<h4>History of the Arcade Providence</h4>
In 1828, Providence had a population of 14,000 residents, but its markets and commercial district were growing substantially and the urban core served a much larger market that the city's relatively small&nbsp;population might otherwise suggest. In an attempt to better promote the&nbsp;commercial development of&nbsp;downtown Providence, Cyrus Butler worked to build a single urban market&nbsp;with a multitude of connected shops. Owing to the harsh New England weather, Butler's envisioned this as an&nbsp;enclosed space that would make&nbsp;shopping a pleasurable&nbsp;experience throughout the year.&nbsp;Architects Russell Warren and Tallman &amp; Bucklin designed the building for Butler’s venture, calling for three floors of arcaded lanes of shops and a skylight providing illumination, similar to many structures in European cities. The 216-foot Arcade building was finished in 1828, constructed entirely out of granite, and it featured twelve massive 21-foot granite columnns (the largest monolithic columnns in the country at the time). The total cost of the building was around $145,000 (approximately equivalent to around $30 million in 2015). After opening, the Arcade grew in its popularity, though garnering a profit was exceedingly difficult. Moreover, the Arcade Providence held widespread renown for its architecture; in fact, the Metropolitan Museum of Art once called it one of the finest commercial buildings in the history of American architecture.1

Depiction of the Arcade in its early days

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Quahog.org entry on the Arcade Providence

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Evan Granoff on Providence's Arcade redevelopment

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The Arcade Providence, also known as Westminster Arcade, is the first and oldest enclosed shopping mall in the United States. Built in 1828, the Arcade offers an example of Greek-revival architecture applied to a public market. When the Arcade opened in the early 19th-century, the mall featured three floors of shops, each designed around the central promenade. Skylights in the building's ceiling provided illumination until the incorporation of electric light. The historic shopping area and public space has survived a fire and three major hurricanes. More consequential to its survival, however, has been changes in consumer shopping patterns that has nearly led to the demolition of this structure on numerous occasions. 

Due to its historic significance as the first enclosed mall in the United States, and the broader role in played in the Providence community, the Arcade Providence was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Arcade Providence

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This walking tour covers about six blocks but includes many of the architectural and historical highlights of downtown Providence. The walking tour should only take about twenty to thirty minutes to complete.

The Greater Kennedy Plaza is a beautiful
park space located in downtown Providence, not far from City Hall. The Downtown
Parks Conservancy has transformed the transportation hub in a plaza where
people can congregate, enjoy art, listen to music and play with their children.


The plaza was first established in the early 1800s and was known as
“Exchange Place.” It was a central transportation center for horse-drawn
carriages riding from Rhode Island to Connecticut. Since then, it has gone
through several renovations. In 1847, the first Union Station was built in the
plaza. It wasn’t long before that station proved to be too small, unable to
keep up with the burgeoning rail industry. A new Union Station was constructed
by the end of the century, together with Burnside Park on the plaza’s north
side.

In September of 1871, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument was dedicated.
It stands at the front facing Kennedy Plaza. The monument is a memorial to 1,727
Rhode Islanders that were killed during the Civil War. The statues in each
corner of the monument represent the four branches of the military service and
the tallest statue in the center stands for America.&nbsp; There are twelve bronze plaques surrounding
the memorial which list the names of those men that gave their lives in the
service of our nation.&nbsp;The granite structure was designed by American
artist Randolph Rogers.

The “City Beautiful” movement began just prior to the turn of the
twentieth century. The movement pushed the idea that design could not be
separated from social issues and should encourage civic pride and engagement. A
statue of Civil War General Ambrose E. Burnside was moved from the plaza to the
adjacent Burnside park, for whom it was named. A gorgeous fountain, the Carrie
Brown Bajnotti Memorial Fountain, was installed in the park at this time. 

