Providence Preservation Society

Advocacy Campaigns

PPS works diligently to stay on top of development, land use and preservation-related projects and zoning or policy changes in Providence in order to keep our members and the public at large informed about issues affecting the built environment and cultural landscape. You can read more about our approach to advocacy here, and about PPS’s Most Endangered Places initiative here. This page presents a summary of our active campaigns and is updated frequently.

Active Campaigns

Providence’s Public Schools

Since 2022, Providence Public Schools Department (PPSD) has demolished three schools with plans to demolish four more between 2025 and 2027.  Recently demolished schools include Frank D. Spaziano Elementary School in Hartford (2022), with demolition/new build constructions currently underway at Mary Fogarty PreK-8 in Lower South Providence and Harry Kizirian PreK-8 in Smith Hill. Gilbert Stuart Middle School in the West End is slated for demolition in August 2025. The demolition of both Robert F. Kennedy School in Elmhurst and Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Mount Hope are planned to begin in 2025.  The demolition of Asa Messer Elementary School in Federal Hill is planned for 2027.

Providence Preservation Society is not opposed to the demolition of historic school buildings if PPSD has:

  • Conducted a thorough comparative analysis of adaptive reuse and demolition/new construction options, reporting on the financial and environmental costs associated with each approach, including lifecycle embodied carbon cost accounting that addresses the carbon costs associated with demolition and new construction, and accounting of the tonnage of waste materials sent to the landfill upon demolition;
  • Presented these studies to the public so they can be verified;
  • Engaged community stakeholders in the decision-making process and reported on how this input contributed to the department’s final decision.

We understand that historic buildings may not be ideally suited to today’s curricula or student needs, and that sometimes, historic buildings, including schools, should be demolished in order to better serve the people who live, learn and work inside of them. We also believe that adaptive reuse should always be explored first and considered from the outset as the best option given the environmental costs associated with demolition and new construction and the civic and community value associated with maintaining the city’s historic fabric.

In some cases over the years, PPSD has backed off of demolition/new construction plans and adopted an adaptive reuse or targeted demolition and rehabilitation approach when community members and advocacy organizations have organized to demand consideration of alternatives. We believe that the same consideration should be given to all schools, at the beginning of the process of evaluation. To follow this campaign, subscribe to PPS’s weekly newsletter, the Providence Post, for stories and advocacy updates related to Providence’s public schools.