It was Monday, April 23, 1928. The Providence Public School Committee was holding its regular meeting at Central Fire Station on the eastern edge of Burnside Park. The room was packed. Charity Bailey (1904-1978), an accomplished pianist and recent graduate of Rhode Island College of Education, was there to give a public statement against Superintendent Isaac Winslow, who, according to multiple accounts, told Bailey that he would not appoint a Black teacher to work in the school system. Bailey, at 23 years old, had already shown herself as a gifted musician and educator. In the years leading up to the hearing, she performed with her sister Amy at the Pond Street Church and delivered a memorable performance of the spiritual “Wish I Could Die in Egypt Land” for National Music Week at Brown University’s Sayles Hall. A writer for the Providence Journal captured the scene: “Both in the rendition of the weird, dirgelike piano accompaniment and in her singing of the haunting, plaintive melody, Miss Bailey approached an artistic triumph. Prolonged applause compelled her to give an encore number, the only one of the evening.” At the same time, Bailey applied for teaching jobs. Despite strong letters of recommendation from her professors, supervisors told her that there were no vacancies. And so, Bailey advertised as a governess.  A year later Bailey was fed up. She and a member of the school committee met with Winslow, who explained that Bailey had fulfilled all of the requirements but was “not in a group of candidates eligible to become teachers.” Bailey and her mother then contacted attorney Joseph G. LeCount, legal counsel and cofounder of the Providence Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the oldest NAACP branches in the country.  On April 23rd, a crowd of teachers, students, and community members filled the school committee’s meeting room in the fire station to capacity. LeCount set-up an improvised witness stand. He questioned Bailey first, then Winslow. The following day the Providence Journal printed a partial account of Winslow’s testimony. A few blocks over at the Evening Tribune, the paper’s news editor, John Carter Minkins, an African American, published a big story with extensive testimony from Bailey and Winslow, as well as reactions from the crowd. “I think it’s a lot of bunk,” said one committee member after listening to Winslow defend himself.  Later, local activists leveraged Bailey’s case to mobilize Black voters toward the Democratic Party. They ousted at least one member of the school committee who had backed Winslow and elected Democrats into high offices in exchange for support on civil rights.  Like so many promising educators at that time, Bailey left the oppressive culture of Providence for New York City, where she worked for the Federal Works Progress Administration, studied piano at Juilliard, and taught music at The Little Red School House.  Between 1954 and 1956, Bailey hosted the television show, Sing a Song, a pioneering, interacial children’s program. She recorded albums and published a bestselling book, Playtime with Music, in which she shared her progressive philosophies. Bailey challenged the traditional teachings of music appreciation. As she argued in Playtime, musical rhythm and word pattern should be felt and enjoyed by children without preliminary instruction because, “Children, like all of us, do best and learn most from that which they love to do.”

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Imagine this: it’s late September 1928, and Providence is abuzz with activity. There are huge factories, some of the largest in their fields, employing thousands of people; trolley lines crisscross the whole city; boats are docked at piers in the Providence River; hundreds of trains stop at the station a day. Industrial Trust Bank, Providence’s first skyscraper at 428 feet tall, looming over downtown, is set to open to the public on Monday, October 1st. And Loew’s Theatre — Providence’s new “movie palace” — will do the same just days after on Saturday, October 6th.

By the end of the 1920s, movie techniques had developed significantly, and exciting plots, dashing stars, and beautiful leading ladies became prominent. Tickets to these shows were cheaper than live ones, and people flooded to see Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Clara Bow, and more. Marcus Loew saw opportunity: he created a national chain of “movie palaces,” where people bought not just a ticket to a film, but to an experience. In 1924, Loew’s, Incorporated, owned MGM Studios, which was producing movies for his theatre venue enterprise.

In the late 1920s, Loew had acquired a block of land on Weybosset Street, at that point considered the center of Providence, to build Loew’s Theatre. It was set to be the biggest and best movie theatre that the city would see at a projected cost of $1,000,000 dollars (but would actually cost $2,500,000 in the end).

