USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > The civic and architectural development of Providence, 1636-1950 > Part 24
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A department of State Police was created by the General Assembly April 2, 1925,12 composed of a superintendent, a captain, a lieutenant, and 21 men, with headquarters at North Scituate. Colonel Everitte St. J. Chaffee of Providence was appointed superintendent by Governor Pothier.
Mount Hope Toll Bridge, opened to travel October 24, 1929 across Mount Hope bay from Bristol to Portsmouth, provided an important link in the state highway system which permitted, for the first time, a direct highway route entirely within the state from Providence to Newport. The bridge was erected by a commission created by the General Assembly April 28, 1925.13 It has a wire cable suspension span, 135 feet above tidewater in the center, I200 feet long, and its total length, including viaduct approaches, is a little over a mile.14 Upon its completion the old Bristol ferry was discontinued after more than two centuries of operation.
Important highway and bridge construction projects were undertaken on the lower East Side during the 1920s. When the first Point Street Bridge was erected (page 145) the city neglected to provide an adequate approach to its easterly terminus at South Water Street where a small pond15 obstructed a direct connection with Wickenden Street. A narrow lane (Cent Street) already extended northeasterly from South Water Street, north of the pond, and Bridge Street was laid out along its south rim, winding into Link Street which intersected Wickenden. Eventually the pond was filled and Bridge Street, later widened to 50 feet, continued until 1921 as the only means of approaching the bridge from the east. In that year the first highway improvement project was carried out under the excess condemnation act (page 219), including the widening of Bridge Street from South Water to Wickenden and the widening of Wickenden Street from Bridge Street northerly to Transit. The excess land taken included the triangle bounded by South Main, Wickenden and Bridge streets, a part of which was occupied by the vacated Household Sewing Machine building (page 173). That area, identified as Burnside Square, was transferred
12. P.L., 1925, chapter 588.
13. P.L., 1925, chapter 673.
14. Report of Mount Hope Toll Bridge Commission (Providence, 1926).
1 5. The pond was a remnant of Mile End Cove. See map, page 10.
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View down College Hill, c. 1930, showing Court House, 1877, (left); Hospital Trust Building, 1918, (center); and Samuel Westcott house, late 18th century (right).
Photo by William Mills & Sons
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1920 - 1930
by the city to the park department in 1915. It was taken for a freeway project in 1955.
In 1926 construction of a third Point Street Bridge was started under direction of Public Works Commissioner Milton H. Bronsdon. This was steel construction, 60 feet wide, with a trussed draw span. The draw was built at Fox Point and floated on scows into position in August, 1927 and lowered to the central turnstile as the tide receded. The bridge was reopened to traffic August 16 of that year.
A new Washington Bridge spanning Seekonk river, designed by Clarence W. Hudson of New York, was constructed between 1928 and 1930 under authority of an act passed by the General Assembly April 12, 1923, creating a Washington Bridge commission. Preliminary work had been undertaken by the State Board of Public Roads in 1921,16 and a location determined north of the former span (page 163) with approaches starting at the corner of Tockwotton and Ives Street in Providence and terminating at the corner of Taunton Avenue and Brow Street in East Providence, a total length of 2400 feet. The project was financed by bridge loans approved by the people in 1926 and 1928. The structure is 80 feet wide and has a clearance of 43 feet above tidewater. A double-leaf bascule span permits the passage of water craft through a 100-foot channel. The remainder of the bridge is composed of reinforced concrete arches, about 100 feet on centers, springing from piers. Gano Street underpasses the westerly arch in Providence and the railroad runs beneath the easterly arch in East Providence. Following the opening of the bridge its predecessor, erected in 1885, was removed.
During the construction of Washington Bridge the city undertook the layout of Fox Point Boulevard17 as a connecting link with Point Street Bridge. This involved the widening of Tockwotton Street from Ives to Brook with a westerly extension curving into Bridge Street at its intersection with Wickenden, providing two 40-foot roadways and a central park strip. Among the properties condemned for the highway were portions of Tockwotton Park and the Home for Aged Women, the Traverse Street car barn, and the plant of the Textile Finishing Machinery Company.
