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- Collection: Chester Smolski Photographs
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Aerial View of Fields Point in Washington Park, Providence
Before Roger Williams Park (1871), Fields Point was considered the city’s premier park location and the site of popular restaurants and the Washington Park Yacht Club. Once a “bucolic landscape of rolling hills, quiet coves and shaded groves”, Fields…
The Bandstand behind the Casino at Roger Williams Park, Providence
On Roosevelt Lake behind the Casino at Roger Williams Park sits the bandstand (John Hutchins Cady, 1915). According to Jordy, this classical revival structure has an “open, colonnaded Ionic rotunda as the climax of a metal-fenced, masonry platform…
Providence Charlesgate Apartments and Nursing Center under construction
A view of Charlesgate Apartments built and Nursing Center under construction. Image looks east with U.S. 95N in the foreground. Charlesgate has 140 beds and is currently 94% occupied.
Rhode Island State House from Prospect Terrace Park
The Rhode Island State House is made up of 327,000 cubic feet (9,300 m3) of white Georgia marble, 15 million bricks, and 1,309 short tons (1,188 t) of iron floor beams (wikipedia). The dome is currently the fourth largest self-supporting stone dome…
Providence (Aerial): Looking East
Aerial view of Providence downtown area. Among America’s oldest cities, Providence has a special sense of place. Like its contemporaries, it has been built and rebuilt many times. Development, however, has not resulted in wholesale destruction and…
Port of Providence just south of Collier Park
Looking west over Providence Harbor, this shot shows a portion of the ten miles of commercial waterfront on Narragansett Bay. The industrial waterfront has been “long-overlooked” despite its historic role as the source Providence’s original…
Providence population by Census Tract - 1980
Providence population (156,804) by Census Tract, 1980 Key (in thousands): white - less than 2.5 horizontal lines - 2.5-5.4 hatched - 5.5-7.0 black - more than 7.0
Providence Black Population - 1980
Providence Black Population by Census tracts 1980 Black Population: 18,546 (11.8% of Providence) Key: white - less than 100 horizontal lines - 100-500 hatched - 500 - 1,000 black - more than 1,000
Providence Spanish Origin Population -1980
Providence population of Spanish origin by Census Tracts, 1980 Spanish Origin Population: 9,071 (5.8% of Providence) Key: white - less than 100 horizontal lines - 100-500 hatched - 500-1,000 black - more than 1,000
Providence Owner Occupied Housing Rates-1980
Providence owner-occupied housing rates by Census Tract (36.9% owner-occupied),1980. Key: white is less than 25.0%; horizontal lined is 25.0-36.9%; hatched is 37.0-50.0%; and black is more than 50.0%
Renter Occupied Housing Units 1980 - Providence
37,968 renter occupied housing units by census tract, Providence 1980. Key (in hundreds): white is less than 7.0; horizontal lined represents 7.0-10.5; diagonal lined is 10.5-14.0; and black is more than 14.0.
Map of People of Spanish Origin as Percent of Census Tract 1980- Providence
A map of the percentage of people with Spanish origin in Providence in 1980. Spanish origin population: 9,071 (5.8% of Providence). Key: in white areas less than 5% of people are of Spanish origin; horizontal lines are areas with 5%-15% Spanish…
Aerial of downtown Providence looking east
Aerial of downtown, I-195, and the Providence River. The building at Old Stone Square and Fleet Center are in the early stages of construction in this photo.
Bandstand at the Casino (Roger Williams Park)
On Roosevelt Lake behind the Casino at Roger Williams Park sits the bandstand (John Hutchins Cady, 1915). According to Jordy, this classical revival structure has an “open, colonnaded Ionic rotunda as the climax of a metal-fenced, masonry platform…
Aerial of Elmhurst and Wansuck neighborhoods
Aerial view looking east over Elmhurst and Wansuck neighborhoods in northwest Providence. Providence College in the foreground, Douglas Ave., St. Patrick’s Cemetery, and the Chad Brown Housing Project (1941). Chad Brown was the first low-rent public…
Roger Williams Park in South Elmwood
In 1871, Betsey Williams, great-great-grandaughter of Providence founder Roger Williams, gave the city the 102 acre tract of land with the provision that the land be used for a park or cemetery and that a memorial to Roger WIlliams be included. It…
Aerial View of Quonset Point
Quonset Point is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is contained entirely within the town of North Kingstown. Quonset Point was the location of Naval Air Station Quonset Point, a large United States Navy base.…
Downtown parking north of rail lines
Union Railroad Depot, by Thomas A. Tefft, was opened in 1847. It was considered "a brilliant example of Romanesque architecture" in its time, and the longest building in America. As the city continued to grow, so too did the need for terminal space,…
Aerial of fire-damaged Union Station and Capital Center redevelopment in progress.
Railroad relocation was one of the core elements of the Providence Renaissance. In this aerial we can see the dirt lot where the railroad tracks were formerly located. Here we also see the burned roof of Union Station.
Aerial of Rhode Island State House and Train Station
Designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White and constructed from 1895 to 1904. The building underwent a major renovation in the late 1990s. The building is made up of 327,000 cubic feet (9,300 m3) of white Georgia marble, 15 million…
Aerial of Financial District looking east
Aerial showing the old Financial District with new additions including the building at Old Stone Square (Edward Larrabee Barnes, 1984), 50 Kennedy Plaza (a.k.a. Fleet Center, Helmut, Obata & Kassebaum, 1985), One Financial Plaza (a.k.a Soveign…
Aerial View of the Providence Marriott Hotel
Designed by Py-Vavara Architects of Minneapolis, this photo shows the Marriott two years after completion.
