointed window. Calvary Episcopal Church (now Saint Martin's),30 on Orchard Avenue (Clarke and Howe, architects, 1916), is a stone English Gothic structure with a heavy tower projecting from the street facade and a large decorative window facing Orchard Court. Central Baptist Church (Jackson, Robertson and Adams, architects, 1916),31 at the corner of Lloyd and Elmgrove avenues, is perpendicular Gothic with stone walls and an entrance tower at the left of the nave. The Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) at 655 Hope Street (Clarke and Howe, architects, 1915)32 and Saint Sebastian's (Roman Catholic) on Cole Avenue (A. J. Murphy, architect, 1916) reflect English parish church design. Saint Raymond's (Roman Catholic) at 1128 North Main Street (Maginnis and Walsh of Boston, architects, 1911) is a brick adaptation of Spanish Mission design and Saint Charles Borromeo on Dexter Street (Walter F. Fontaine, architect, 1915-18), which replaced a former church on Harrison Street, has elements of Romanesque.
Parochial schools were established by all of the new Catholic churches, and the former Saint Patrick's school was converted into a high school.
Six theatres were built in the downtown area during this period, including the Union (1913, the name changed to Fay's in 1916) at 60 Union Street, the Emery (1914) at 79 Mathewson Street, Shubert Majestic (1916) at the corner of Washington and Empire streets (illustration, page 228), the Modern (1917) at 446 Westminster Street (the latter three designed by William R. Walker and Son), the Strand (Thomas J. Hill Pierce, architect, 1916) at 85 Washington Street, and the Albee (A. E. Westover, architect, 1919) at 316 Westminster Street.33 The Strand and Shubert Majestic, each seating over 2000 persons, were built exclusively for motion pictures and the others, with somewhat smaller capacities, were equipped also for stage shows. The Albee, erected on the site of the former Nickel Theatre (originally the Dime Museum, illustration page 231), adjoining Grace Church, succeeded the former Keith's Opera House for vaudeville and stock;34 its five-story facade, crowned by a curved parapet, was designed in architectural terra cotta.
Two large office buildings were erected in the business area, namely, Turks Head Building (Howells and Stokes of New York, architects, 1913) at the junction of Westminster and Weybosset streets and Hospital Trust Building (York and Sawyer of New York, architects, 1919) at 15 Westminster Street. Turks Head Building (illustration, page 248) was built in replacement of Whitman Block, a landmark dating from 1825 (page 96). A portion of the original lot was taken by the city for widening the highway at the street intersection. The 16-story building, constructed of white brick with granite and limestone trimmings, is featured by a massive Turk's head in the center of the curved facade, remi- niscent of the wooden effigy of an Ottoman warrior that formerly adorned the Whitman
30. The society, formed in 1899 as an outgrowth of the Church of the Saviour (page 111), first erected a small wood church near the present building.
31. The site of the church originally was in the center of Cat Swamp (page 4). The building was erected to succeed the former Central Baptist Church which was condemned when Empire Street was constructed (page 215).
32. The original Church of the Redeemer (c. 1860) still stands at the corner of North Main and Lippitt streets, now Saint Hedwig's Polish Catholic Church.
33. Fay's Theatre operated as a vaudeville house until its closing in 1950, and was razed the following year. The Emery (later known as the Carleton) was razed in 1953. The Modern, known successively as the Playhouse, Victory and Westminster, was idle in 1956. The Majestic, Strand and Albee were still operating in that year.
34. See page 203. The Albee Stock Company was discontinued in 1930 after playing 29 summer seasons.
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house (page 40). The Hospital Trust Building (illustrations, pages 236, 272) was erected on the site of the bank's former building (page 188), together with land on the east and north, which involved the removal of the Washington Buildings (page 110) on Washington Row and two buildings on Exchange Place. The II-story building has walls of Indiana limestone and its ornamentation is confined to the treatment of the first story, with round-topped windows separated by Corinthian pilasters, and the roof cornice and balustrade. An addition was made on the west side of the building in 1928.
