Rhode Tour

The Steel Yard (PS&I)

2018-01-17T14:51:35+00:00

Over 179 Years of History!

Founded in 2002 on the former site of Providence Steel and Iron Company (PS&I), the Steel Yard’s 3.5-acre site has become a community gathering space for people interested in creative, industrial arts. The design of this former brownfield site embraces the property’s urban industrial history while incorporating innovative approaches to sustainability.

Founded in 1822, PS&I built precision iron castings, water meters and architectural ironwork. In addition to installing pipes in numerous local buildings, such as the Pawtucket Times Building and the William Fletcher Building, PS&I produced ironworks for the iconic Library of Congress. PS&I purchased the 27 Sims Avenue site in 1902 to accommodate its growing manufacturing output. The complex expanded over the next forty years, eventually absorbing the former Providence Brewery site. PS&I was an early adopter of electrical power in the 1890s and utilized electrically driven movable cranes and hoists to manage heavy materials and parts in their fabrication and assembly process. Technological innovation in steel manufacturing resulted in increased output of large industrial products such as bridges, trusses, girders, stairs, fences, railings, and grillwork. After 179 years of operation, PS&I closed in 2001.

In 2002, two local artists and entrepreneurs purchased the property. The owners formed the nonprofit Woonasquatucket Valley Community Build, which operates as the Steel Yard, and began to actively rehabilitate the facility. The first priority was to address the site’s toxic environmental legacy. As part of their operations, PS&I sprayed lead-based paint onto steel beams. Overspray resulted in elevated lead levels in the soil. In 2007 the Steel Yard began a brownfield cleanup in compliance with the EPA, the RI DEM and the Narragansett Bay Commission, which it completed in 2007. The Steel Yard’s cleanup is a showcase for regenerative design. What was once two acres of unusable space is now a de facto public park, home to over 100 trees, a half acre of green space, and storm water-managing wetland plants.

As part of the transformation, old PS&I buildings have been converted into over 9,000 square feet of workspaces for artists, classrooms (for education and job training), and office space. The Steel Yard is the recipient of the 2010 Providence Preservation Reuse and Neighborhood Revitalization Award, the 2011 Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects and the 2013 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.

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Cockeast Pond

2017-11-06T14:55:15+00:00

The ecosystem of Cockeast Pond is going to die–unless the oysters can stop it.

An ongoing four-year project of the Westport River Watershed Alliance (WRWA) is an initiative to reverse the nitrification of Cockeast Pond by planting half a million oysters in a fraction of the pond’s area. Residents of Westport have long been familiar with oysters as source of food–and employment–but oysters might also be capable of solving a crippling environmental problem. It’s an exciting and new solution to a well-known problem. Pollution from human activity emits nitrogen via surface runoff, human and animal waste discharge, and emissions from combustion. Surface runoff, the flow of excess waters over Earth’s surface, is a particularly significant problem. Many farmers and homeowners treat their soil with nitrate-rich fertilizers, pesticides, and more, and when rainwater soaks through this soil it carries nitrates with it wherever it’s going. High levels of nitrogen in bodies of water cultivate the growth of algal blooms. Algae feed on nitrates and phosphates. When an excess of these nutrients appears, algae growth explodes. When algae die, their decomposition consumes oxygen. If there are enough algae, this process can deplete a body of water of oxygen. Since marine animals require oxygen to survive, algal blooms kill off fish and shellfish, as well as more complex species of plants that process nitrogen differently than algae. In addition, harmful bacteria can thrive as a result of algal blooms and sicken humans and animals that enter the infected body of water. Beaches have often closed off as a result of algae blooms. How do oysters fit into this? For decades, scientists have known that oysters are able to filter water and use its elements to build tissue and store waste ingredients in surrounding sediment. Microbes break down this sediment and release nitrogen into the water, where it emerges into the atmosphere as harmless gas in a process known as denitrification. So what would happen if someone put 500,000 oysters in a pond plagued by algal blooms? This was the question asked by researchers from the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), which has partnered with WRWA to test a theory that oysters could bring the nitrogen levels of Cockeast Pond under control. After 30,000 oysters passed a baseline survivability test in the spring of 2016, the EPA awarded the SMAST researchers over half a million dollars to take the next, much larger step. If this method of denitrification is successful, it will mean much more than the survival of Cockeast Pond. “Addressing the nitrogen problem along the South Coast, Cape Cod and the South Shore will cost billions of dollars if we only consider traditional strategies such as bigger wastewater treatment plants and more sewer lines,” reported Dr. Brian Howes from UMass Dartmouth. “We just don’t have the time or money for that course. It is, therefore, imperative that we find soft solutions that leverage nature, in this case the oyster, to make progress.” Success in the case of Cockeast Pond could lead to billions of dollars saved down the road if this method were applied all over the country and even the world. Nothing is certain, but as of fall 2017, things are looking up.