Designed by Rapp and Rapp, prestigious theatre architects on the early 20th century, it boasted any and every amenity imaginable: a Morton organ with 1,500 pipes and a console on an independent elevator that could magically rise up from the stages (installed before “talkies” became the new norm); a Vitaphone, which could play a record of sounds and voices to accompany the film; cushy seating for over 3,200 people; lush lobbies with doormen at one’s beck and call; stately resting areas decorated in the style of Louis XIV.

On Saturday, October 6, 1928, the doors opened to crushing crowds: 14,000 people paid to enter the space from 11am to 11pm. Excess Baggage was the first film to show that day, multiple times, with organist Joe Stoves performing in between. A live red and green macaw was perched on a balcony. No expense was spared for the extravagance of the event. No one knew that in a year, the Roaring Twenties would give way to the Stock Market Crash and then the Great Depression.

Loew continued to show movies through the 1930s and 1940s, especially as film became a popular distraction during the Depression and a means of news acquisition during WWII. But by the 1960s, the future of Loew’s looked dim, as it did for most old movie houses in downtown. It was acquired in the early 1970s, renamed The Palace, and became a venue for a variety of live entertainment, including several notable rock bands. By 1975, though, the building was in a state of disrepair, losing revenue, and looking at the possibility of being razed to make way for another parking lot. Through efforts of Sylvia Dario and Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, the building was acquired, closed, and completely renovated and refurbished: the entire interior was cleaned, repaired, and painted; seats were reupholstered; fresh carpeting was installed. When the venue opened in 1976, it was renamed The Ocean State Theatre. It hosted first-run movies, fashion shows, opera, and symphonies. The theatre was formally purchased by a consortium of other local businesses, became a non-profit private corporation, and was again renamed: Ocean State Performing Arts Center.

In 1982, the building was renamed Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC). Through the 1990s and early 2000s, the building saw additional refurbishments, including the installation of PPAC’s iconic illuminated marquee, making this building one of the most photographed in the city.

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During the 1910s, entertainment venues were in a state of flux. They were originally created as spaces for live performances. With the advent of early film, many venue owners tried to switch entirely from live shows to movies – but found that they weren’t particularly lucrative. To increase profits, venues showcased highly popular vaudeville acts and supplemented them with film, often at the very end of the night. Despite contracting desirable shows, these venues were often overcrowded, inelegant, and uncomfortable. The Emery brothers saw an opportunity to build an opulent, spacious theatre space dedicated specifically to vaudeville performances. This venue was called Emery’s Majestic, and it was just that — majestic.

The stunning exterior features a white terra cotta facade with light green and gold grapevine detailing. The large arched window at the center of the building’s front allows in light to both the upper and lower lobbies. Walking in the main entrance and looking up, one would see an elliptical opening to the second floor and above to a leaded glass dome — all of which is still intact. The original auditorium space, done in an opulent, art nouveau style, could seat 3,000 people. When it opened, Emery’s Majestic was the pinnacle of elegance in performing arts venues in Providence.

The theatre opened in April 1917. The owners ran another, smaller Providence venue called The Emery. They relocated shows from that space to the Majestic upon the Majestic’s opening. Their zeal for a bigger, grander space didn’t necessarily take into account whether they could actually steadily fill the seats at the massive new venue, and they slowly ran out of resources. By early 1918, the Emery Brothers leased out the Majestic to another local theatre manager who had ample connections and could pull in bigger and better names. Emery’s Majestic became the Shubert Majestic.

From the late 1910s through the 1920s, the Shubert Majestic hosted touring companies of ever-expanding vaudeville, burlesque, and revue shows. Like the Providence Opera House, Shubert’s Majestic contracted performance troupes that included bevies of performers and whole chorus lines of female dancers, a collective group who would roll in on the local train line with a train car’s load of staging, equipment, and costuming. They would unload, perform for a week, and pack up to head to the next city. In the early 1920s, the Majestic hosted Al Jolson in both Sinbad and Bombo; acclaimed Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, who toured the world internationally several times over; and the touring production of Chu Chin Chow, a musical comedy based on the story of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. The latter went so far as to include live elephants into the show!