Upon the establishment of the main line railroad in 1848 (page 115), extending through the city at grade a distance of seven miles, one-half of which length closely paralleled the inland waterways, a handicap was imposed on the highway development of Providence. During the last half of the century grade separations were established at the principal highway crossings, but not sufficient in number or width for modern traffic requirements. The railroad increased the area of its north freight yard between 1918 and 1924, necessitating the abandonment of various highways and the relocation of portions of Smithfield Avenue and Silver Spring Street. Two steel-trussed bridges overpassing the freight yard, about 3400 feet apart, were erected by the railroad, replacing former bridges, one at Branch Avenue and the other at Smithfield Avenue as relocated. These improved traffic conditions only by providing sturdier construction and somewhat wider roadways. In 1930 the railroad erected a steel skew bridge over the tracks at Roger Williams Avenue connecting Elmwood and Reservoir avenues, in replacement of a narrow foot bridge, that created a new highway artery. Nineteen highways now crossed the railroad by grade separations, averaging three to each linear mile.18
16. State Board of Public Roads, Preliminary Report of the Investigation of Washington Bridge, 1922.
17. Renamed George M. Cohan Memorial Boulevard, in 1947, in honor of the well-known actor (1878- 1942) who was born on Wickenden Street.
18. Further grade separations were provided by the Olneyville by-pass (page 282), opened in 1952, at which time plans were in preparation for a north-south freeway to overpass the railroad property, the highways and the river in Woonasquatucket Valley.
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The section of North Main Street, from the North Burial Ground southerly to Randall Street, was widened to 99 feet in 1922, in extension of the highway project carried out in 1882 (page 160). A part of the land, taken by excess condemnation, was added to North Burial Ground. By a subsequent project, in 1931, the North Main Street widening was continued southerly to Benefit Street, involving the condemnation of land on the western side of the highway and the absorption of Stampers Street (page 24). This provided a maximum width of about 150 feet with two 40-foot roadways and landscaped center islands, identified as Captain J. Carleton Davis Boulevard.
R.I.H.S.
Air view of civic center from southeast c. 1924. State House and railroad freight yards in distance.
Ever since the erection of the Market House in 1773 the Weybosset Bridge area had been headquarters for market vendors. In course of time the warehouses along South Water and Dyer streets became occupied chiefly by fruit and produce merchants and portions of the highways, surrounding the open parts of the river, were leased to market gardeners for early morning trade and to Christmas tree vendors in the yuletide season. Canal Street, from Steeple Street to Smith, was used principally by wholesale meat dealers some of whom
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1920- 1930
occupied buildings, leased by the city, over Moshassuck river. Freight cars were drawn by dummy engines over the rails on Dyer and South Water streets, from which bananas and other produce were discharged and transported by long lines of men to the cellars of the warehouses. The first movement toward a more appropriate market location was made by a group of produce dealers who organized the Governor Dyer Cooperative Market in 1918 and established an outdoor market on a four-acre tract in Woonasquatucket valley between Promenade Street and Davis Park. This was followed by the incorporation of the Providence Terminal Produce Market in 1927 and the erection of a market building, 900 feet long, on former railroad property on the south side of Harris Avenue, extending westerly from Kinsley Avenue. Most of the Dyer and South Water Street merchants removed to the terminal building, and the city ended the market gardeners' leases of high- way spaces adjacent to the river.
There ensued a series of highway, bridge and building activities that continued, almost without pause, for six years.
Providence County Court House had its inception in a resolution, approved by the General Assembly May 31, 1923, creating a commission to consider the selection of a site and the preparation of preliminary plans.19 That commission held a competition20 and reported to the assembly in January, 1924, recommending the site bounded by South Main, College, Benefit and Hopkins streets, and the design submitted by Jackson, Robertson and Adams which had been given the highest award by the judges of the competition. The acquisition of land and the erection of the building were delegated by the assembly to a second court house commission April 28, 1925.21 On the northeast corner of the block chosen stood the Court House, erected in 1877 (page 150), which the new building was to replace. The remainder of the site was acquired in 1926 and 1927, including the Woods Building, the old United States Court House, and the Counting House Corporation's building on South Main Street; Mauran Block on Benefit Street; and Stephen Hopkins house (page 30) on Hopkins Street. All were razed, except the Hopkins house which was moved in 1928 to a lot on the southwest corner of Benefit and Hopkins streets and restored under direction of Norman M. Isham.