For more (including 5 images) view the original article

Providence Dyeing, Bleaching, and Calendering

2017-08-03T18:20:06+00:00

Products for People, Not the Environment

The Woonasquatucket River, with its generous drops and fast moving streams, was lined with textile factories in the early 19th century. Once textiles were made, they required dyeing and bleaching to be transformed into usable fabrics. In turn, a growing market emerged for vendors capable of taking in yarn or cloth for washing, bleaching, printing, or dyeing to the specifications of the customer. This process required large vats to hold chemical dyes and vast amounts of water to flush them off fibers. The Woonasquatucket became home to such textile finishing companies and the recipient of their toxic run-off.

In 1810, Dr. Benjamin Dyer of Cranston established the Providence Dye House Company on Sabin Street in downtown Providence. Dyer had an eye for innovation. He purchased rights to the differential calendering machine, a new technology that imparted different finishes to cloth by squeezing it under tension through rollers moving at varying speeds. His new machine, which could put down a more complex pattern, was eventually powered by a 20 HP “Colombian” steam engine, a small-sized high-pressure steam engine. Dyer's eye for innovation proved extremely successful for his company, reputed to be the first steam-driven textile finishing plant in the country.

In 1842, the company renamed itself the Providence Dyeing, Bleaching & Calendering Company and purchased the old Brown George Paper Mill building on the Woonasquatucket River in Olneyville. The property was strategic for a number of reasons: it came with the water privilege established first by Christopher Olney in 1773; it could take advantage of the newly completed New York Providence and Boston Railroad (finished in 1837); and it could service the cotton and worsted mills that shared the river–Lymnsville, Manton, Dyerville, Merino and Union Mills upstream–and the Valley Worsted Mill downstream. By 1850, PDB&C processed 13,500 yards of bleached goods annually and employed 200 workers. By 1880, the river corridor was the industrial centerpiece of Providence’s textile world, Olneyville buzzed with mills, and the river ran in multiple colors, reeking with foul odors.

A new sewage system installed in Providence in 1877 proved unable to mitigate the full environmental effects of manufacturing along the river. Eventually, the stench from the river drove concerned citizens to fund a study in 1905 to figure out how to clean up the river and a commission was formed. Businesses cooperated, adopting the commission’s suggestions to limit the amount of chemical waste they poured directly into the water. The efforts were somewhat successful.

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Donigian Park and a Legacy of Pollution

2017-08-01T19:08:58+00:00

Once a Major Destination

In 2009, a group of volunteers stepped into the Woonasquatucket River at Donigian Park wearing waist-high heavy rubber boots and sturdy gloves to protect against the river’s pollution. Donigian Park in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence had once been a major destination for thousands of Providence residents who, in the 1880s, visited both Donigian and Merino Parks to enjoy a swim, a picnic, and the greenery. But by 2009, the park had become a defacto dump. On that single clean-up day, volunteers pulled out 150 shopping carts and two tons of automobile tires from the river.

Even in the 1880s the city should have warned residents against swimming in the Woonasquatucket. While mills, factories, and other industries used the Woonasquatucket River as a power source to engine their factories, they also used it to remove garbage and other waste from their buildings. Trace amounts of metals like zinc and cadmium, used to set dyes on fabrics, and pesticides containing mercury and arsenic, used to prevent insect damage to wool and cotton, made their way into the waters. But the biggest source of trace metals came from the production of the machinery used in these water-powered factories. Tin, iron, copper, and pewter used to make tools and parts regularly escaped into the air, soil, and water or were buried as a simplistic means of waste disposal. Most of these facilities used some type of volatile or semi-volatile organic compound to clean machinery and tools such as trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, known carcinogens. Many of these pollutants can still be found in river sediments today, more than 100 years after they were released.

Specific attempts to reduce the emission of at least some metals began in the 1950s and 1960s, but legislative requirements for industrial pretreatment of wastewaters did not come until the 1972 Clean Water Act. As more activist environmental movements took hold in the 1980s, concern for the status of the river and its importance to the city and the surrounding neighborhoods grew. In 1998, the federal government designated the Woonasquatucket River as one of 14 American Heritage Rivers, commemorating its role in the nation’s industrial history.

Shortly after, The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council formed to improve the environmental, recreational, and economic assets of the river and its watershed. Thanks to their efforts, Donigian Park is once again a beautiful urban refuge.

For more (including 4 images) view the original article

Spiritual Cleansing: Religion at Mashapaug Pond

2014-05-01T22:04:27+00:00

In the summers, Providence residents waded into Mashapaug Pond to get clean – or, more precisely, for spiritual cleansing. "The choir would sing and the Word was preached before the candidate entered the water to have his sins washed away," recalled Ralph Simmons, a member of the Pond Street Baptist Church in the 1930s. The polluted pond is no longer used for baptisms, but Mashapaug Pond remains connected to organized worship, spiritual practice, and faith-based communities. These activities, and the sites where they occur, have changed over the years as places of worship follow their congregations’ movement around the city.

