Antoinette Downing Leadership Circle
The Antoinette Downing Leadership Circle (ADLC) recognizes Providence Preservation Society donors who demonstrate a high level of commitment to PPS’ mission through their generous personal support by making an unrestricted annual contribution of $1,200 or more.
ADLC members care deeply about Providence’s rich heritage and unique historic buildings and landscapes, and believe that PPS is one of the city’s most significant civic organizations – and that the city would not be the same without our work.
Join the Antoinette Downing Leadership Circle today!
ADLC Members receive the following benefits:
- Invitations to members-only events and receptions throughout the year
- Discounted pricing for all programs and signature events like the Festival of Historic Houses
- Access to PPS’s Contractor Referral Service
- Four complimentary tickets to the Festival of Historic Houses
- Four invitations to PPS’s annual Benefactors’ Garden Party
- Two annual coffee briefings with the Executive Director
Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by federal law. You may also waive all benefits, making the full amount of your contribution tax-deductible. For additional information on individual giving, please call Allison Hernandez at 401-831-7440.
ADLC Members in 2023
Ms. Candy Adriance, Mr. and Mrs. Lucien D. Agniel, Jr., Mr. Ian L. Barnacle, Dr. David T. Barrall and Ms. Alison L. Holm, Esq., Mr. and Mrs. Oliver H. L. Bennett, Ms. Laurel Bowerman, Captain and Mrs. Nicholas Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Vincent J. Buonanno, Mrs. Richard I. Burnham, Malcolm G. Chace, Jr., Elizabeth Z. Chace Fund, Ms. Judith Chace, Mr. Arnold B. Chace, Jr., Dr. Joseph A. Chazan, Melanie and Stephen Coon, Mr. Warren C. Curtis and Mr. Mark Steinbach, Mr. James V. DeRentis and Mr. Brett Smiley, Timothy M. Empkie, M.D., Ms. Heather Helen Evans and Mr. Peter Tirrell, Mr. Barry W. Fain and Dr. Elaine Fain, Dr. and Mrs. Edwin G. Fischer, Florence Family Fund, Mrs. Mimi Freeman, Mr. Colin Geoffroy, Ms. Roberta Groch, Mr. Michael S. Hudner, Warren and Janet Jagger, Ms. Jennifer E. Kiddie, Ms. Sally E. Lapides and Mr. Arthur Solomon, Ms. Sarah Latham, Mrs. Brooke Lee, Mr. Ned Levine and Ms. Isabella R. Porter, Cathy Lund and Peter Karczmar, Ms. Wendy MacGaw, Mr. Christopher J. Marsella, Mr. Frederick Mattis, Frank and Liz Mauran, Ms. Olivia B. McCullough and Mr. Jonathan Sharlin, Mr. and Mrs. Terrence P. Moran, Sr., Mr. Erik Anders Nelson and Mrs. Sanaa Nelson, Dr. Catherine Worsley Parham and Ms. Laurie Hanna, Rebecca and 
Barry Preston, Miguel and Dina Quezada, Mr. Edmund A. Restivo, Jr., Russell and Carla Ricci, Dawn and James Robertson, Peggy and Henry Sharpe Fund, Deming and Jane Sherman, Mrs. Jillian Siqueland, Barbara Sokoloff and Herbert Rakatansky, Dr. and Mrs. E. Paul Sorensen, Soutter Family Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sweeney, Ms. Maureen Taylor and Mr. Dexter L. Strong, Virginia and Tony Thomas, Ms. Melissa Trapp and Mr. Frank DeAngelis, Mr. Mark Van Noppen and Mrs. Julie Ikai Van Noppen, Ms. Victoria Veh, Ms. Martha L. Werenfels and Mr. Franklin B. Satterthwaite, Jr., Joseph J. Handly and Wm McKenzie Woodward, Mrs. Ann Slimmon Woolsey and Mr. John Woolsey, Rick and Mary Worrell, Mr. Todd Zimmerman and Ms. Laurie Volk.
(as of 5/31/2023)
About Antoinette Downing
Antoinette Forrester Downing was born in Illinois in 1904, and moved to Providence with her husband George Downing in the 1930s. Considered an expert on Rhode Island architecture because of her work on the 1937 book “Early Homes of Rhode Island,” Downing was vocal in her concern about the threat to Providence architecture posed by the expansion of Brown and RISD in the 1950s. John Nicholas Brown shared her concerns, and together with Elizabeth Allen and Beatrice Chace, they co-founded PPS in 1956. Downing was instrumental in the production of the College Hill Study in concert with the City Plan Commission and PPS. She also served as the founding chairwoman of the RI Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission and chairwoman of the Providence Historic District Commission, and helped to establish Stop Wasting Abandoned Property. The National Trust for Historic Preservation honored her work by establishing the Antoinette F. Downing Fund in 1983, as well as awarding her the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award in 1987. Antoinette Downing passed away in 2001 at age 96.