By the mid-1920s, the Majestic became a first-run movie theatre as the medium evolved and became more and more popular. An organ was installed to accompany the silent films. The Majestic stayed a movie theatre through the 1940s and early 1950s, before falling on hard times. Enter Trinity Repertory Company.

Trinity Rep was originally founded in the early 1960s by local theatre lovers who wanted to see outstanding theatre without having to travel to Boston or New York. They founded the company and opened their first production at Trinity Union Methodist Church, located on Broad Street. Support grew throughout the Company’s first decade, which eventually resulted in grants to acquire the Majestic. In 1973, Trinity acquired the building and renovated the interior extensively, including splitting the 3,000 seat auditorium into two smaller theatres: the Dowling Theatre, which seats 250 people, and the Chace Theatre, with seating for over 500. The building conversion also included adding on administrative offices, rehearsal spaces, and production shops, the latter of which are situated on the theatre’s original stage boards.

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Entertainment in the 1880s extended beyond opera and vaudeville to also include human spectacle in venues called “dime museums.” A phenomenon in the late 19th century, they were akin to circus sideshows in the respect that they used people as main attractions, capitalizing on those who didn’t fit a Western “norm,” including people with medical abnormalities and visible disabilities, as well as individuals from other regions of the world. These persons would be put on display for “educational purposes,” but they were often jeered at by spectators instead. In addition to these “displays,” live performers would also be on the bill, including acrobats, contortionists, singers, and comedians. Dime museums were fairly common, opening in many mid- and large-scale cities. Sometime in the early 1880s, the Providence Dime Museum opened on Westminster Street. Its exact opening date is unknown, but the first recorded newspaper advertisement dates to 1884. It was a short-lived enterprise in the city, lasting until 1887, but the billings were in keeping with dime museum trends; from an ad dated January 14, 1884: “The Living Human Doll”; “The Camel Child”; “Zulu princess and suite”; “Barnum’s famous Esau girl”; “a lady skeleton”; “a troupe of educated canaries”. Subsequent features were as problematic.

In 1887, the building was purchased, renovated, and renamed Keith’s Gaiety. The new owner, B.F. Keith, began his professional career working in the circus circuit before segueing to vaudeville and family-friendly entertainment, which he grew into a theatrical empire. While the Dime Museum relied on shock and spectacle, Keith’s Gaiety strove toward wonder and awe. The opening week at the Gaiety featured stuffed animals arranged in scenes from fairy tales, trained birds who sang in chorus, as well as a house from Japan – which would have been a curiosity for those who didn’t have means to travel the world in the 1880s.

In 1890, Keith sold the building, and over the course of the next 16 years, from 1890 to 1906, the establishment changed names several times: Lothrop’s Opera House (1890-1897); Olympic (1897-1902); Park Theatre (1902-1904); and Park Music Hall (1904-1906). These changes were more of a gimmick than anything else. With every name change, the venue would garner publicity – despite the fact that every iteration featured the same types of melodramatic and vaudevillian content.

The venue changed names once again in 1906, becoming the Nickel. The Nickel holds a special place in performing arts history in Providence: it was the first theatre to exclusively show movies, at that time the brand-new entertainment medium. The Nickel opened on April 18, 1906, playing four films, all of which were about 20 minutes in length. The premiere didn’t garner much attention in the newspaper though: April 18, 1906, was also the same day as a catastrophic earthquake in San Francisco, a headline which dominated newspaper headlines across the country for a week.

Within a few years, half a dozen other movie theatres were built and almost every other entertainment venue in Providence turned to featuring film. By the end of the 1910s, the Nickel was small, outdated, and didn’t live up to the other extravagant theatres in downtown. It was razed and the E.F. Albee Theatre, a state of the art movie house, opened in its place in 1919. A successful venue through the 1940s, the Albee faced decline until it was razed in 1970.