Today, one of the oldest visible sites near the pond is the Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David Cemetery on Reservoir Avenue, dating back to 1856, and now associated with Temple Beth-El. Needing a burial ground where family and friends could come to remember their loved ones, Providence’s small Jewish community purchased property near Mashapaug Pond. At the time, the new cemetery was far removed from the city’s urban core. Now, the cemetery sits wedged between busy roads and shopping sites.

As the neighborhoods near Mashapaug Pond have changed, other religious congregations have come and gone, sometimes leaving no trace. Pond Street Baptist Church, frequented by many African American and Native American families who once lived in West Elmwood, has moved several times before settling in its current location in south Providence.

On the western side of the pond, a small brown-shingled building at the corner of Balch and Calhoun Avenues once housed a mission of the Roger Williams Cranston Street Baptist Church. The mission ministered to the spiritual and humanitarian needs of the West Elmwood community by providing food and clothing as well as special activities for neighborhood children. When the city bulldozed the area to construct the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park, the mission was forced to close.

Some buildings have served multiple congregations over the years. In 1901, the Westminster Congregational Society constructed a small, rubblestone, gothic revival chapel on 126 Adelaide Avenue to serve its worshippers. By 1959, the church had been repurposed by the Friendship United Methodist Church, a Swedish group founded in South Providence. Most recently operated as the Hood Memorial Church (A.M.E), the building now stands vacant, reflecting the continuing changes in neighborhood demographics.

Some congregations have recently moved into the area, converting existing spaces for religious use in order to welcome local residents. In 2009, the Renaissance Church relocated to the Mashapaug Commons shopping center – the former site of the Gorham Manufacturing Company. The church now resides in a storefront that once housed Hollywood Video. The congregation feels strongly about establishing connections with the local community, and the church is regularly used for community meetings, including those organized by the Urban Pond Procession and Alvarez High School students. Across the pond, the New Dimension Church occupies a spacious building at the edge of the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park. For both parishes, large parking lots nearby make it easy for members to drive in from homes throughout the metro area.

Still in use as an active burying ground, the Sons of Israel and David Cemetery is an enduring site of identity for a Jewish community that has grown and moved over time. Temple Beth-El relocated to Providence’s East Side but the congregation tries to stay connected to their cemetery. Each spring, the congregation makes a pilgrimage to the cemetery for a service to remember the dead. Kenneth Orenstein, the chairman of the Cemetery Management Committee and a member of the Beth-El congregation, also arranges clean up days when children and their parents can care for the cemetery and learn about its history by looking at headstones and monuments. These activities make the cemetery a place where generations can come together to understand and honor their shared heritage.

Discussion Questions

As you travel around the area, how are faith-based communities connecting with neighborhoods and the pond? What do faith-based congregations contribute to community life?
What does the history of religious sites tell us about the history of Providence?
How has urban growth and change affected the spaces used by faith-based communities?
For more (including 3 images & 4 audio files) view the original article

Saving Murphy-Trainor Park

2014-05-01T22:02:17+00:00

When Liz Camp, a resident of the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood, heard that developers wanted to build over two dozen townhouses on an open plot of land near Mashapaug Pond, she knew she had had to do something to halt the construction. After years of campaigning, when the governor’s office told Camp that her persistence was driving them crazy, she knew that “something” was finally working.
In the fall of 1990, a developer had purchased 4.6 acres of land on the southwest side of Mashapaug Pond that had previously been preserved as open space. With plans to build twenty-five new homes and lay two new streets, Reservoir Triangle residents worried the construction would “ruin the community” and cause traffic problems. “We want[ed] this space to be open space,” Liz Camp recalled. “We want[ed] the city to buy the property or the state to buy the property. And we want[ed] it to be open spaces. So, we became activists, neighborhood activists.”
Generating any sort of grassroots change in the neighborhood, let alone creating a new park, seemed impossible in the early 1990s. One Reservoir Triangle resident told a Providence Journal reporter that at a city hall meeting, none of the officials had even heard of their neighborhood. A newspaper article mockingly described residents’ vision for the area as “floating a dream of a clean Mashapaug Pond.”
Reservoir Triangle homeowners persisted. Meeting in one another’s living rooms, they organized calling campaigns and discussed strategies for making their voices heard. The Mashapaug Pond Action Committee was born.
After a long battle against the local government and frustrating political inaction, the Reservoir Triangle residents succeeded. The city finally bought the land from the developer, guaranteeing its preservation as public space. In 1994, after the city solicited input from residents regarding how they would like the space to be used, Murphy-Trainor Park was built on the land saved by the Mashapaug Pond Action Committee.
Murphy-Trainor Park is now one of three open, public spaces around Mashapaug Pond. And continued public pressure from neighborhood residents and activists has resulted in major zoning overhauls in the past years: Several properties near Mashapaug Pond that were formerly zoned for light industrial use are now preserved as public spaces. These new open areas include J.T. Owens Park and the Community Boating Center, as well as a park currently in development behind Alvarez High School.
Following in the footsteps of Liz Camp and the Mashapaug Pond Action Committee, other community-based initiatives, like the Urban Pond Procession, have also brought neighborhood residents together to raise awareness about issues with Mashapaug Pond. Murphy-Trainor Park itself, once a rallying point, is now a space for further community organizing.
Discussion Questions
If you were a resident in the Reservoir Triangle, what would you have done to help raise awareness about the construction and the pond’s pollution?
Why is it important to have green spaces or parks in cities? Why do you think parks are such important spaces in neighborhoods?
What issues in your own community need to be addressed?
For more (including 2 images & 2 audio files) view the original article

