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Last November, the Old Temple Beth El building in Upper South Providence was donated to the Center for Southeast Asians (CSEA). Old Temple Beth El, located at 688 Broad Street, has been on PPS’s Most Endangered Places List 10 times since 2010. Carolyn Rafaelian, the founder and former CEO of the Alex and Ani jewelry…
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The inside of the Simple Pleasures building, located in Richmond Square on the East Side, resembles the kind of quirky, eclectic shop you might see in a Hallmark movie — especially during the holiday season. A variety of hutches and display tables, all different styles and colors, are jigsawed together and decked out with the…
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Michele D’Agnillo’s first job in the United States as a teenage janitor in a Colorado copper-smelt factory was a far cry from the empire he would build about a decade later: artificial flower manufacturing. As the story goes, the Italian immigrant started out in Providence with a dollar in his pocket, which he used to…
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Pretty soon, it will be much easier to replace your windows if you live in a Local Historic District in Providence. After much discussion, the PHDC will likely approve revised standards on a variety of items in their jurisdiction, including standards for replacement windows. “Replacement windows that have been documented and approved by the Commission,…
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Providence Directories are ubiquitous in our local archives. They are frequently used for researching genealogy and house histories. Beginning in 1824 and running until the 1990s when the internet made them (allegedly) obsolete, these books are full of interesting details that can give us a window into lesser-known aspects of Providence history. But there are…
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Between the colonial cottages and 19th-century Federalist revival homes on Edgewood Avenue near Roger Williams Park, one particular house sticks out: streamlined, angular, geometric. The Wax House, built in 1950, is one of over 70 designs by mid-20th century architect Ira Rakatansky — arguably Providence’s preeminent modernist. Though the clean lines of modern architecture were…
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On Thursday, Oct. 24, the Providence Department of Planning and Development and the Providence Redevelopment Agency held the first of three community engagement events to gather input from residents on the future of 246 Prairie Avenue. Roughly 50 years ago, an earlier era of local engagement made the Urban League of Rhode Island’s old headquarters…
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Ahead of the PPS screening of New England Modernism: Revolutionary Architecture in the 20th Century on Oct. 22, learn more about the filmmaker, Jake Gorst. Gorst is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and president of Mainspring Narrative Films. Over the last two decades, he has produced and directed 11 feature-length documentaries, including Frey: The Architectural…
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