Trolleys became a popular mode of transportation around 1914. By 1920,
the plaza was surrounded by trolley tracks to accommodate residents who
preferred to ride the trolley.&nbsp; However,
the trolleys gave way to buses in the 1940s and were shut down in 1948. &nbsp;The automobile soon changed the face of
transportation in Providence. People could now drive miles in their own
vehicle. The bus system crumbled and the plaza turned into a large parking
area. Eventually, the streets became so congested that the city’s mayor,
Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, unveiled a plan in 1983 to centralize the bus stations
at Kennedy Plaza to try to relieve the traffic problem and reduce air pollution
caused by vehicle emissions. Since then, there have been various plans to
return at least part of the plaza to its original recreational intention,
including the addition of a skating rink (1998), a farmers’ market, family
programming, and space for public gatherings. Bus stops were moved to the outer
edges of the plaza. Today, there are a variety of food trucks lining the plaza
so that friends can grab a coffee or a quick bit to eat and enjoy on the plaza’s
lawn. There are various family events, including the Imagination Center,
Storytime and Art in the Park, or the Open Air Reading Room, or special events
such as the Burnside Music Series and Beer Garden happening on Thursday
evenings.&nbsp; Renovations and additional
programming are still being planned at Kennedy Plaza.&nbsp;

The Greater Kennedy Plaza has been at the center of Providence, Rhode Island and a transportation hub since before the Civil War.  Previously, it had been known as Exchange Place and City Hall Park.  Horse-driven hacks, narrow-gauge rail lines, and trolley cars converged on this central plaza throughout the 19th and early 20th century. Today, it is the hub for many of the city's local and commuter bus routes. The city recently rebuilt the plaza, returning it to its previous mixed-use function as both a transportation hub and city commons by moving the bus stations from the center of the plaza to the periphery. The project included the creation of more common spaces and crossings for pedestrians, as well a corridor between the Plaza and Burnside Park. 

Greater Kennedy Plaza

The growing size of Providence at
the turn of the twentieth century prompted calls for a new federal building. &nbsp;In 1904, the City of Providence donated the
land at the east end of Kennedy Plaza to the federal government.&nbsp; The federal government accepted the land transfer
and allocated over $1 million towards the construction of a new building. The
first agencies to inhabit the Federal Building included the Post Office, The
United State District Court and the local Custom House.&nbsp; The Internal Revenue Service, Steamboat
Inspectors, District Attorney's Office, and the Civil Service Commission have
also had offices in the building. The Custom House and Post Office moved to
other locations in 1961. 

The Federal Building is a giant
cube-shaped structure that stands five stories high.&nbsp; The exterior is finished with New Hampshire
granite and Indiana cream limestone and it has a roof made of copper.&nbsp; Two groups of statues flank the main entrance
of the building. The statues on the left honor the character of the City of
Providence. Independent Thought is displayed in the middle of the group, with
Industry and Learning at her sides. The statues on the right of the entrance
pay tribute to the United States. The middle figure portrays sovereignty, and
it is surrounded by Justice and Law and Order. The government commissioned
Scottish-American sculptor J. Massey Rhind to create the masterpieces which
adorn the front of the building. He had recently completed a critically
acclaimed work of art at a government building in Indianapolis and was asked to
form another piece for Providence.&nbsp; Both
monuments are sculpted from Tennessee marble. 

The building surrounds a small,
square courtyard in the middle of the cube.&nbsp;
An aerial image of the Federal Building is shown above, which depicts
the open area in the middle. The building was listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1972. The group that argued for its placement on the
register, the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, stated that the
Federal Building was historically significant not only due to its architecture,
but due also to the fact that it acts as an anchor in downtown Providence.
According to the Inventory Nomination Form (link included below): 

<blockquote>Clark and Howe’s well-preserved Federal
Building is, inside and out, and (sic) elegant and handsome example of the
Beaux-Arts style as employed early in this century to house governmental
agencies with the dignity considered requisite to their status.&nbsp; This it would do well anywhere. However, in
Providence it admirably fulfills another function – that of being a vital
architectural anchor, by mass and placing, to a whole downtown area in which it
also shares primacy as an aesthetic treasure. &nbsp;

</blockquote>The building has undergone
renovations with major ones taking place in the 1970s and between
1999-2001.&nbsp; Only the District Court
remains in the building today.