Playing Around the Pond

2014-05-01T22:00:31+00:00

On a frigid February in 1904, fifty riders and horses gathered at frozen Mashapaug Pond for an afternoon of racing on the ice. Beyond the pleasure of competition, the races gave local residents a chance to admire each other’s horses and to appreciate the conclusion of the ice harvesting season. When conditions made racing on the pond impossible, riders turned Reservoir Avenue into a speedway and spectators lined the street to watch, even when the weather turned bitterly cold.
Over the decades, Mashapaug Pond has remained a popular spot for recreational activities – though the pond isn’t without its share of risks. Reports of children falling through the ice in winter or drowning in the summer were common through the mid-twentieth century. Yet throughout the twentieth century, local youth continued to explore and play on Mashapaug Pond, ice skating in the winter when the pond froze, and exploring hidden clay caves on the pond’s coast. Today, with fewer children swimming in or skating on the pond, such incidents of danger are rare. But residents still worry about the health risks posed by pollutants in the pond water.The legacy of pollution has impacted the pond’s use as a recreational site. In the past, fishing on Mashapaug Pond was a source of food for some. However, contamination from the Gorham Manufacturing Company’s silver factory and pollution from stormwater runoff has made the pond’s fish poisonous to eat. Still, residents who fish for fun report catching large-mouth bass, yellow perch, carp, and even the occasional snapping turtle. A community boating center provided kayaks, canoes and lessons for people eager to get on the water before city officials grew alarmed at hazards caused by algae blooms and shuttered the site. Since 1999, though, a local dragon boat racing team has practiced on Mashapaug Pond between May and October.
Now, pass by J.T. Owens Fields on the western bank of Mashapaug Pond on any spring or summer day, and you’ll hear the sounds of baseball, softball and T-ball. Elmwood Little League, established in 1951, has brought hundreds of young ballplayers to the fields every season. The fields were dedicated to John T. Owens, a Providence native and famous amateur baseball player, nicknamed “Happy Owens” by local fans. Owens was killed as a serviceman in World War II, and the park created in his name now sports three baseball fields, two tennis courts, and a playground, all adjacent to an expansive view of Mashapaug Pond.
A large open space in a congested city, Mashapaug Pond and the three public parks along its shores call to children eager to explore and play. And although the horse races are unlikely to return, residents still hope that one day, Mashapaug Pond will be once again safe for swimming.
Questions
How have pollution and environmental changes affected the way people enjoy Mashapaug Pond and the activities they enjoy?
What might the future look like for Mashapaug Pond? Does this future include swimming, fishing, baseball, or horse racing on ice? How could recreation change in the future?
What sorts of things do you like to do for fun? How do you think that’s different from what people did for fun a century ago? Why?
For more (including 2 images & 3 audio files) view the original article

