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Lone Ranger Burg

Lone Ranger

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This is a link to one of the more in-depth articles I have read on Waterfire, appearing in the Washington Post Sunday magazine recently.

The Elements of Providence

Helluva good article. This line drew a laugh out of me:

He shows me the Arcade Building, claimed by some to be "the first indoor shopping mall in America," the two dissimilar classical facades of which preserve in stone a nearly two-centuries-old disagreement between its architects -- the perfect Providence story in that it features antiquity, independent thinking, a beef and a quirky result.
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Lone Ranger Burg

Lone Ranger

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Boston.com Explore New England article about Providence:

Downcity Rising [Boston.com]

That article makes an interesting observation. Under the Do section:

Many visitors to Providence content themselves with tramping the length of Benefit Street to be dazzled by the Colonial, Federal, and occasionally Victorian architecture of the so-called Mile of History. Alas, only one of these trophy homes is regularly open for tours.

File under: Things that make you say, "Hmm."

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Garris Town

Garris

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:rofl:

Thanks for that link! My parents (who lived in Yonkers for a long time) always complain how Providence isn't like Yonkers - and now Yonkers is trying Providence's strategy!

How Providence isn't like Yonkers?? :rolleyes: My friends, Yonkers would be blessed to be half the city Providence is, even though it's larger in population. I still know people in and around Yonkers, and they forwarded me this article as well and can't wait for the city to advance.

Yonkers has been waiting a looooong time for its own development. It's like the Fall River of Westchester County. Filled with potential being on the banks of the Hudson and so close to NYC, and just waiting for the economic, social, and political planets to line up for its benefit.

P1100159-Yonkerswaterfront.jpg

I think it's great that so many municipalities in the NY metro are (finally) no longer content to just be bedroom communities of Manhattan and are actually waking up to the fact that there is no substance to their towns. No there there... Many of these places, back in the 19th and early 20th centuries were fairly interesting places, before the age of the automobile and MetroNorth gave them no other reason to exist other than to be where NYC workers came home to at night.

- Garris

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brick Burg

brick

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That article makes an interesting observation. Under the Do section:

File under: Things that make you say, "Hmm."

Aren't they private residences for the most part?

I'm not sure private residences should be forced to endure tours just because the house has a historical designation.

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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Aren't they private residences for the most part?

I'm not sure private residences should be forced to endure tours just because the house has a historical designation.

i'm pretty sure they are private. and no, they should not be forced to have tours. i can see if the historical society bought some of the houses if they ever went on the market and had tours, but they shouldn't force the residents to sell.

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ruchele Hamlet

ruchele

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People from outside New England don't seem to uderstand that these old houses are actually real, normal people's HOMES, not theme parks or museums. I used to run into this problem all the time with tourists in Newport. People would just walk into the yard to take a look, not expecting that someone would come out of the house and say, "Can I help you? You're standing in my yard." I also remember being asked how a early 18th century house was "allowed to look like THAT (peeling asphalt shingle, etc.)" I had to explain that the owners were probably elderly people who had lived there long before tourists started coming around, and would probably take better care of the house if they could afford it. The response was "People LIVE in these houses??" No, we all live in invisible split-level ranches on invisible cul-de-sacs.

Last week, a Californian asked when my parents' house was built. Then they said, "Oh, my GOD! You can BUY a house built in 1840??" Um, what else would you do with it?

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runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

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People from outside New England don't seem to uderstand that these old houses are actually real, normal people's HOMES, not theme parks or museums. I used to run into this problem all the time with tourists in Newport. People would just walk into the yard to take a look, not expecting that someone would come out of the house and say, "Can I help you? You're standing in my yard." I also remember being asked how a early 18th century house was "allowed to look like THAT (peeling asphalt shingle, etc.)" I had to explain that the owners were probably elderly people who had lived there long before tourists started coming around, and would probably take better care of the house if they could afford it. The response was "People LIVE in these houses??" No, we all live in invisible split-level ranches on invisible cul-de-sacs.

Last week, a Californian asked when my parents' house was built. Then they said, "Oh, my GOD! You can BUY a house built in 1840??" Um, what else would you do with it?

oh my god, people live in houses?!?! you're joking, right? anything built before 1950 is a museum, no one lives in those old houses anymore.

that's pretty funny actually. i would love to live in a historic house, so long as certain things were updated. i just love the woodwork in some of them.

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Garris Town

Garris

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Would I be correct in assuming that Yonkers is a former mill town. That's the impression I get from the photo.

You would kind of be correct. My understanding of Yonkers history is that it was never the mill mecca that some areas around here were (I think Otis Elevator and some WWII goods producing companies had big presences there) and that the city never lived and died on it. Its industrial history was fairly brief too, from maybe the late 19th century to WWII.

Before the 1870's, Yonkers was actually an agricultural area more than anything else. After WWII, all the industry rapidly died and it became mostly a commuter community.

Boardering the Bronx to the South, it's also been a popular place for the Federal Government and local municipalities to dump poor people they don't want to put elsewhere. There was a famous public housing battle between Yonkers the NAACP over a public housing project in the 80's, I think.

Today, Yonkers, in a county where the average home price is about $800,000, has become one of the few places the lower-middle and middle-middle classes can afford to buy a home. A family friend there has seen the value of her house in an old, working class Yonkers neighborhood go up from about $130,000 in the late 90's to about $500,000 today.

People from outside New England don't seem to uderstand that these old houses are actually real, normal people's HOMES, not theme parks or museums.

Absolutely. I think people look at Benefit St or areas of downtown Providence and think they should be preserved little theme neighborhoods like the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH.

I'm surprised to see the Boston Globe say this, though. Isn't the same thing true in, say, Beacon Hill? You can't just walk up to, say, John Kerry's home and get a tour...

It's the argument many of us here have vs the David Brussat perspective. Does Providence and its neighborhoods stand still in time and, if building, only do things that mirror and ape its past? Or do you preserve that past, contextualize it in what you do, and continue to move forward as a vibrant, modern city?

- Garris

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Carter711 Whistle-Stop

Carter711

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Fort Wayne is all over Providence this week

The Fort Wayne News & Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Indiana has done a big spread on Providence. A cadre of Fort Wayne officials, literally dozens of them, are visiting for inspiration as they plan their own downtown redevelopment. The newspaper has a surprisingly in-depth spread on Providence and its redevelopment successes, including several articles, lots of pictures, and an AV presentation on the city (look out for Ari). Here's the links

Providence goes with flow

What can Fort Wayne learn from city

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