The Peoples Savings Bank (incorporated 1851) erected a small banking house in 1913 (Clarke and Howe, architects, illustration, page 254), replacing Roger Williams Bank Building (page 89) at 27 Market Square,35 its Greek Ionic frontispiece of white marble
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Proscenium of Majestic Theatre, 1916, 201 Washington Street.
recalling details of the Erechtheum at Athens. Among other business buildings constructed during the period were the Steinert Building (G. Henri Desmond of Boston, architect, 191I) at 509 Westminster Street, featured by a six-story facade of architectural terra cotta; a warehouse on Pine Street with walls of buff brick and limestone (Monks and Johnson of Boston, architects, 1914), erected by the Manufacturers Outlet Company with an extension overpassing the highway to that company's department store; and the seven-
35. Vacated by the bank in 1948 and acquired by the School of Design.
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story Telephone Building at 234 Washington Street (Clarke and Howe, architects, 1917),36 designed in the classic manner with brick and limestone walls.
The city acquired over 25 acres of land on Eaton Street on which it erected, in 1910, the Providence City Hospital (Martin and Hall, architects) for the care of communicable diseases, financed by loans authorized between 1905 and 1908. The original group of buildings, Colonial in design, consisted of administrative, service, and ward units; a tuber- culosis ward was added in 1912. The name was changed to Charles V. Chapin Hospital in honor of Dr. Chapin, superintendent of health, 1884-1932, upon his retirement.
Additions to the facilities of Butler Hospital (page 191) included new entrance gates in 1905, the gift of Colonel William Goddard in memory of John Carter Brown and John Nicholas Brown; a fourth-story addition to Center House (1906) and a power house (1910), both designed by Knight C. Richmond; and a Nurses' Home (Jackson, Robertson and Adams, architects), a building in the Tudor style, erected in 1912 with funds bequeathed by William H. Potter.
Saint Elizabeth Home, an institution founded by Grace Church in 1882 for the care of incurable women,37 erected a three-story brick building (Clarke and Howe, architects), Elizabethan in style, at the corner of Melrose Street and Atlantic Avenue, in 1916. The home is now maintained by the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.
Settlement houses were built in two congested areas, each with an assembly hall, a clinic department, and educational and other facilities for neighborhood centers (Cady, architect). One was Federal Hill House, erected in the Italian district at 400 Atwells Avenue, in 1916, which superseded Sprague House, established in 1887 at 417 Atwells Avenue.38 The other was Nickerson House, erected by Providence Day Nursery Association, adjacent to Grace Memorial Home at 133 Delaine Street, in 1917, with funds donated by Miss Lyra Brown Nickerson and others.39
Providence Young Men's Christian Association, having outgrown its building at 519 Westminster Street (page 167), erected a new home at the corner of Broad and Seekell streets (Shattuck and Hussey of Chicago, architects), in 1913, containing club rooms, dormitories, and a large gymnasium. The main building is nine stories high with two-story wings extending toward front and rear, and has walls of brick with limestone and terra cotta trimmings.40 The Westminster Street building was razed and replaced by the Jackson Building.
Of the many attractive dwellings erected during this period only a few are singled out for comment. The Phillips house (1911) at 236 George Street and the Steedman house (1912) at 271 Angell Street (both designed by Clarke, Howe and Homer) are brick Colonial- type hipped-roof dwellings. Modern adaptations of Colonial motives are noted in the adjacent Farnsworth and Holbrook houses (Jackson, Robertson and Adams, architects, 1912) at 104 and 106 Prospect Street. Miss Ellen D. Sharpe's large brick residence at 87 Prospect Street (Parker, Thomas and Rice of Boston, architects, 1912, illustration
36. A large addition was made to the building in 1944 by the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company which absorbed the Providence Telephone Company in 1923. Another unit was added on Greene Street in 1955 (Howe, Prout & Ekman, architects).