Industrial Legacies: Environment and Economics

2014-05-01T21:55:30+00:00

In 1980, up to $1.5 million worth of silver flowed from Providence factories into the Narragansett Bay, giving new meaning to the phrase “a waste of money.” Much of this silver originated from the electroplating firms located in the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park on the north shore of Mashapaug Pond.
Discovered in the 1800s, electroplating revolutionized jewelry production by using electricity to apply thin layers of gold or silver to items cast from other, cheaper metals. By 1880, Rhode Island was home to more jewelry businesses than any other state. Providence became known as the costume jewelry capital of the world, its downtown called the jewelry district. A century later, however, the center of the jewelry industry had relocated three miles to the southeast, to the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park next to Mashapaug Pond.
Looking at its current arrangement of warehouses and parking lots, it may be hard to imagine the industrial park as a space that almost 500 families called home. Children played games in the road, buzzed around on homemade scooters, and snuck peaches and plums from their neighbors’ trees. Former resident Ed Hooks recalls the paper route that took him through a grid of streets, some paved and some not, whose names are now only found on historical maps. As a child, Ed swam in Mashapaug Pond, played with frogs, and caught crawfish in the brook that flowed toward Niantic Avenue. Some neighbors, he remembers, preferred the brook’s snapping turtles, and used them for soup.
When the Providence Redevelopment Authority bought this 117-acre parcel in 1961, it displaced those residents and adapted the land for commercial use. New sewer lines and broader, flatter roadways made the space an attractive location for factories involved in electrotyping and electroplating – casting and coating objects in metal. These operations involved dangerous ammonias, cyanides, and toxic heavy metals that flowed, like the silver, into Providence’s waterways.
Today, the quiet expanse of the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park betrays its current economic and environmental challenges. In 2010, the complex had only 33 tenants. However unremarkable it may appear, though, the industrial park continues to have an important impact on the local environment. Its wide paved roads, flat-roofed buildings, and sparse vegetation create a “heat island” with higher daytime air temperatures than other areas of Providence. The absence of trees also contributes to stormwater runoff. As rainwater hits asphalt surfaces, it mixes with road salt, animal waste, fertilizers, car fluids, and other pollutants. Without pervious surfaces or plants to filter this toxic water, it flows unobstructed until it reaches a storm drain or larger body of water. This pollutes the park’s immediate neighbor, Mashapaug Pond, and the broader watershed, which includes the ponds in Roger Williams Park and Narragansett Bay. The cost of cleaning these toxic chemicals from the watershed greatly exceeds $1.5 million in silver.
Happily, several organizations are actively working to reduce the amount of pollutants flowing through Mashapaug Pond’s watershed by educating citizens and commercial tenants about stormwater runoff, repaving hard surfaces with crushed stone or permeable concrete, planting trees and other native plants, and redirecting water into rain barrels and rain gardens. Several of these initiatives are planned for the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park.
Discussion Questions
Besides financial losses, what different “costs” have there been to doing business in the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park?
What steps could be taken to inform the businesses currently located in the industrial park about their impact on Rhode Island’s waterways?
Where are places that jewelry is manufactured today?
For more (including 4 images & 2 audio files) view the original article

Gorham’s Toxic Legacy

2014-05-01T21:53:24+00:00

Rhode Island has a long history of industrial manufacturing. Slater Mill, on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, is considered the “birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.” By the early 1800s, that fervor for manufacturing had spread, and companies, like the Gorham Manufacturing Company, appeared throughout the state. Known for its world-class products in bronze and silver, Gorham left behind a toxic legacy at the site where its Mashapaug Pond factory operated for nearly 100 years.
Today, the Gorham Manufacturing Company is infamous in the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood for polluting the water, soil, and air of the community. For all of the nineteenth century, and most of the twentieth century, there were few restrictions on companies’ use of potentially harmful materials. At Gorham, workers regularly used cleaners with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), solvents, heavy metals such as lead, and other contaminants. With little thought to the environmental impact, these pollutants leached into the surrounding soil and water.
By the 1960s, industrial manufacturing had largely left Rhode Island and other states, and Americans were left to deal with the waste that factories had produced. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), established in 1970, set guidelines to control industrial dumping and provided ways to force polluters to clean up contaminated sites. Two years later, the Clean Water Act of 1972, set water quality standards and prohibited the dumping industrial waste directly into waterways.
Textron, Inc., bought Gorham’s assets shortly before the passage of the Clean Water Act. In doing so they became responsible for the cleanup of the Gorham site, including Mashapaug Cove and the ground water. With help from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Textron has funded the effort to make the Gorham site safe for human use. It is a long process that is taking many years. Thus far, Textron has completed the ground remediation of the area that is now home to Alvarez High School and the Mashapaug Commons shopping center. Air filtration systems have also been added to both the school, shopping center, and nearby homes on Adelaide Avenue, ensuring the safety of local residents.
Further cleanup work includes covering contaminated soil with clean infill, dredging the Gorham “cove” of Mashapaug Pond to remove toxic sediment, and undertaking groundwater remediation throughout the area. Although it has been a slow process, this parcel will soon be safe for human recreational use. Eventually, the polluted land will hold a new neighborhood park and athletic fields for Alvarez High School.
Today, high levels of heavy metals, VOCs, PAHs, and dioxin are still found in the sediment of Mashapaug Cove. Carp, bass, and perch swim valiantly through the water, collecting chemical contaminants in their tissues. None of the fish in the pond are safe for human consumption. It is impossible to know whether these toxins are due solely to Gorham or if they have continually accumulated through storm-water runoff. Despite the extensive remediation work, Mashapaug Pond and the fish within it will remain contaminated, a legacy of the state’s industrial heritage.
Discussion Questions
Why weren’t people concerned about environmental pollution until the late twentieth century?
What responsibilities should companies like Textron have regarding the cleanup of pollution from previous centuries?
How can we help to avoid further pollution of our natural environment?
What might it be like to attend a school built on top of formerly toxic land?
For more (including 3 images & 1 audio file) view the original article