The cornerstone of the Court House was laid June 12, 1928. The southerly section was first constructed, while the former building continued in use, and was opened April 2, 1930. The completed building was dedicated September 28, 1933. The cost of construction and equipment was financed by three bond issues approved, respectively, in 1925, 1927 and 1929.22 The building has nine stories, the fifth of which is entered from the Benefit Street level. The exterior walls are brick with granite and limestone trimming and the design, composed of small units, is reminiscent of the traditional architecture of the Early Republican period. A tower rises from the center to a height of 250 feet above South Main
19. A.&R., 1923, p. 384.
20. Like the War Memorial competition (page 233) this was conducted in accordance with the American Institute of Architects code with Henry H. Kendall as professional advisor.
2I. P.L., 1925, chapter 675, amended. The membership of the first commission included Jesse H. Metcalf, chairman, ex-Governor James H. Higgins, John E. Canning, Judge Charles F. Stearns, Judge J. Jerome Hahn, Harry A. Sanderson, Frederick S. Peck, Alderman Rush Sturges, Alderman John F. Conaty, and Councilman Percy A. Harden. The second commission included Judges Stearns and Hahn and Messrs. Peck, Canning, Conaty, Sanderson and Sturges of the former commission, Senator Felix Hebert, and William B. Greenough. Mr. Peck, who was elected chairman, resigned in December, 1926; he was succeeded by Mr. Greenough as chairman and Edwin A. Burlingame was appointed a member in Mr. Peck's stead.
22. The Providence Court House (Providence, 1933).
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Street, with clock faces on the four sides. The building provides quarters for the Supreme, Superior and Juvenile courts, offices for the attorney general and other officers, jury rooms, and the state law library (illustration, page 284).
The General Assembly authorized the court house commission, April 10, 1929, to acquire the land in front of the Court House,23 bounded by South Main, College, South Water and Hutchinson streets. That action was followed by a resolution of the City Council, approved September 24, 1929, for condemning, for highway purposes, certain land within the area and a strip on the west side of South Main Street between Hutchinson and Crawford streets.24 Those acts led to the removal of the picturesque row of warehouses which had stood on South Water Street for over a century (illustration, page 120). The land taken, exclusive of the portions condemned for highways, was divided by a line centering on the Court House, the state retaining the southerly portion and the city acquiring the northerly half which it earmarked as a site for a hall of records (see pages 257, 283). A strip 60 feet wide, centering on the axial line, was allocated as an approach to the Court House. The land, vacated of buildings, between Hutchinson and Crawford streets, remained in private ownership and was converted into a parking lot. South Main Street was recon- structed to a width of 60 feet from College to Crawford Street in 1930.25
Crawford Bridge, together with its extensions along Dyer and South Water streets, was rebuilt between 1928 and 1930. The abutment walls, 132 feet apart, erected in 1897 (page 180), were maintained and new intermediate walls were built, replacing the former wood piles. These walls were constructed of reinforced concrete on pile foundations, with granite-block piers extending upward to a heavy steel superstructure. The open water area between Market Square and Crawford Square was continued, the sidewalks supported by cantilever beams.
The city constructed an incineration plant on a section of the former cove lands at 256 Kinsley Avenue, in 1927. This was a two-story building with two incinerating units, each having a capacity for burning 80 tons of garbage and refuse daily. Upon its completion and operation by the department of public works previous contracts for the collection of municipal garbage were terminated. New regulations required the wrapping of garbage in paper before its collection by the department. The plant was abandoned following the erection of an incinerator at the Field's Point estate (page 256).
When the United Electric Railways Company took over operation of the traction lines in 1921 (page 217) there were 98 miles of street car rails within the city. To offset a continuing loss in revenue various economies were effected, including the institution of one-man trolleys on March 3, 1922. In that year the company commenced the operation of buses, with lines established to Oakland Beach and Arctic July 3 and on Promenade Street October 15. The first city trolley line to be discontinued was the Friendship Street route April 30, 1925. Suburban line buses, operated by independent companies, gradually superseded interurban and interstate trolleys.