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The Theatre Comique was as different from the Providence Opera House as could be, despite being just blocks away. The Opera House was built as a handsome, stately performing arts venue. Theatre Comique was originally built as a billiard parlor and eventually retrofitted to serve as dual theatre and saloon. On the opening night at the Opera House, the city’s elite filled the house wearing their finest attire, where Mayor Thomas Doyle welcomed the crowd. Theatre Comique’s exact opening is lost to history; the first advertisement for performances didn’t appear in newspapers until August 1876, after it had been open for some time. The Opera House hosted well-known actors in pivotal roles during its existence. Theatre Comique’s shows could be considered unfit for “polite society.”

Theatre Comique was one of the first venues in New England to host “variety” shows, a revue that could include a wide array of performances: “dialect acts” and blackface routines, both of which used ethnic and racial stereotypes as fodder; ribald comedy sketches; acrobatics; magic shows; chorus lines; parodies of serious theatrical works; arias from popular operas. A combination of any of these types of acts could be seen either once or twice a day, six days a week. Admission at the Theatre Comique was affordable in the early 1880s, ranging from 20 to 50 cents per ticket. That left enough for patrons to also visit the bar. The building was a converted billiard parlor and meant that the house could only seat 350 to 400 people, fairly small compared to other venues designed as theatres. Proof of how highly lucrative variety shows were: proprietors Hopkins and Morrow shared $22,000 in profits one year, made from a small theatre with low admission. This was when $1,000 a year was considered a handsome income for a family man!

This theatre had a short life in Providence, lasting not even 20 years. On Friday, February 17, 1888, the building caught on fire. No one died in the blaze, but it deeply affected those connected with the theatre. The dancers of the Lilly Clay’s Colossal Gaiety Company who were performing at the Comique that week heard news of the fire and realized that their costuming would all be lost. They ran from their hotel to the theatre and convinced the firefighters to run in and grab their trunks. What was salvaged was ruined, although their manager apparently had spares that were kept separately from their racks. Comique’s orchestra leader, Professor Rinehart, lost his violin, a family heirloom, as it was locked up in the prop room. The most devastating loss was experienced by the house manager; he had recently bought out one of the owners – but hadn’t yet secured insurance on his investment. This was after he had lost property in another fire earlier that same week.

The next morning, an assessment was done on the Theatre Comique. Being a wooden building, it suffered significant damage with holes burned through a rear wall and roof. The structure, as well as an adjacent building, were both torn down shortly after the blaze.

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On the evening of December 4, 1871, carriage after carriage pulled up in front of a rather inconspicuous red brick building in downtown Providence. Well-dressed theatre-goers entered the lobby of the Providence Opera House, the city’s newest performing arts venue. The lobby was stately and elegant, while the auditorium of the theatre, which could seat over 1,400 people, was handsome and comfortable. Mayor Thomas Doyle greeted the audience from the stage before the opening night production of Anna Cora Mowatt’s Fashion, a drawing-room comedy. One attendee was purported to have said, “The play was not the best that might have been chosen, but it was selected because it gave the ladies an opportunity to show some handsome dresses.”

The opening of the Providence Opera House marked the beginning of a robust era for performing arts in Providence. In the 1870s, the population of the city was around 69,000 and increased to over 250,000 people by the end of the 1920s. Through this period, entertainment was available at every price point, in wide varieties, and in ever-changing modes. The Providence Opera House featured chaste, family-friendly productions of plays, dance, and opera, while other venues in the city hosted bawdier performances that were deemed uncouth.