37. The first home was located on Vinton Street.
38. Sprague House Association was reorganized as Federal Hill House Association in 1916.
39. Providence Day Nursery Association, established under auspices of Grace Church in 1884, erected Grace Memorial Home for little children in 1885.
40. Alterations were made to the main building in 1951 (Creer, Kent, Mather, Cruise & Aldrich, archi- tects). An adjacent Boys' Building was erected 1954-56 (Creer, Kent, Cruise & Aldrich, architects).
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below) has Elizabethan details. Among the stucco dwellings are the Merriman house at 60 Manning Street (Parker, Thomas and Rice, architects, 1912) and the Brigham house at 460 Rochambeau Avenue (Eleazer B. Homer, architect, 1915), the latter reflecting Spanish influence. A brick gambrel-roof house of Colonial design was erected at 59 George Street in 1915 (Clarke and Howe, architects),41 replacing the Greek-influenced Harris house (page III). It became Brown Alumni House in 1956.
At the opening of the century single-family houses far outnumbered other classes of dwellings in Providence, and only about five percent of all dwellings housed more than two families.42 A few years later came the invasion of three-deckers, erected in great numbers43 and contributing more to the disfigurement of Providence and to the fire menace of the city than any type of building yet erected. The trend in multiple dwellings was climaxed by the apartment house, the first noteworthy example of which was the Minden
Ellen D. Sharpe house, 1912, 87 Prospect Street.
(Frank W. Woods, architect), an eight-story building of brick, stucco and terra cotta, erected at 123 Waterman Street in 1912. This was followed by two three-story apartment houses (also designed by Woods), namely, the Buena Vista at 230 Butler Avenue and the Washington at 98 Irving Avenue. It is significant that the Providence Business Directory listed no apartment houses in 1910, and 28 in 1918.
World War I began in Europe in the summer of 1914. On June 3, 1916, over 52,000 men and women marched in a preparedness parade through the streets of Providence. Germany commenced unrestricted submarine warfare in February, 1917, which was followed by a declaration by President Woodrow Wilson, April 6, that a state of war existed with
41. Eleazer B. Homer, who joined the firm of Clarke and Howe in 1907, resumed independent practice in 1913; in that year the original firm name of Clarke and Howe was resumed.
42 . U. S. Census of 1900.
43. The Inspector of buildings reported the erection of 198 three-deckers in the single year 1911.
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that nation. During the succeeding 19 months civic progress in Providence was halted by war activities. There were liberty bond campaigns and Red Cross drives; tunnels and bridges were patrolled, and a waterfront zone was established from which aliens were barred. Registration days were held and a military census was conducted. The first draft quota left for camp September 5, 1917. Rhode Island's contribution to the war included a total of 22,817 fighting men of whom 1,693 were casualties.
Billy Sunday conducted a revival campaign during the fall of 1918 in a large tabernacle erected near Elmwood Avenue. This was loaned for several secular events, including a patriotic meeting addressed by ex-President Theodore Roosevelt October 17, and a concert by the Paris Symphony Orchestra October 28.
Following the armistice November II, 1918, a victory arch (J. Howard Adams, architect) was erected over the north trafficway of Exchange Place, through which the troops of the 103rd Field Artillery, American Expeditionary Force, marched in a welcome- home parade February 1I, 1919. Wartime prohibition went into effect July 1, 1919, and National prohibition, provided by adoption of the 18th amendment to the United States Constitution, became effective January 16, 1920, without ratification by Rhode Island.44 On June 6, 1920, the General Assembly ratified the 19th amendment, authorizing women's suffrage, which was adopted August 18, and the women of the state voted for the first time at the National election November 2 of that year.
44. The prohibition amendment was repealed December 12, 1933.
CHE CHEL
PROVIDENCE'S POPULAR FAMILY THEATRE
THE WORLD
IN MOTION
ADMISSION
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Nickel Theatre, Westminster Street, formerly the Dime Museum.