The public park estates were under the superintendence of Jeremiah J. Triggs from 1921 to 1929, during which period Prospect Terrace, Blackstone Park and King Park were increased in area and Burnside Square and Triggs Park were added to the system. In 1925 the city accepted Barton A. Ballou's gift of the Page estate, adjacent to Prospect Terrace (page 148); in the following year a Congdon Street committee was organized, under direction of Mrs. Howard D. Day, through whose efforts further parcels of land were acquired and
23. P.L., 1929, chapter 1345. 24. C.C. Resolution, No. 406, 1929.
25. The realignment of College Street between South Main and South Water was deferred until 1935.
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1920- 1930
transferred to the city, extending the terrace northerly to Bowen Street. The enlarged estate provided a site for the monument to Roger Williams, erected in 1938 (page 268). A small tract adjoining Blackstone Park (page 147) on the west was deeded to the city by Miss Margarethe L. Dwight in 1926, increasing the area of that park to 24 acres. A gift of land by Etta V. Salisbury, in 1926, enlarged King Park (page 222) to 16 acres. The city purchased a portion of the Obadiah Brown estate on Chalkstone Avenue in 1928, and
R.I.H.S.
Temple of Music, 1924, Roger Williams Park.
acquired additional land the following year, extending northward to the State Home and School estate;26 that joint area, comprising 163 acres (page 219), was developed for a munici- pal golf course which was named Triggs Memorial Park in honor of the park superintendent who died in office July 31, 1929.
26. A state institution for dependent and neglected children, opened in 1885 on the 70-acre Walnut Grove estate, so-called, on Mount Pleasant Avenue; now known as the Children's Center of Rhode Island.
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The principal development at Roger Williams Park, during Jeremiah Triggs' superin- tendence, was the erection, in 1924, of the Temple of Music (William T. Aldrich of Boston, architect, illustration, page 241), a small classic structure with an open colonnade near the shore of Cunliff pond, with funds received under a bequest of William C. Benedict for a monument to and illustrative of music. It was dedicated September 21, 1924, at a concert given by the Providence Festival Chorus under leadership of John B. Archer, assisted by the United States Marine Band of Washington, D. C.
A tract of filled land, extending from Waterman Street to Pitman, near Red Bridge, was conveyed to the city by deed of gift from Mr. and Mrs. S. Foster Hunt in September, 1929 and was developed and landscaped under direction of Ernest K. Thomas who succeeded Triggs that year as park superintendent. A bronze statue, symbolic of the spirit of youth, executed by Gail Sherman Corbett, was unveiled November 16, 1933, in memory of Constance Witherby, Mrs. Hunt's daughter, who died in 1929 and whose name was given to the park.
Five playground sites, aggregating about eleven acres, were acquired by the city between 1919 and 1930, and two acres were added to Richardson Park, a playground in South Providence purchased in 1906. Several ball fields were laid out and field houses were erected. The total acquisitions of parks and playgrounds, during that period, added about 188 acres to the public park estates.
The City Council, by resolution approved April 11, 1925, authorized the committee on ordinances to make a study and investigation of the traffic needs and requirements of Providence and to report to the council a comprehensive traffic and thoroughfare plan for the entire city, designed to meet the probable demands for a long period of years. That committee, acting on authority granted by the council June 5 of the same year, engaged Robert Whitten as its consultant. His report, transmitted to the committee on ordinances November 16, 1926,27 was comprehensive in scope, extending beyond the city limits and coordinating the state highway system and the metropolitan park properties with the proposed city arteries. The city projects included several express routes with viaducts over Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck valleys and a bridge across the upper harbor. The metropolitan projects included parkways along Seekonk, Pawtuxet and Pocasset rivers, a belt parkway, and a high-level bridge across Providence river connecting Field's Point with Kettle Point. The plan, after its endorsement at a public hearing, was presented to the City Council November 19, 1926. In the following spring the General Assembly passed an act creating a thoroughfare plan commission, but this was repealed by request of the City Council in 1928 and the project was abandoned.
