Preview
Date
11-1-1978
Description
Pictured on the left, the Equitable Building features a locally cast iron "Venetian" facade that is the best preserved of the few cast-iron facades in the city. The facade was cast by the Builders Iron Foundry. The design of the building incorporates the Victorian custom of splitting the street-level tenants in half - a shop on the ground-level and the principle business a floor up. At the right, is the Wilcox building. It's L-shaped floor plan wraps around the neighboring Equitable building, giving it facades on both Weybosset and Custom House Streets. It is one of the city's first commercial office buildings that was built in the the polychromatic High Victorian Gothic Style. In 1975 the interior of the building was destroyed by fire. The ensuing restoration helped restore community concern to downtown preservation.
Rights
This object from the Chester E. Smolski photographic slides and publications, housed by the Rhode Island College Special Collections, and any of its digital surrogates are the intellectual property of Rhode Island College. This digital object is protected by copyright and/or related rights. The digital material presented here is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This content can be used, shared, or adapted for educational and scholarly purposes. For permissions to use this item please contact digitalcommons@ric.edu. All uses must include appropriate attribution.
Creator 2 Dates
1875
Creator 2 Role
Architect, Wilcox Building
Creator 3 Dates
1872
Creator 3 Role
Architect, Equitable Building
Recommended Citation
Chester E. Smolski photographic slides and publications, MSS-0041, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
Recommended Citation
Chester E. Smolski photographic slides and publications, MSS-0041, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
Keywords
architecture, Victorian, downtown, street scene, architecture, architecture, renaissance revival, cast-iron facade, federal building, customhouse, commercial streets, downtown restoration
Notes
Bibliography: Jordy, William H, Ronald J. Onorato, and William M. K. Woodward. Buildings of Rhode Island. Oxford: New York, 2004, pp. 48-49.