Work, Welfare, and Resistance: Gorham Manufacturing Company

2014-05-01T21:51:32+00:00

Imagine walking around this site in 1899, when the Gorham Manufacturing Company was the most famous producer of silver utensils, tea services and decorative items in the world. In the central building, you could find offices, a museum of silverwork, and a library. A stylish “casino” had a dining room and underground bowling alley. An enormous workshop called the foundry blazed with heat to melt bronze for statues and plaques. In front of the fourteen buildings stood a statue of the Greek god of fire, Vulcan. And even though industrial waste from the factory was dumped into Mashapaug Pond, the grounds were spotless – trash-free and well-landscaped.
Today, some people who worked at Gorham remember the factory’s artistry and great work atmosphere, while others think of trouble with management and the effect of the company’s waste on the health of Mashapaug Pond.
Managers at Gorham wanted to turn a profit, but also believed in providing their workers with benefits and a good salary – a system called welfare capitalism. Starting in the early twentieth century, workers received benefits like medical insurance, vacation time, bonuses, paid holidays and education. Supervisors hoped these benefits would create “loyalty and cooperation” and raise morale. Silver designer Jeffrey Herman remembered that he “felt like we were a family there.” From the 1930s on, workers also joined unions to negotiate with management in case of problems, though the first strike at Gorham didn’t occur until 1958.
Jobs manufacturing silver flatware were steady and well-paid, but could be difficult and dangerous. Robin Tagliaferri, whose grandfather worked in the foundry, remembers stories of him coming home feverish and shivering from working near the fires. Smoke, debris, and dangerous chemicals were produced in the factory. Early machinery was also used without safety guards, risking workers’ fingers. Safety conditions only improved after national health and safety rules were established in first half of the twentieth century.
In 1967, another company, Textron, acquired Gorham. That same year, workers went on strike because of changes to the factory’s system of incentives, or pay based on how many pieces a worker made. Organizers of the steelworker’s union coordinated more strikes over the years to protest violated contracts, promotions of newer employees over more experienced coworkers, and impossibly high workloads. One strike lasted for over seven months, showing the employees’ unity and determination, but taking a toll on their livelihoods. Meanwhile, rising costs and the declining popularity of silver flatware weakened the Gorham company. In the 1980s, the company shrunk from thousands of employees to hundreds, moving its manufacturing to Smithfield, Rhode Island, and then to New Jersey.
If you visited this site in 1997, just before the former factory buildings were torn down, you would see the large structures without windows, crowded by vines. No businesses wanted to buy the property, and the brick and wood were thought to be too damaged to save. Today, the only physical remains of Gorham are the toxins in the pond and soil.
Discussion Questions
Would you apply for a job at Gorham, if it still existed today? Why or why not?
Why might Gorham workers have gone on strike in the 1960s and 70s? What kind of effect do you think that a strike had on the workers and their families?
Why do you think the first strike at Gorham only happened in 1958, over a century after the factory was founded?
If things were unsafe where you worked, what would you do?
For more (including 3 images & 3 audio files) view the original article

From Silver Spoons to Shell Casings: Gorham Manufacturing Company

2014-05-01T21:49:16+00:00

In 1873, an economic depression gripped the country and threatened the future of the Gorham Manufacturing Company. The company’s skilled metalworkers and innovative designers had a reputation for creating quality goods, but none of these things mattered if people couldn’t afford to purchase the company’s products.
Suddenly, Gorham received a commission to create a silver service like no other in the world. Costing more than $1 million dollars to produce, this 24-person set of dishes, utensils, and decorative items consisted of 740 pieces, that, when completed, filled seventeen trunks. In all, it took nearly seven years to create this impressive collection for insurance magnate Henry Jewett Furber. The Furber commission defined the Gorham Manufacturing Company’s reputation as the country’s premier silver manufacturer for the next century.
The Gorham Manufacturing Company began in 1831, as a small partnership between two Providence silversmiths, Jabez Gorham and Henry Webster. By the 1860s, Gorham was the world’s leading producer of silverware. Even Mary Todd Lincoln purchased a Gorham silver tea service for use in the Lincoln White House.
Though the company initially focused on silver goods, Gorham also dramatically expanded its bronze casting facilities when it accepted a commission to cast “The Skirmisher,” a massive sculpture commemorating the battle of Gettysburg. By the 1890s, Gorham had the world’s largest bronze foundry. Gorham’s bronzes include such well-known pieces as the 12-foot-tall “Independent Man” atop the Rhode Island statehouse, the statue of George Washington in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, and the 1893 statue of Christopher Columbus erected at this location.
In 1900, the company showcased its work at the Paris Exposition Universelle. Receiving a grand prix and five gold medals, Gorham’s amazing display was a highlight of the exposition. As the century continued, however, Gorham’s fortunes ebbed. Interest in silver flatware waned in favor of modern products. The Great Depression decreased the company’s sales even more dramatically.
During World War II, Gorham virtually abandoned its civilian industries to focus on producing goods for the war effort. These included small arms parts, tank bearings, torpedo components, and millions of 40mm shell casings. After the war, Gorham struggled to retain its preeminence, and decreased demand and increased production costs plagued the company. In 1986, the company’s Providence facilities closed after nearly a century of operation.
Today, Gorham’s legacy lives on through the hundreds of bronzes that dot the American landscape and the company’s unique and highly collectable silver products.
Discussion Questions
Why might the sale of a silver tea set to Mary Todd Lincoln have helped Gorham silver become popular?
How could Henry J. Furber afford to buy such an extravagant set of silver during a time when many Americans were struggling financially?
Why did Gorham Manufacturing Company have increased trouble selling their products in the twentieth century?
Why isn’t silver flatware as popular today? What do most people use instead?
Why might the residents of Providence have erected a statue to Christopher Columbus where they did? Would you put up a Columbus statue today? Where?
For more (including 5 images, 2 audio files, & 1 video) view the original article