The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Providence, Rhode Island is located on the eastern end of the Kennedy Plaza. The formidable five-story structure was built between 1904-1908 at the cost of over one million dollars. It was designed by architectural firm Clarke and Howe in the Beaux-Arts style. The building's most notable features are the three-story Corinthian columnns that adorn each face of the structure’s exterior. The courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse

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The Turk’s Head Building in
downtown Providence is situated on land that was owned by a shopkeeper named
Jacob Whitman in the mid-eighteenth century.&nbsp;
Whitman built his shop on the corner, and over the front entrance he
placed a wooden effigy of an Ottoman warrior.&nbsp;
The bust served as a sign advertising his business – Whitman’s shop was
the one “at the sign of the Turk’s Head.” The warrior is said to be the
inspiration behind the Turkish head placed upon the front of the new
skyscraper.&nbsp; Hence, the new building
featuring the head of a Turkish man (possibly a warrior or a trader) became
known as the “Turk’s Head Building.”

There are several stories about
the Turk’s Head found in the various histories of Providence.&nbsp; The original statue may have been a
figurehead from the front of a Turkish trading vessel, which came into
Whitman’s possession after guiding the ship through many trips between the
shores of America and the Far East.&nbsp; It
scared the neighborhood children, whether it stood in Whitman’s yard or on the
front of his store.&nbsp; He did operate as a
Blacksmith so it certainly may have been used to attract visitors to his
shop.&nbsp; In 1815, a hurricane hit the area and
blew the figurehead away. The Merchants’ National Bank of Providence wrote that
the bust was recovered by some members of the family after the hurricane, and
then was shipped to other relatives in Alabama.&nbsp;
There, it was stolen by a small group of inebriated men and sent to the
state’s governor. The bust was eventually returned to the Whitman family.&nbsp; Unfortunately, they stored it in a warehouse
which, along with all its contents, burned in a fire years later. Therefore,
the Turk’s Head that adorns the front of the building today is merely a
representation of the original figure. 

The Turk’s Head theme continues
inside the building.&nbsp; There is a
figurehead laid into the lobby floor, and a tile portrait hanging outside one
of the retail units. The floor piece looks like it is a copy of a coin that was
minted in Italy in 1842.&nbsp; The coin was
created in honor of the Ottoman ruler Mehmed II, who governed the Byzantine
Empire centuries earlier.&nbsp; Mehmed II’s
forces defeated Vlad III of Wallachia (also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad
Tepes). Vlad III was a sadistic ruler who impaled his enemies, including some
of Mehmed II’s men, on stakes throughout his kingdom.&nbsp; 

Over the years, a variety of
businesses have occupied the sixteen floors of the Turk’s Head Building,
including the first female attorney in Rhode Island (Ada Lewis Sawyer), law
firms, insurance agencies, investment firms, and a bank.&nbsp; The building has been owned by 76 Westminster
Street, LLC since 2008.&nbsp; The City of
Providence places a value of over $14 million on the real estate. 











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The Turk’s Head Building is an interesting structure built at the intersection of Westminster and Weybosset Streets in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. The v-shaped skyscraper consists of 16 stories and stands 215 feet tall. It was originally designed and built in the early twentieth century (1913).  The structure’s front entrance is ornamented with a sculpture of a Turkish man’s head.  Currently, the building is used primarily for office and retail space.  

Turk's Head Building

The Industrial National Bank Building was first constructed in 1928 as the
company’s headquarters. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest
building in New England.&nbsp; The building consists
of 31 stories of masonry construction. It stands 428 feet tall. 