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View of the upper harbor toward southeast, c. 1920, showing steamboat docks and Point Street Bridge.
CHAPTER 18 1920 - 1930
T HE years following World War I were productive of many changes affecting the lives of the people. An ordinance was enacted in 1920 providing for daylight saving annually from April to September, during which time clocks were set ahead one hour. The establishment of local radio stations, connected with nation-wide networks, and the installation of radio sets in homes, brought entertainment and news of the world to thousands of families. Rum running, bootlegging and hijacking were by-products of national prohibition. Dial telephones were introduced in one exchange of the telephone company in 1923 and within fifteen years were in general use throughout the city. Home comforts were enhanced by means of automatic refrigeration, gas heat, vacuum cleaners, electric ranges, and air conditioning. The use of the automobile for transportation made the recreational areas and shore resorts easily accessible. Suburban trolley lines and river steamboats gradually were discontinued and the railroads curtailed their schedules.
Consideration was given in the early twenties to the erection of a suitable memorial to the men of Providence who gave their lives in the World War. A number of plans were submitted, and rejected, including an auditorium, a home for war veterans, a memorial arch at Roger Williams Park, a tower on Exchange Place, and an obelisk on Market Square. Finally, in 1926, the City Council determined to erect a monument on Post Office Square, and held a competition for its design.1 The judges selected the plan submitted by Paul P. Cret of Philadelphia, providing for a granite shaft rising from a base and crowned by a heroic figure (illustration, page 286). Its construction was authorized by the council June 25, 1927 and the monument was dedicated on Armistice Day, November 11, 1929. Post Office Square was then changed in name to Memorial Square.
An act authorizing cities in the state to enact zoning ordinances was passed by the General Assembly April 22, 1921.2 Its purpose was to exercise orderly control of municipal growth and development by establishing various classes of districts, in each of which restrictions as to use, height and area would be imposed upon buildings thereafter erected. Zoning was first put in operation in the city of New York in 1916 and the adoption of an ordinance for Providence was advocated by the city plan commission in 1919.3 Acting under authority contained in the state enabling act the City Council directed its committee on ordinances, in 1922, to prepare a zoning ordinance and provided an appropriation whereby Robert Whitten of Cleveland, Ohio, was engaged as consultant.
Whitten transmitted his report, together with the draft of a zoning ordinance and a map showing the proposed division of the city into zoned districts, in April, 1923.4 Public hearings were held, and on June 6 the City Council approved the plan by enactment of an ordinance "zoning the city of Providence and establishing use, height and area districts therein."5 The ordinance established a zoning board of review of five members with power
1. The competition was conducted under the code of the American Institute of Architects with Henry H. Kendall of Boston acting as professional advisor.
2. P.L., 1921, chapter 2069; General Laws, 1938, chapter 342.
3. City Plan Commission, Sixth Annual Report, 1919, P. 41.
4. Joint Standing Committee on Ordinances, The Providence Zone Plan, (Providence, 1923).
5. C.O., 1923, chapter 370.
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to make exceptions to its provisions under specified rules. Arthur Henius, a member of the city plan commission, was appointed chairman of the board June II, 1923.
A permissive act was passed by the General Assembly in 1923, enabling the city of Providence to enact a building code, including provision for the appointment of a building board of review.6 The construction, repair and maintenance of buildings in the city was governed, at that time, by outmoded building laws, enacted in 1895 (page 161) and by certain state laws applicable to all cities and towns in Rhode Island. The latter included requirements for fire escapes on certain buildings, safety provisions for elevators, means for protecting employees during erection of buildings, and an act to diminish danger to life in case of fire, with particular reference to exits in public buildings.7 Prior to the enact- ment of the state enabling act a building code was drafted by an advisory committee8 and transmitted to the committee on ordinances. A building ordinance, based upon that draft, was adopted by the council and went into effect January 1, 1927.9 It forbade the erection of wooden buildings in the fire district and required certain types of structures to be fireproof. An important provision of the ordinance was a requirement for incombustible roof covering for all new buildings and an order that all existing wood shingle roofs should be re-covered within ten years. Building operations were permitted only upon issuance of a permit by the inspector of buildings10 and appeals from his decisions were subject to consideration by the building board of review. The building law was coordinated with the zoning ordinance by a provision for the appointment of a zoning assistant in the building inspector's office.