At the beginning of the Opera House’s existence, it hosted travelling performers and relied on local actors to fill in supporting roles. Popular solo actors had a handful of signature roles that they’d perform. They would arrive in town, rehearse once or twice with a theatre’s resident acting company, perform for a week, and then move onto the next city. The 1873-1874 season ran for 42 weeks and had 136 attractions; while the leading roles were often filled by travelling performers (including Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth), the Opera House’s resident acting company averaged having to learn, rehearse, and perform three new plays each week during that one season. As theatre attendance was the major entertainment opportunity for people in the 19th century, patrons had ample opportunities to see a wide variety of shows.

The Providence Opera House continued on as a touring venue through its whole existence, but later on contracting whole productions, not just solo actors. With a major train depot in the heart of downtown, actors and managers would disembark and train cars would be unloaded of set flats, props, and costume trunks, sent promptly to that stop’s venue. Popular tours would stop multiple times in Providence, usually with the first run at the Opera House, and subsequent productions would be at cheaper, less prestigious venues. This gave the wealthy the advantage of seeing shows before others in society, but productions became available at lower price points for the working class during second and third runs.

By the early 1930s, the Opera House was outdated and property in Providence was at a premium. On March 14, 1931, the patrons filled the auditorium for the last time. Providence-born, nationally recognized star George M. Cohan returned to the city to perform on this final night. He was joined by Eddie Dowling and Rachel “Ray” Dooley, other notable actors with strong Rhode Island connections. The night was a teary-eyed send off for one of the most prestigious venues in Rhode Island. The following Monday, wrecking balls took down the Providence Opera House, leveling it to become a parking lot.

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One acre of water in the four-acre park here today represents a vital part of early Providence history. The water is a reminder of the hundreds of acres of brackish water that covered the area that Roger Williams knew as the Great Salt Cove. Over time the water was drained, the land filled, and by 1898 all water had been drained to support laying railroad tracks for a booming transportation industry that supported the successful commercial businesses of Providence. Times changed; businesses declined; the downtown area languished. However, the River Relocation Project of the 1980s and 1990s brought life back to the Providence city center and with it a reimagining of the water that once ran through it. Today, Waterplace Park and the surrounding areas are home to walking paths, restaurants, concerts and WaterFire.

Imagine the smoky smell of bonfire fire, the crisp sound of wood crackling, and the warmth of thousands of people gathered around the rivers to witness the city’s star attraction, WaterFire. The performance art piece first opened in 1994 with eleven braziers lit on the water. By 1998, 81 braziers were installed and thousands of people a night came to see the mesmerizing performance credited with bringing pedestrians back downtown.

Following decades of industrial decay in downtown Providence, few people made their way to the heart of the city. Artist Barnaby Evans wanted to create a space where people could gather and walk together along the newly engineered Rivers that flow through downtown. The newly unveiled River Project was a blank canvas for Evans to work, and as a city dweller he was dedicated to making the space a destination for pedestrians. "By design, there is no point where you can see the whole installation at once, so you mingle with other citizens as you walk," said Evans. "It is designed so people can interact with each other, with the artwork and with the urban environment.” Using public art to rethink urban space, Evans made Waterplace Park a destination for locals and tourists alike.  Over a million visitors have walked along the Riverwalk to see Providence’s star attraction.

Today, over eighty wood burning fires, a music program, and street performers lure visitors and residents alike to Waterplace Park and the Providence Riverwalk on WaterFire evenings. Former Mayor, Buddy Cianci, once said, “There is nothing like it anywhere in the world, even in Florence or Venice.”

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Imagine this building as the central location for industry and modernity in 19th-century Providence. Picture a tangle of railroad tracks and constant motion, with engineers and manufacturers working hard to support (arguably) the most important place downtown––the railroad station. In the late 19th century Union Station was the hub of southeastern New England’s transportation network. Goods came and went through this terminal supporting the machinery, textile, and jewelry industries that fueled the growth and future of Providence.