The New York-based architectural firm of Walker and Gillette and local
architect George Frederick Hall were given the task of designing the Industrial
National Bank Building. A firm with experience in building several of New York
City’s skyscrapers, the Starret Brothers, was hired for the actual
construction. &nbsp;Soon after the Starret
Brothers completed the Industrial National Bank Building, they were hired to
build another iconic New York City landmark – the Empire State Building.

The skyscraper was constructed during the brief period where “Art Deco” was
the fashionable architectural trend, which makes the structure unique in the
Rhode Island skyline.&nbsp; Art Deco was an architectural
style of applied decoration, with geometric, block forms and curved
ornamentation.&nbsp; One of the key elements
of the building are the setbacks at the 15th, 22nd, and
26th floors, referred to as stepped massing.&nbsp; These types of setbacks allowed tall
buildings to adhere to the strict zoning laws of New York City, passed in 1916,
which required skyscrapers to be built in a way that allowed light and air to
filter down to the streets below.&nbsp; &nbsp;

In the 1950s, another American icon was born. The “Superman” television
series first aired in 1952.&nbsp; Quickly,
residents of Providence realized that there was quite a resemblance between the
Industrial National Bank Building near Kennedy Plaza, and the building which
was home to the newspaper company (the “Daily Planet”) where Lois Lane and
Clark Kent were employed.&nbsp; &nbsp;Hence, the Industrial National Bank Building
was aptly nicknamed, the “Superman Building.” 

The property was purchased by High Rock Development of Massachusetts in
2008 for $33.2 million.&nbsp; The company has
a complex plan to renovate the structure from one that is entirely office space
to one that is largely residential, with a few floors of office/retail space at
the lower levels. &nbsp;Of course, a plan that
substantial will require a massive amount of funds, which have not been raised
to date. The building sits vacant at the edge of Kennedy Plaza in downtown
Providence. 

Note: The Industrial National Bank Building is known by two addresses:&nbsp; 55 Kennedy Plaza and 111 Westminster Street,
Providence, Rhode Island.

There is one iconic structure marking the Providence skyline, commonly referred to as the “Superman Building.” It was erected for the Industrial National Bank in 1928 as a headquarters for their successful business.  But since the 1950s, people have referred to it as the “Superman Building” because it resembles the famous skyscraper Americans were used to seeing in the popular television series. Currently, the building is vacant.  Its most recent tenant, Bank of America, moved out of the building in 2013.

Industrial National Bank Building a/k/a "The Superman Building"

The Union Trust Bank was led by legendary Providence-based
financier and industrialist Marsden Jasael Perry, who had joined the institution
in 1881 and became its president in 1901. Perry was referred to at the time&nbsp;as “the man who owned
Rhode Island,” though he had been born a poor farm boy.&nbsp;Among the institutions Perry owned were&nbsp;the Narragansett Electric Company and the city's trolley system. (Perry also bought Providence's historic John Brown House
in the city in the same year.)&nbsp;After Perry took charge,&nbsp;the bank decided that it needed to construct its own building in the downtown area. The first and second floors of the Union Trust Building&nbsp;were reserved for the bank’s
use; other floors were rented as office space. The building was originally nine bays wide and four bays deep, but was expanded to seven bays deep when renovated in&nbsp;1920. Union Trust Company was absorbed by the Industrial
National Bank in 1957, which sold the building. It was acquired by Greater Providence Deposit
and Trust company in 1980, which used it as a headquarters until 1991, when
the company&nbsp;was forced to close due to the banking crisis. In 2007, the building was sold for 6.7 million and on March 5th, 2015, its current
owner, Providence Capital LLC, purchased the building for $4.4 million. It plans to convert all but the first two&nbsp;floors into apartments within the next five years; the second floor will be renovated as commercial space and the Dorrance Restaurant will remain&nbsp;on the&nbsp;first floor. The first and second stories are of rusticated
granite. The third floor has its own distinct rustication, while the fourth through twelfth
floors are covered by brick and trimmed with white Georgia marble. The first floor has banks of 20-foot-high windows, each topped by a stained-glass rosette displaying the coat of arms of a
major European bank family or banking center. The west front entrance&nbsp;of the building has an elaborate stone
portico; the columnns of this portico support a massive
entablature and above this entablature is a balustrade with urns. Over the entrance&nbsp;is an unusual feature: a bas-relief sculpture by the distinguished sculptor Daniel Chester French&nbsp;(the designer of&nbsp;the Lincoln
Memorial), showing reclining figures representing "The Puritan and the Indian." The interior has two distinctive features: a 12-story staircase made of green glass
(elevators could not be built to accommodate such a tall building in those days) and&nbsp;the first double-doored bank vault in New England. These doors kept Union Trust’s currency dry during the
great flood of 1938.