Building a School, Building a Community

2014-05-01T21:44:02+00:00

A school did not always stand on this ground. For nearly a century, the Gorham Manufacturing Company operated an extensive factory on the banks of Mashapaug Pond. Gorham left a complex legacy. While it brought thousands of well-paying jobs to the community, it also polluted the groundwater and soil. In the early 2000s, lawmakers suggested the now-vacant lot be used as a site for a new high school. Outraged residents protested that the site was toxic. With the addition of both a land remediation plan and an air filtration system to the construction blueprints, public opposition slowly subsided. Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School opened in 2006.
A school is more than a physical building, it is a community of those who learn and work together. Alvarez High School’s emphasis on community began with the school’s dedication in honor of Dr. Jorge Alvarez, a respected Providence teacher who pioneered innovative English as a Second Language programs. In this spirit, nearly ninety percent of Alvarez students are bilingual, and many are first-generation immigrants. Alvarez High School embraces its role as a local institution, but like many urban school districts, Providence is struggling to provide high quality education for all. Since the early 2010s, Alvarez High School has undertaken several initiatives, including a push toward project-based learning, to creatively address the educational needs of its diverse student body.A school strives for improvement. For Alvarez High School, this is on both an individual and environmental level. Since its opening, Alvarez High School has spearheaded various environmental rehabilitation efforts. In collaboration with the Urban Pond Procession and Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, students’ scientific research and artistic pieces have been used to educate the community about the history of Mashapaug Pond’s contamination, and to share ways to rebuild the ecosystem. The newest initiative involves the development of outdoor sports fields.A school is a family. In 2013, low test scores, combined with a large increase in the number of younger students in the school system, prompted debate over converting Alvarez High School into a middle school. Community members and students rallied behind the school, and the outpouring of loyalty convinced the district to maintain the site as a high school. As one protesting student’s sign read, “Once an Eagle, always an Eagle.” In less than a decade, the school’s beginnings as a contaminated and protested construction site have been overshadowed by overwhelming community support.
Discussion QuestionsWhat roles do schools play in the community? What should be their role?
How is it good to have Alvarez at this site? How is it bad?
If you were a lawmaker, would you decide to build a school here? Why or why not? How would you make the decision?
For more (including 4 images, 1 audio file, & 1 video) view the original article