One of the most noteworthy projects of Mayor Gainer's administration was the plan- ning and execution of a new water supply system. This originated in the passage of a council resolution, January 7, 1913, creating a committee to investigate means of providing the city with a supply of water adequate for its future needs. Two years later, pursuant to testimony of experts that the current yield of water from the 43-year old Pawtuxet system (page 135) was insufficient for the city's calculated growth, a water supply board was created by the General Assembly and its powers defined.11 The board organized April 24, 1915, and adopted a plan for the construction of a reservoir in the town of Scituate, to be supplied by the north branch of Pawtuxet river and its numerous tributaries, constituting a watershed of 92 square miles. Frank E. Winsor was appointed chief engineer and the plans were developed and the project carried out under his direction. Work was started in 1915 and the system was put in operation September 30, 1926.
Construction of the reservoir, formed by the Kent dam, involved the submerging of the villages of South Scituate, Richmond and Ashland and the reconstruction of about 23 miles of highways. The reservoir had an estimated storage capacity of 37 billion gallons and a daily yield, based on an annual rainfall of 46 inches, of 85 million gallons, nearly five times that of the former system. From a filter plant, erected near Kent dam, water was discharged by gravity through a five-mile aqueduct, terminating in a siphon chamber west of Phenix Avenue in Cranston. Two pipe lines led away from that chamber connecting,
6. P.L., 1923, chapter 485.
7. P.L., 1911, chapter 173.
8. The advisory committee consisted of representatives of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Providence Engineering Society, Providence Real Estate Exchange, Insurance Associa- tion of Providence, Builders and Traders Exchange, Master Builders Association, and the City Plan Commission.
9. C.O., 1926, No. 408. The ordinance, with amendments, remained in effect until the adoption of a new building code in 1957.
10. Spencer B. Hopkins retired as inspector of buildings soon after the new ordinance went into effect, after serving 43 years, and was succeeded by George W. Huntley.
II. P.L., 1915, chapter 1278. On completion of the project in 1926 the former reservoirs were abandoned. The main dam was dedicated to the memory of ex-Mayor Gainer October 15, 1949.
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respectively, with the old system east of Reservoir Avenue and with a new covered reservoir on Neutaconkanut Hill. A gravity pipe line was laid from that reservoir to a pumping station on Bath Street, north of Woonasquatucket river, from which the water was boosted to Longview Reservoir (elevation 385) near Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence. From that point water was supplied to sections of the city over 130 feet in elevation and high-pressure service was provided for fire hydrants. A new high-pressure pumping station was erected on Neutaconkanut Hill in 1935, replacing the Bath Street station.
The construction, improvement and maintenance of state highways, conducted by the State Board of Public Roads, consisted principally in re-surfacing the more heavily traveled arteries until 1917, in which year the General Assembly approved the Federal Aid road act of 1916 and appropriated state funds equal to the Federal allotment due Rhode Island. Thereafter the board of roads carried out a systematic program of highway and bridge construction in which many of the old lines and contours were altered and a more permanent type of pavement laid. About 60 miles of new or reconstructed state roads were completed by 1930. The main highways, approaching the metropolitan area of Providence through Warwick, Cranston, Johnston, Smithfield, North Providence, Cumberland and East Provi- dence, and linking with the city arteries, were paved with macadam, bituminous concrete, cement concrete, or other durable materials.
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