Designed by the local architectural firm of Stone, Carpenter and Wilson, the Union Trust Building - a twelve-story steel-framed structure, externally faced in brick and stone - was constructed by the Union Trust Bank, headed by prominent financier Marsden J. Perry, in 1901-1902. It is in the Renaissance Revival style and was among the tallest buildings in New England at the time it was completed. A banking publication of 1904 wrote of the building: “Rising to a height of 12 stories, it stands a graceful monument of prosperity based upon sound financial methods.” It is currently owned by Providence Capital LLC; the Dorrance Restaurant is on the first floor, where the bank's offices once stood. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Union Trust Company Building

According to research conducted for a documentary film about the Providence establishment, Anne Haven began the business in 1893, rather than 1888 as the restaurant advertises on the side of the diner car.&nbsp; In 1986, it appeared that the Havens Brothers had served their last greasy meal at this location, as city officials decided that the old truck and its greasy fare clashed with the gentrification efforts of the downtown area. For a short time, the truck was quarantined to a spot behind a bus station on West Exchange Street. Community members rallied behind the beloved food truck, which won a temporary return to its historic location with the aid of a court order. Providence locals worked to convince the city that the recent work to improve the appearance of Kennedy Plaza were only palatable if the historic food truck could be part of the new and improved downtown. By the end of the year,&nbsp;city officials backed down. As a result, visitors to the city can join residents in a beloved tradition of late night "double murder burgers" or any of the diner's other classics.

Perhaps the nation's oldest mobile historic landmark, this 1940s-era diner traces its heritage back to the late 19th century, when it began as a horse-drawn lunch wagon. When Patrick Haven died in 1888, his widow, Anne Philomena Haven, decided to establish a lunch wagon with the help of her daughter and son-in-law. 

Beginning sometime around 1893, the Haven family drove the cart (later upgraded to a rail diner car on a flatbed truck) to the same location in front of the Providence City Hall every day for several generations. In the 1950s, the Havens family sold the business, but little has changed with this popular Providence establishment. The diner's longevity has not been without controversy, as several city officials attempted to force the diner to stop parking next to the city hall at various times throughout the 20th century. 

Haven Brothers Diner

Providence was founded by Roger Williams and his small band of Puritan reformers in 1636. Civic affairs were handled informally, with meetings of community leaders usually happening at churches, in the community commons, or within private homes. In 1731, the first town meeting house was built. It was destroyed by fire, and another community building was not completed until 1773. This building served mostly as a public market, as did another facility built in the 1800s that also held city offices. The completion of this building was delayed for many decades owing to conflicts regarding its design and location.&nbsp; In the late 19th century, before the building was powered by electricity, residents came to tour the building largely to catch a glimpse-and a ride-one an elevator that was powered by water boilers and could carry as many as fifty passengers in a single trip. Others were amazed by the wide stairways made entirely from marble and the ornate cast-iron railings. The front of the building included a grand lobby, and the city's nearly three-story tall monument in honor of Civil War veterans from the state of Rhode Island. The building's enormous weight required the construction of a manufactured foundation supported by over three thousand&nbsp;pilings.&nbsp;&nbsp; City Hall was also the center of many state and national political rallies throughout the 20th century. For example,&nbsp;Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and John F. Kennedy have all given speeches from the steps of Providence's City Hall.&nbsp;

Constructed between 1875 and 1878, this Second Empire Baroque structure has been the only building dedicated entirely to holding the offices of Providence's municipal government, despite many other buildings and meetinghouses serving in this capacity from the colonial period to the late 19th century. For example, the mayor and Board of Alderman had offices above the spaces reserved for vendors in the old Market Square building from the 1830s until the completion of this building. 