Art, Performance, and Environmental Education Along Mashapaug’s Shore

2014-05-01T21:42:06+00:00

The Urban Pond Procession’s (UPP) headquarters at Mashapaug Pond are nestled far away from the busy traffic of Reservoir Avenue and the clatter and commotion of shoppers at the nearby Ocean State Job Lot. To reach the Community Boating Center where many of the UPP events are held, one even has to ignore a few “no trespassing” signs. Despite this unobtrusive physical presence on the shores of the pond, UPP has been anything but quiet in its activism on behalf of Mashapaug Pond.
One of the first tangible products of UPP’s work were a series of signs warning visitors of the pond’s pollution that appeared around the pond in 2009. Colorful and intricate, the signs depicted fish and plants, together with warnings in multiple languages. Prior to that, the Rhode Island Health Department had been in charge of signage around the pond, which took the form of stark rectangle signs marked with ominous red circles reading “No Swimming!” The new signs, the product of a collaboration between local artist Holly Ewald and students from Alvarez High School and Charles Fortes Elementary School, raised neighborhood awareness and fostered UPP’s official beginning.
That summer, in the first Mashapaug Pond Procession, festival participants proudly carried silkscreened posters of the new signs. Students dressed in paper fish costumes marched with towering Big Nazo foam puppets, and attendees danced with members of the local What Cheer? Brigade brass band. At the end of the procession, participants gathered at the Community Boating Center for a concert by Community MusicWorks and hear presentations about the pond by a variety of speakers, including the students themselves.
Now UPP holds a festival every spring at the Pond. Students, artists, environmental activists, government administrators, and city residents celebrate the city’s ponds and waterways.
UPP is not the first organization to celebrate Mashapaug Pond. In the 1980s, members of the Reservoir Triangle Association (RTA) organized efforts to clean up the pond and preserve recreational space on its shoreline. The yearly Mashapaug Pond Festival at the J.T. Owens ballpark, featured Little League tournaments, international food vendors, fishing contests, children’s programs and, for the more intrepid, water-skiing.
Although the procession is UPP’s crowning achievement each year, UPP also organizes year-round workshops, collaborates with environmental groups on pond cleanups, and produces educational material for teachers. Ewald and other artists have also worked with students to create artistic installations for the pond. This includes the water-bottle sculpture, created by middle-school students at Providence’s Sophia Academy, erected in front of the Community Boating Center. The Mashapaug Monster, designed by artist Juliette Casselman and fabricated by The Steel Yard, floats annually on the pond at the time of the Procession to symbolically ward off the pollutants in the pond.
UPP’s presence at the boating center may be hidden from the average passerby on Reservoir Avenue, but workshops, signs, and artwork inspired by the pond demonstrate the Urban Pond Procession’s years of artistic and community collaboration.
Discussion Questions
The Urban Pond Procession uses artistic collaboration and performance to communicate the story of Mashapaug pond and its surrounding neighborhood. How do the posters, sculptures and art installations communicate information about Mashapaug differently than written stories or signs?
Is there something in your neighborhood that you would like to change? How might you use art, music, performance to raise awareness about it?
How do the different signs (Health Department versus UPP) make you think about the pond? Do they have similar or different effects?
For more (including 4 images, 2 audio files, & 1 video) view the original article

“Mashapaug Pond is Sick”: Polluting the Ecosystem

2014-05-01T21:35:23+00:00

Mashapaug Pond is at the center of a complex freshwater ecosystem. Underneath the pond’s calm green surface is a strange world of toxic carp, three-eyed frogs, and rusting refuse. Many people think of cities and the wilderness as completely separate spaces, but Mashapaug Pond is the perfect example of urban wilderness. At the pond, the natural ecosystem, or community of living things, overlaps with the human-built city.
Mashapaug Pond has suffered from a long history of pollution. During Providence’s industrial heyday in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, people were largely unaware of the consequences of releasing industrial chemicals and other pollutants into the soil and water. At Mashapaug Pond, the Gorham Manufacturing Company – a major employer – was also responsible for a significant amount of pollution. Neighborhood resident Ed Hooks recalled: “You didn’t have too many ecologists back then. You didn’t have too many people that were concerned about that type of thing. So, when it comes to Gorham, people just saw Gorham as probably a place for employment more than anything else. If they’re dumping stuff in there, so what. They’ll give me a paycheck today.” Millions of dollars have now been spent to remediate Gorham’s pollution.
The major source of pond pollution today comes from stormwater runoff. In urban areas, paved roads, parking lots, and driveways creates impermeable surfaces that water cannot pass through. When it rains, the water isn’t filtered through plants and soil but flows directly into Mashapaug Pond, carrying with it car oil, animal feces, garbage, road salts, and other contaminants.
Mashapaug Pond’s unusually green water is also a clear sign of the pond’s sickness. Storm water runoff causes algal blooms in urban, fresh water ponds by picking up pet waste and fertilizers from lawns and landscaping and carrying them into storm drains that empty in urban ponds, promoting excessive growth of cyanobacteria. This bloom gives the pond its green tint. Cyanobacteria can create toxic conditions for humans, animals, and plants. Signs posted by the Rhode Island Department of Health warn humans of these toxins, but it is impossible to protect plants and animals from the poisonous environment.
Residents have worried about the impact of human activity on Mashapaug Pond for a long time. Local lore alludes to three-eyed frogs, two-headed fish, and other sea monsters that swim in the toxic, green water. In 1905, city park commissioners warned the Rhode Island General Assembly: “it is essential to the health of the neighborhood that they be not polluted by dumping or the crowding of buildings on [Mashapaug’s] shores.” One hundred years later, it is quite clear that the report was ignored. The pond is ringed by large shopping plazas, the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park, and multiple highways. All of these things disrupt the ability of storm water to soak into the ground and continue to contaminate Mashapaug Pond at a detriment to the plants, animals, and humans that share its ecosystem.
Today, groups like the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island and the Urban Pond Procession, as well as many teachers, students, and residents, are taking action to make sure that conditions at the Pond do not get worse. Hopefully one day the signs warning that “Mashapaug Pond is Sick” will be unnecessary.
Discussion Questions
How might you be contributing to the pollution of the urban watershed?
What are some steps that might reduce the amount of impermeable surfaces in cities?
How have people’s views on pollution changed in the last century?
For more (including 4 images, 1 audio file, & 1 video) view the original article