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Created as Exchange Place in the 19th century, Kennedy Plaza stands out in a neighborhood defined by change. It’s served same role for over a century: the city’s central transportation hub. Today, as many as 69,000 people move through the site daily! In addition to being the geographic center of downtown and the main transportation hub, the plaza also serves as the city’s gathering point for civic events. The steps of City Hall make Kennedy Plaza an ideal spot for oration. Thousands of people stood here to listen to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, to witness the magical acts of Harry Houdini in 1914, and to see presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960. Following his assassination, Exchange Place was renamed to honor the President in 1964.

Kennedy Plaza is also home to several statues and monuments honoring Rhode Island veterans. The large Soldiers and Sailors Monument recalls Rhode Island’s involvement in the Civil War, including the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment, an African-American unit. The Hiker Statue commemorates Rhode Islanders’ involvement in the Spanish American War. Today, Kennedy Plaza remains a gathering place for the community, anchored by the Alex and Ani City Center, which features arts and music programming, as well as seasonal roller derby and ice-skating.

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Though the area around it has changed over the years, Providence City Hall remains a constant in downtown Providence. Constructed in the 1870s, the cast iron and masonry structure witnessed the evolution of Exchange Place into Kennedy Plaza, two hurricanes, and multiple cycles of economic depression and growth. Initially, Providence’s municipal government was located in the crowded Market House, across the Providence river. Needing a bigger space, alderman were split on where to put a new city hall. Half of the council lived on the east side of the river, and half on the west, causing a thirty-year struggle over where to put the new government building. Eventually, the west side won and the cornerstone was laid on June 24, 1875. In the 1950s the city’s downtown master plan called for the demolition of City Hall, but it was saved and restored, reflecting the city’s pride in its historic roots.

Just outside of City Hall is a home for America’s oldest food cart: Haven Brothers Diner.  Despite the misleading name, no brothers were involved in the founding of the Haven Brothers. Indeed it was founded in 1893 by Anne Haven, an immigrant widow who used her husband’s life insurance policy to purchase the horse drawn wagon that became the legendary lunch cart. Assisted by her daughter, Catherine Gannon, the cart grew into a legendary Providence food establishment. The Haven family sold their food cart in 1953 to the Mollicone family; the cart is still open for business every day at 5:00pm. Truly a Rhode Island institution, it has only left once since opening for operation. In 2009, the cart traveled to visit Today Show hosts Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira in New York City. Both Lauer and Vieira frequented Haven Brothers while working for Channel 10 Providence.

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It is said that every Rhode Islander visits the Biltmore Hotel at least once. Opened in June of 1922, the Biltmore immediately became a significant hub for social activity in downtown Providence, a legacy that continues today. Its elegant halls have hosted whist clubs, holiday parties, and debutante balls. In its early days the Biltmore also sought creative ways to bring fresh produce and dairy to its tables in the middle of a bustling city. A rooftop garden where fresh flowers and vegetables were grown was just the trick! Wanting more, the first manager of the Biltmore, L.D. Wallick, took it further and demanded fauna as well. Pens for chickens and ducks were constructed on the roof. Distraught, the ducks flew south in 1927 and never returned.

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Few places in downtown evoke such fond memories like the iconic Shepard Company Department Store, a fixture of the 19th and 20th-century Providence shopping experience. Built in the 1870s, Shepard’s initially was 6,400 square feet. By 1903, it grew to include 301,000 square feet, occupying an entire city block!

In it's prime, Shepard's also helped to orient visitors in downtown Providence. Meeting “at the clock” friends and families used the large 19th-century cast iron clock outside the Westminster Street entrance as a point of reference. Though once successful, the Shepard Company went bankrupt in 1974. Fortunately, the exterior of the building and its iconic clock still remain largely unchanged.

Today the Shepard’s Building serves various educational institutions, an example of repurposing an iconic space to serve the neighborhood’s needs.

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Popularly known as the “Superman Building,” because of its resemblance to the iconic Daily Planet building in the television series, the Industrial Trust Building remains the tallest in Providence at 428 feet. Completed in 1927, it is a reminder of downtown’s interwar building boom. The financial industry took off in Providence and several banks and architectural gems were born during this period; though, the Industrial Trust Building is the most unique in the city’s skyline. At the time of its completion, it was the third tallest building in all of New England. The Industrial Trust Building was advertised as, “A Business Building for Building Business.”