Randall Square - State House & Public Health Building
General wasteland of Randall Square before renewal. St. Patrick’s Church can be seen in the left near the State House, and the Armenian Church is on the extreme right. Also of note are the triple-deckers to the west which were once part of…
Aerial View of Warwick Mall
Warwick Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Warwick, Rhode Island, on the north side of Interstate 295 near the junction of Interstate 95. Composed of more than 1,000,000-square-foot (100,000 m2) of retail space, it features more than 70 stores and…
Aerial of Interstate 95 at downtown Providence
This aerial shows the way in which I-95 bisects the Financial District of downtown from Federal Hill and the West Side of Providence. Overpasses from top to bottom include Broadway, Washington Street, Westminster Sreet, Broad Street, and Pine Street…
Welcome to Providence “Safest City” Sign on Providence Biltmore Hotel
The Providence Biltmore Hotel is an upscale hotel that opened in 1922 as part of the Biltmore Hotel chain. It was founded by John McEntee Bowman and Louis Wallick, and is currently owned by Grand Heritage Hotels International. It was added to the…
Construction on Memorial Blvd. Looking South from One Citizens Plaza at the Confluence of the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers
This photo shows work in progress in relocating Suicide Circle and uncovering and re-channeling the Mosshasuck and Woonasquatucket RIvers. Newly constructed Washington Street Bridge is in the foreground, but the old Fulton Street entrance to Suicide…
Providence Station and Rhode Island State House looking west at dusk
The newly built Providence Station and State House from Canal St.
View of Center Place & Rhode Island State House
A bland review of Pruitt-Igoe subsidized housing. Photo taken from One Citizens Plaza.
Old Stone Square on South Main Street
The park beside the Old Stone Square Building is the result of a corporate lawsuit forcing Barnes to limit his appropriation of the views of historic South Main Street. The outcome of the suit was the creation of a public space that rehabilitated the…
Davol Square Shopping Mall (Interior)
Home to the Davol Rubber Co. from 1884 until 1977, the complex were rehabilitated and reopened for mixed retail and office use in 1982. However, despite high occupancy and easy highway access, the shops slowly disappeared and the mall closed down in…
Downtown Providence - Cathedral Square and I-95
Designed by I.M. Pei and Zion & Breen, Cathedral Plaza was intended to be a marvelous piazza as the forecourt for one of Providence’s most monumental and important churches, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. (date of photograph is…
Rhode Island State House from Prospect Terrace Park
The Rhode Island State House is made up of 327,000 cubic feet (9,300 m3) of white Georgia marble, 15 million bricks, and 1,309 short tons (1,188 t) of iron floor beams (wikipedia). The dome is currently the fourth largest self-supporting stone dome…
Union Station damaged by fire and excavations to the north
Providence's first railroad station was Union Railroad Depot, a brick edifice built in 1847 and designed by Thomas A. Tefft for the Providence and Worcester, Providence and Stonington, and Boston and Providence Railroads. This building was lost to…
Rhode Island State House and Providence Station
In 1986, the current Providence Station (shown here) was built to replace the 1898 station, as part of a redevelopment project to free up land from a mass of train tracks that had hemmed in downtown Providence. It is much smaller than its…
Aerial of Providence River looking north toward the city
The Providence River is a tidal river that flows approximately 8 miles (13 km) from Narragansett Bay until it splits into the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers in Providence. There are no dams along the river's length, although the Fox Point…
Triple-Deckers on Eaton St.
Heading west on Eaton Street from Douglas Ave towards Providence College. These triple-deckers are examples of early twentieth-century vernacular housing.
Aerial of Financial District
Towards the bottom of this image can be seen the so-called “Chinese Wall” that virtually separated downtown from Capital Center before the urban renaissance. Construction on Fleet Center is underway in the center, as well as Old Stone Square on South…
Aerial of Rhode Island State House, Providence Station Construction
Designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White and constructed from 1895 to 1904. The building underwent a major renovation in the late 1990s. The building is made up of 327,000 cubic feet (9,300 m3) of white Georgia marble, 15 million…
Downtown Providence from Point St. Bridge
The Point Street Bridge (1927) spans the Providence River connecting Wickenden Street with Davol Place. The downtown Financial District is seen behind to the north.
I-95, Providence Civic Center, Capital Center (1983)
Here we see how the former Chinese Wall of train tracks had prevented the downtown development from reaching the capital. The center of the city is essentially a parking lot along the parameter of the downtown financial district. What we see is the…
Monument to Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), Kharkov, Ukraine
A monument in Kharkov to Ukraine’s greatest poet and artist who wrote and fought as a revolutionary democrat against serfdom and Tsarist rule. The monument is in Dzerzhinsky Square in Kharkov. A competition for the best Schevchenko monument took…
Derzhprom or, Gosprom, or State Industry Building
Chet Smolski describes this building as a science research building of the 1920s. This building is part of Karazin Kharkov National University. The park from which the photo was taken is called Svobody Square or Freedom Square. The building is a…