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Date

1-1-1979

Description

Union Railroad Depot, by Thomas A. Tefft, was opened in 1847. It was considered "a brilliant example of Romanesque architecture" in its time, and the longest building in America. As the city continued to grow, so too did the need for terminal space, ultimately resulting in the paving over of the remnants of the city's inland bay in 1890. The question of what to do with the now undersized station was spontaneously answered in February of 1896 when the station suffered a catastrophic fire. Remaining buildings from Teffts Union Railroad Depot can be seen in the upper right-hand corner on the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, these were demolished in 1979. Railroad tracks formed what was locally called a “Chinese wall” that separated the different districts of downtown Providence.

Notes

Bibliography: Woodward, W.M. McKenzie. PPS/AlAri Guide to Providence Architecture. Providence Preservation Society, 2003. pp. 104.

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 1 Role

Photographer

Creator 2 Role

Architects

Recommended Citation

Chester E. Smolski photographic slides and publications, MSS-0041, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.

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Keywords

Union Station, downtown, Chinese Wall, railroads, automobile parking, Waterplace Park, Capital Center

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