Providence City Hall

Civic leaders predicted that the hotel would make&nbsp;Providence&nbsp;a leading destination and fuel the growth of the city-a view that reflected the&nbsp;optimism&nbsp;of the 1920s.&nbsp;The hotel was best-known for its&nbsp;unique V-shaped design, an innovation that&nbsp;allowed every guest to enjoy a window and view of the city at a time when most hotels had a large number of interior rooms in their&nbsp;inventory.&nbsp;During the 1920s, the hotel's&nbsp;Bacchante Room&nbsp;was the center of Providence social life. The hotel held nightly parties with jazz music and the beautiful servers, known as "the&nbsp;Bacchante Girls" enchanting guests with their short skirts and stiff drinks. The hotel at that time featured its own print shop, photo lab, and drugstore, in addition to the Garden Room that featured entertainers such as Benny Goodman and Esther Williams.&nbsp;&nbsp; Reflecting the changing trends, the hotel that once held 600 guest rooms now includes a total of 229 rooms and suites. During the renovation, many walls were removed to provide larger standard rooms as well as the creation of numerous suites.&nbsp; Famous guests have included&nbsp;John and&nbsp;Jacqueline&nbsp;Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, and boxer Rocky Marciano&nbsp;The hotel is a member of National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Hotels of America program.

Reporting on the opening of the Biltmore on June 6, 1922, the Providence Journal declared that the event would be “the most elaborate social event ever to be held in the city.” Owners John Bowman and Louis Wallick did not disappoint, lighting the exterior of their hotel with 25,000 lights and inviting celebrities and prominent leaders from New York and other surrounding states. The Biltmore was the largest building in the city at the time and held six hundred guest rooms. Although the building survived several natural disasters, including a hurricane in 1938 that left the lobby under eight feet of standing water. However, the luxury hotel almost succumbed to the effects of suburbanization, the changing tastes of consumers, and proliferation of smaller hotels. With fewer guests staying downtown and far more costs related to maintenance than newer hotels, the Biltmore closed in 1974. With the help of federal tax credits for historic buildings, a group of investors were able to purchase and renovate the property in the following years. The hotel re-opened in 1979 and is now part of the Hilton chain. 

Providence Biltmore

The URI Feinstein Providence Campus Gallery promotes the
value of art education through outreach programs in public schools and state
colleges and universities, as well as community and social service
organizations and art institutions. As part of its focus on cultural diversity,
artists from a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities are featured, including
African American, Italian American, Native American, Asian American, Puerto
Rican, Latin American, and Senior Citizen artists.&nbsp;

One way in which the gallery participates in the Providence
community is its participation in Gallery Night Providence, which takes place on
the third Thursday of each month. The monthly event is a free tour of
Providence art galleries, museums, and historic sites, where exhibitions,
lectures, live music, performances, and demonstrations are showcased. Guided
bus tours begin at 1 Regency Plaza in Providence at 5:30, 5:50, 6:00, 6:30, and
6:50 pm on Gallery Nights and run for around two hours each. The official
website also provides a map of participating galleries and parking information
for those who prefer to drive.

URI's Providence Campus Urban Arts and Culture Program at the Feinstein Providence Campus Gallery offers visual and performing arts programs focused on cultural diversity and urban community issues, including a wide variety of topics including homelessness; race, ethnicity, and gender; breast cancer awareness; and local history. All events are free and open to the public, and the gallery also participates in Gallery Night Providence on the third Thursday of every month.

Downtown Providence Walking Tour

Arcade Providence

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

History of the Arcade Providence

Sources

Additional Information