The Art Deco exterior features frieze work depicting labor and culture and Gorham bronze doors guard both the Kennedy Plaza and Westminster Street entrances. A notable design element is the stepped massing, which derived from a New York City law that required tall buildings to be set back on themselves to allow light to pass to sidewalks below. This element is a prominent feature in other Art Deco skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building and The Empire State Building. The Industrial Trust Building predates both! When constructed, the interior was a site of grandeur and prosperity; the lobby maintained extravagant fresh flower arrangements daily. Throughout its history, the Industrial Trust Building was home to a series of financial institutions, most recently Bank of America. Today it serves as a reminder for the potential of growth in the energized downtown.

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Boston wasn’t the only place to throw a tea party! Here, on March 2, 1775, Providence residents protesting the Tea Act threw 300 pounds of British East India Company tea into the Providence River. Finding inspiration in Rhode Island’s founder Roger Williams, residents sent their tea into the river and their spirit of protest across the Atlantic Ocean to King George. The Market House changed that day and hasn’t stopped. Following the event, the Market House quartered French soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and by the middle of the 19th century, it served as Providence’s City Hall before overcrowding necessitated a larger space in present day downtown.

A symbol of the long history of business downtown, the Custom House was completed in 1857. Originally built as the first Providence Federal Building, the Custom House was home to the Federal District Court, the Post Office, and U.S. Customs. This Italianate style building is also an entryway to the commercial district of downtown. Walk down Custom Street to Weybosset Street and you will find the heart of the financial neighborhood that fostered 20th-century Providence’s prosperity. Weybosset Street and Westminster Street are home to the architectural remnants of this booming art deco era. Commercial buildings like the Hospital Trust at 15 Westminster Street, embodied the architectural flair of the early 20th century. It was home to the Hospital Trust, the first Trust Company in New England. Over the years it remained a fixture of the banking industry downtown but eventually, was donated to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Today it serves as RISD’s Fleet Library.

Walk to the intersection of Westminster and Weybosset Street and look up at the landmark Turks Head Building. Built in 1913, the building has continuously housed insurance agencies, advertising firms, professional offices and banks, making it a constant in the ever-changing downtown. The Turks Head was originally a wooden figurehead from the prow of a ship, used as a sign for Jacob Whitman’s 18th century shop. The original version is said to have washed away in the Great Gale of 1815. A century later, a new building included the current high relief sculpture of a Turk’s head in the frieze above the third story. The Turk’s Head is just one example of downtown’s enduring pride in its past.

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Imagine people hustling and bustling in search for the finest goods this 19th-century neighborhood had to offer. Now picture the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Greece. Together the two images create the landmark “temple of trade” known as The Providence Arcade, the nation’s oldest existing indoor shopping mall. It’s been a hallmark of business in downtown Providence since 1828.

Until the early 19th century, Providence’s commercial district lay primarily on the East Side. After a fire in 1801 destroyed nearly forty buildings along South Water Street, many businesses moved to the west side of the river; a new commercial center of Providence was born. Initially business was slow in the newly opened Arcade, but when a fashionable hat shop opened nearby, people began to frequent the shops between Westminster and Weybosset Streets. Designed by Russell Warren and James Bucklin, the architecture is notable due to two slightly different facades. Travel to the Weybosset side, and you’ll find Warren’s design: six granite Ionic columns rooted underneath a parapet. Venture to the Westminster side, and you’ll find six ionic columns connected to a pediment, designed by Bucklin.

A beacon of business into the 20th century, the Arcade closed for repairs and reopened in 2013 with modern updates and additions, including some of the nation’s first microlofts located on the upper levels. Today the skylight-lit interior is home to several shops and restaurants that make the Arcade a shopping destination for downtown Providence.

