Feeling So Old (Providence: houses, university, gated)

[AlfieBoy]

I was really feeling "the old" tonight as I walked through my favorite place here, Prospect Terrace Park. I was thinking, gee, 1636, that's old, 380 years old, that's how old this city is. We are so rich in history that I sometimes wonder, if I were to toss a stick anywhere in this city, but particularly here on College Hill and nearby downtown, would it land on something historic, perhaps from the Revolutionary War? Or maybe it would fall with a thud where Roger Williams once trudged through the snow as he built his colony, or fairly and peacefully negotiated with the true natives? Or where he might have embraced his wife, Mary (Barnard) Williams, as they reflected on what true Providence hell he had wrought on those he had defied?

There are many things I love about this city, so many things yet the list grows longer each day, but it is our age and our outrageous history -- our defiance, our fighting, and always above our weight -- that I most love. I mean, the list of thumbs our forefathers placed into so many eyes are as endless as the back-stories themselves. Religious tolerance. The rejection of capital punishment. First to declare independence from the Crown and last to approve our Constitution. Always a scrapper, always charting its own path.

Of the many things I've learned, if superficially, about our history, the burning of the HMS Gaspee is my favorite, the one that stirs my historical and patriotic heart most. On June 9, 1772, Rhode Island patriots didn't daintily toss a few packets of tea into Boston Harbor, no. No, they boarded a ship of the British government. They boarded it, looted it and torched it to its waterline. Meanwhile some eighteen months later, on December 16, 1773, Bostonians, with their delicate, gloved pinkies raised high, tossed a few packets of tea into the harbor. A mere Johnnne-come-lately! Can it really be argued that the Revolution wasn't precipitated here?

And when the Brits investigated, a wall of Providence Silence fell over the city:

Originally Posted by Wiki

When British officials arrived in Rhode Island to investigate the incident and send the perpetrators to Britain for trial, they found no one willing to identify those involved and the inquiry closed without result.

So much has transpired here in 380 years.

What's your favorite historical moment, either recent or in distant past, of this great, authentically defiant (indeed, revolutionary) city and state?

[mr2448]

It is not a moment, but a span of many years. I love architecture and Providence's uniqueness has always drawn me to it. Yes, much is lost and endangered. But so much has been saved. Two of my favorite streets are on the South Side off of Elmwood Ave, Arch Street and Constitution Street. The homes, the ones that have survived, are beautiful. But have not been restored to the glory of an Ontario Street or Princeton Ave. The fact is this is what Benefit Street looked like in the late 50's before the proposed demolition was to take place of everything along Benefit Street north of where the state preservation headquarters are located. It was to be part of the Lippett Hill, as it was formerly known, urban renewal which brought us University Heights. But Benefit Street was saved by people who could see beyond their present and because of that span of time of renovation, Providence was defined as a saver not a destroyer of the past. It also caused down city Providence not to be destroyed in one full sweep as other cities did to their downtown's.

[AlfieBoy]

Originally Posted by mr2448

It is not a moment, but a span of many years. I love architecture and Providence's uniqueness has always drawn me to it. Yes, much is lost and endangered. But so much has been saved.

...

But Benefit Street was [b]saved by people who could see beyond their present and because of that span of time of renovation, Providence was defined as a saver not a destroyer of the past.

We are very fortunate. I can't believe it was, as I first thought a couple of years ago, that we are so poor a city that there's no incentive to tear down and rebuild some monstrosity for a few extra square feet, a few extra bucks, like they do with regularity in Manhattan. I like being reasonably certain that what is here today will be here for future generations. My stomach used to get tied in knots seeing a great building demolished simply because newly-acquired air rights meant a few additional floors of dreary, bleak warehouses for office workers in midtown. This give us continuity over time, and I need that -- I think most of us do.

Sadly, some evil, wicked persons at a certain mediocre university think otherwise and we recently lost one side of an entire city block, all for a few shekels, all for a commercial parking lot. I hope they rot in hell.

Originally Posted by mr2448

It also caused down city Providence not to be destroyed in one full sweep as other cities did to their downtown's.

"Oh once, twice, three times blessed!" There is much to love and admire here, today and tomorrow.

Excellent post, mr2448.

[Hollytree]

I also feel the old when visiting the Providence Athenaeum. To see the library so unchanged and to image Poe and Whitman courting there is pretty magical. They say that who ever drinks from the fountain in front will always come back to Providence.

https://providenceathenaeum.org/what-was-poe-reading/