COMPLETE: Fox Point Bathhouse Library

[Cotuit]

Date: April 14th, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Karen Southern, Press Secretary

(401) 421-2489 x 752 | [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

FOX POINT EYE SORE TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO STATE-OF-THE-ART SCHOOL LIBRARY

Renovation of former bath house will create a computer complex, conference room and community space for neighborhood residents

Providence

[Garris]

How did I miss this?

From the ProvidenceRI.com website:

"FOX POINT EYE SORE TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO STATE-OF-THE-ART SCHOOL LIBRARY

Renovation of former bath house will create a computer complex, conference room and community space for neighborhood residents"

The full link is here:

http://providenceri.com/press/article.php?id=166

Driving by it every day, it's a nice, historic structure. I'm really glad a good use could come of it!

- Garris

[Cotuit]

How did I miss this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know

I posted the entire thing since it is a press release from the city, not an article.

[DavidSegal]

It's a year late, but fencing is up and construction crews are on-site.

Site remediation and roofing through the summer and fall. Interior work through the fall and winter. Opening in mid-spring. In theory.

It's going to house the school library (freeing up more classroom space) and there'll be a community room on the lower floor. That space will largely be used by the Fox Point Senior Center. Depending on what happens with the Fox Point Library in coming years, we might see it move in as well.

[Garris]

It's a year late, but fencing is up and construction crews are on-site.

Site remediation and roofing through the summer and fall. Interior work through the fall and winter. Opening in mid-spring. In theory.

It's going to house the school library (freeing up more classroom space) and there'll be a community room on the lower floor. That space will largely be used by the Fox Point Senior Center. Depending on what happens with the Fox Point Library in coming years, we might see it move in as well.

Thanks for the update! I was wondering what was going to happen to this given I'd heard rumblings that the future of that entire school was in doubt...

I recall (I'd have to look back) that this was one of the PPS's "Most Endangered" Providence historic structures. Nice to see it vault off that list.

- Garris

[Frankie811]

Fox Point bath house to become a library

http://www.projo.com/ri/providence/content...28.1001483.html

[Cotuit]

[Garris]

[Cotuit's photos...]

Goodness, you were everywhere today .

A bit of gossip about that, BTW. One of the people I know close to the various Providence Public School situations was quite angry at this project. Apparently, while the money was allocated to redo the bathhouse (something all of us here would be happy with), apparently many parents are angry that the PPS won't put money into staffing it for more than a few hours a day, if at all.

Apparently, CCRI or one of the other local colleges with a library studies program offered to send their training students to help staff, but not without the supervision of one trained librarian, but the PPS hasn't even offered to provide that.

One parent I know angrily and sarcastically refers to the project as the "Fox Point Community Meeting Castle" since "the kids will never be able to use it as a library."

Again, all fourth hand and unconfirmed...

- Garris

[riari]

On a somewhat related topic, does anyone know about the history of Providence public bathhouses, swimming pools, swimming piers, etc. What are the other sites associated with public swimming in Prov?

[Cotuit]

On a somewhat related topic, does anyone know about the history of Providence public bathhouses, swimming pools, swimming piers, etc. What are the other sites associated with public swimming in Prov?

I would like to know more about that too, and specifically this bathhouse. Was there a pool here (is there a pool here)? It's not on the water, so I wonder what a bathhouse is doing here.

[Garris]

On a somewhat related topic, does anyone know about the history of Providence public bathhouses, swimming pools, swimming piers, etc. What are the other sites associated with public swimming in Prov?

Goodness, I remember seeing an East Side Monthly or Providence Monthly a while back that had an article on the bathhouse and where they fit into the lives of recent immigrants of the time and Fox Point in particular. I'll try to remember exactly where I saw it.

You may want to contact the RI Historical Society. I bet this is right up their alley.

- Garris

[Magellan98]

I would like to know more about that too, and specifically this bathhouse. Was there a pool here (is there a pool here)? It's not on the water, so I wonder what a bathhouse is doing here.

There was a large public pool opposite the Boy's Club between the school and Fox Point Manor. Right where the playground is now. I swam in that pool with my older cousins and sister when I was 5 or 6 years old. I think it was filled in the early 1990s. Brings back lots of memories...

[jencoleslaw]

yup. there was a pool over there. I remember it when i lived in Fox Point. I was disappointed when they turned it into a tot-water-park deal.

[Cotuit]

I never got around to changing this to "IN PROGRESS" so now I'm just moving right on to "COMPLETE"

Tuesday