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Johnson & Wales University is a world renowned leader in experiential education, with degree programs in arts and sciences, business, culinary arts, education, hospitality, engineering and design, and more. Fittingly, the Providence campus is located in the heart of the 19th and 20th century retail hub of downtown. Though Johnson & Wales has over 16,000 students and several campuses around the country today, the school had very humble beginnings in Providence.

Weybosset Street was alive with excitement as nearly 14,000 people attended the opening of the new 3,100 seat Loew’s State Movie Palace on October 6, 1928 to see the movie “Excess Baggage” on the big screen. Those lucky enough to have seats to the show were led by their usher, past talking parrots, into the opulent theater. People in Providence enjoyed the last days of the fabulous Roaring Twenties with no idea that in a little over a year the Jazz Decade would end, and the city built on industry would succumb to the Great Depression.

Since 1978, the Theatre has been on the National Register of Historic Places and has undergone extensive (historically accurate) renovations, becoming a world-class venue. Launching 14 national tours since 2008, the PPAC presents a major roster of Broadway touring theatricals annually. A broad range of concerts, dance, comedy, family shows and much more bring hundreds of thousands of people into Providence each year to experience the magic of live performance in what has been called “the jewel of Weybosset Street.”

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No organization embodies Providence’s moniker, “The Creative Capital”, more than AS220. Founded in 1985, this organization supports artists by providing housing, studio, exhibit, and performance space in downtown Providence. AS220 began in one room above the Providence Performing Arts Center at 220 Weybosset Street, when Umberto Crenca and friends decided Providence needed a space dedicated to supporting artists and artistic expression. “AS” stands for artists space or alternative space and 220 honors the room at PPAC where it all began.

Today, AS220 houses four rotating gallery spaces, a performance stage, a black box theater, a print shop, a darkroom and media arts lab, a fabrication and electronics lab, a dance studio, a youth program, 47 affordable live/work studios for artists, a bar and restaurant, and is a destination for over 51,000 people each year.

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A fixture of the capital city, the Providence Public Library (PPL) has continuously served the downtown community for over a century. Founded in 1875, the PPL opened at its present Washington Street location in 1900. It added the Empire Street expansion in 1954. While its original Italian Renaissance-inspired design evokes comparisons to Boston’s Public Library, visitors congratulated the architects for valuing function over form. The first librarian, William Foster, stressed the Library’s important community service role by establishing community “contacts” to best serve the city. A revolutionary concept at the time, the result has been a tradition still in practice as the PPL continues to foster partnerships (or “contacts”) with a myriad of community groups on innovative initiatives.

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Few theaters can say they’ve housed the evolution of American entertainment like this one. Now home to the Tony Award-winning Trinity Repertory Company, this space has vaudeville roots, showed blockbuster hits, and now wows audiences with live theatrical productions. The former Emery Majestic Theater was opened by local vaudevillians, the Emery Brothers, in 1917. Seating around 3,000 people, it was the largest theater in Providence at the time. When vaudeville was replaced by movies as America's favorite form of entertainment, the Majestic became downtown Providence’s premiere movie theater, showing first runs of Warner Brothers and 21st Century Fox films. However, the growth of movie theaters in the suburbs with ample parking slowed business for the Majestic, and it closed its doors in the mid-20th century.

Fortunately, the doors were not closed for long. The Majestic’s history of live performance meant the building was a natural fit to house Providence’s newly formed Trinity Repertory Company. Founded in 1963 in Upper South Providence, Trinity Rep was, and remains, a major part of Providence’s flourishing art scene. Considered “one of the most respected regional theatres in the country,” Trinity Rep is notable for having one of the last resident acting companies in the United States. The Company produces a variety of contemporary and classical plays and musicals, including an annual production of A Christmas Carol, a Rhode Island holiday tradition.

When you visit, be sure to examine the building's facade! With the exception of the iconic “Majestic” marquee, the facade retains its original elegance.

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