A survey of the organization, administration, plant and financing of the Providence public school system was made in 1923-24 under direction of Dr. George D. Strayer of Columbia University.28 It included an inspection of the school plant, consisting of 84 primary, 17 grammar, and 4 high schools, for the purpose of rating the buildings with respect to site qualifications, building characteristics, service systems, and the number and character of rooms. Under the rating only five buildings were found to be satisfactory; of the others, 33 needed important changes in order to improve conditions and 67 had little to commend them. It is significant that of these schoolhouses 30 were built before 1880,
27. Joint Special Committee on Ordinances, Providence Traffic and Thorofare Plan, 1926.
28. Report of the survey of Certain Aspects of the Public School System of Providence, Rhode Island, made by Division of Field Studies, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, George D. Strayer, Director (Providence, 1924).
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49 between 1880 and 1900, and 26 after 1900; about one-third were wooden buildings, Among the recommendations made in the Strayer report and subsequently put into effect were a reorganization of the school committee, to be composed of seven members to be elected on a non-partisan ballot;29 a reduction in the number of schoolhouses and an increase in the size of buildings thereafter erected;30 and a revision of school grading to provide for elementary schools (first to sixth grades), junior high schools (seventh to ninth grades), senior high schools (tenth to twelfth grades), a trade school, and various special and evening schools, 31
The Commercial (later Central) High School was erected in 1923 on the block bounded by Summer, Pond and Winter streets and Montcalm Court, immediately west of the existing high school group, and an addition was made in 1926. The preliminary layout and the engineering plans were drawn under direction of William E. Hartwell, Commissioner of Public Buildings32 and the work was carried on by Hoppin and Field, providing three stories and a basement with walls of brick and terra cotta, crowned by a pediment and a flat roof. Upon its completion the former English High School (page 150) became its annex.
An architectural staff was organized within the public buildings department in 1920 for the design and supervision of municipal buildings and, except in the case of the Com- mercial High School, the employment of private architects by the city was discontinued for a quarter century. The city-designed school buildings erected in the twenties included a high school gymnasium (1924) at Pond and Spring streets, a central heating plant (1922), and five elementary schools, namely, Nelson Street (1921), Sackett Street (1924), Summit Avenue (1924), Reservoir Avenue (1925) and Kenyon Street (1928).
During the latter years of President Faunce's administration at Brown the back campus underwent a comprehensive building development. Arnold Biological Laboratory (Clarke and Howe, architects, 1915), given by Dr. Oliver H. Arnold, was built near the site of the former Lincoln Field grandstand (page 193). A memorial arch was erected opposite Manning Street in 1921, honoring the men of Brown who died in World War I. Other buildings in that area included Jesse Metcalf Laboratory (1923) for the department of Chemistry, given by Jesse H. Metcalf; Hegeman Hall (1926), a dormitory given by trustees under the will of John Rogers Hegeman; and Littlefield Hall (1930), a dormitory donated by George L. Littlefield; all designed in the Middle States Colonial style by Day and Klauder of Philadelphia. Marston Hall for romance languages (Welles Bosworth, architect, 1926) was erected at the corner of Brook and Manning streets, the gift of Edgar L. Marston and friends. The university, from time to time, had acquired tracts of land, aggregating 28 acres, in the northerly part of the Neck and erected, in 1925, a concrete football stadium (Gavin Hadden, engineer, Paul P. Cret, consulting architect) at the corner of Sessions Street and Elmgrove Avenue, and a concrete baseball stand on land on the easterly side of Elmgrove Avenue, named Aldrich Field for its principal donors, H. L. and C. T. Aldrich. A gymnasium was erected in 1927 (Clarke and Howe, architects) at the south end of the field, later named Marvel Gymnasium for Frederick W. Marvel, director of athletics for many years. Upon its terrace a bronze statue of "Bruno" was set up, the gift of alumni and
29. P.L., 1925, chapter 680. The school committee previously was composed of 30 members, three elected from each ward.
30. Of the buildings in use in 1923, 37 contained only four rooms each. During the next ten years over 30 of the older and smaller schoolhouses were vacated and eight large buildings erected (see page 263).
31. By this grading the former primary and grammar schools were discontinued as such. Of the former grammar schoolhouses continued, 16 became elementary schools and three were changed to junior high schools.
32. The Public Buildings Department was created in 1913.
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