Preview

image preview

Date

1-1-1979

Description

Though not visible, the U.S. Customhouse (leftmost building) is capped by an iron-cast dome that was conceived to dignify the third floor courtroom and upgrade the exterior view to be superior to customhouses at lesser ports. Pictured at the center, the Equitable Building incorporates the Victorian custom of splitting the street-level tenants in half - a shop half a floor down and the principle business half 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. In 1975 the interior was destroyed by a fire. The ensuing restoration helped restore community concern to downtown preservation.

Notes

Bibliography: Jordy, William H, Ronald J. Onorato, and William M. K. Woodward. Buildings of Rhode Island. Oxford: New York, 2004. 48-49.

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

1798-1874

Creator 2 Role

Supervising Architect (Federal Building)

Creator 3 Dates

1872

Creator 3 Role

Architectural Firm (Equitable Building)

Creator 4 Dates

1875

Creator 4 Role

Architect (Wilcox Building)

Recommended Citation

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

Download Medium Thumbnail

Keywords

architecture, Victorian, downtown, street scene, architecture, architecture, renaissance revival, cast-iron facade, federal building, customhouse, commercial streets, downtown restoration

Share

COinS