Providence City Hall’s Decline — Exterior Is Falling Apart

Providence City Hall’s Decline — Exterior Is Falling Apart

 

If you walk by the front of Providence City Hall, there are often folks in need of assistance sitting on the steps. The building anchors Kennedy Plaza and, as a result, is often a hub for the homeless to gather.

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Once Grand

The steps of City Hall have been the site for some of the biggest events in Rhode Island’s history, including as many as 40,000 people coming to hear speeches by Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

 

 

 

Now, the building’s condition is in steep decline.

 

Pieces of City Hall are literally falling off. GoLocal went to the top of an adjoining building to photograph the roof of the historic Second Empire edifice, and found that large pieces of the copper roof missing and the underlying steel support badly rusted.

 

City officials said they are working on a plan to correct the decay.

 

 

 

In other areas, greens can be seen growing near the sculpted profile of Roger Williams.

 

The photos were shared with a couple of architectural experts.

"City Hall is without a doubt one of Providence's most significant architectural masterpieces and it is heartbreaking to see these photographs.  The building has a pedigree -- it was designed in the 1870s by the noted Boston architect Samuel J.F. Thayer, who was chosen through a design competition that attracted submissions from some of the best known architects of the day -- but it is also a living connection to an incredibly rich period in the city's history, when immigrants nearly tripled the city's population and powered Providence's industrial boom,” said Marisa Angell Brown, the Executive Director of the Providence Preservation Society.

 

“Two of Providence Preservation Society's early leaders, Antoinette Downing and Frank Mauran, III, led the last restoration of City Hall in the late 1970s -- we would love to continue this tradition and help get this civic landmark to its 150th birthday a few years from now!" Brown added.

 

 

 

Will Morgan, GoLocal’s architecture critic and the author, said, “It has been almost half a century since City Hall was restored by Mayor Cianci, but the copper trim, ornaments, and roofing slates on the Mansard dome have badly deteriorated. As one of America’s outstanding civic monuments in the Second Empire style, City Hall needs to be restored to its former glory.”

 

 

Problems Known for Years

In December 2019, GoLocal unveiled the damage caused by the leaks in the roof of City Hall, destroying historic documents.

"This is one of the saddest days for the history of Providence right now. I am sick over it,” said City Archivist Caleb Horton at the time.

“Water is the worst thing that can happen to records,” he told GoLocal LIVE.

Horton said, “We move records [when] we have a leakage going through the wall."

“Unfortunately. we are closed currently right now -- we're trying to safeguard the records. So far we have everything out of the water zone where there is a small drip edge going down through the lights,” said Horton.

Horton says he had been trying to get city officials to fix critical issues.

“The facility is in dire need of repair. I've spent the last six years trying to lobby that [it be repaired]. Unfortunately, a lot of it has to do with the outside walls -- and right now, the roof -- the fish scaling roof. As you know, it's a Gilded Age building so the materials are very elaborate and take a lot of repairs so apparently the fish-scale roofing must have went today,” said Horton in 2019.

 

Smiley Response

According to Mayor Brett Smiley’s spokesperson, “The City is actively working with DBVW Architects to conduct a comprehensive structural evaluation of the building's condition, with ongoing analysis.”

“Right now the City is working on several projects to restore the condition of City Hall, starting with a major $10 million project to restore the exterior envelope of the building. This project began with a comprehensive 3D laser scan of the building conducted by DBVW Architects and aims to restore the building's historic appearance. The City’s facilities team have also made numerous repairs and renovations to the interior of City Hall,” said Josh Estrella, spokesperson for Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. 

“The project is funded through a Providence Building Authority bond as part of the City's Capital Improvement Plan. The timeline for the building assessment is about four months. The full project is expected to be completed in 2026,” said Estrella.