Architecture Here and There

Above, archivist Paul Campbell shows where he found long-lost Providence charter.

Monday, on or about the 375th anniversary of the founding of Providence (the exact date is unknown), I paid a visit to City Hall to take a tour from Paul Campbell, the city archivist, of his lofty, if musty and dusty, domain.

As an aside, however, I'd like to visit City Hall to inquire whether Mayor Taveras, who hails from South Providence, plans to step forward on behalf of one of his old 'hood's proudest ornaments. Temple Shaare Zedek, built in 1911 on Broad Street by Temple Beth-El (which left for the East Side in 1955), is being looted, and may soon be threatened with demolition.

To get the historical goods on the old temple, the Providence archives would be a good place to start. As befits an old archive, it is filled with old records. Yet there are also items that cause the eye to pop out upon entering its offices, reached by stairs from the fifth floor.

One such item is a huge, wide-format photo of Exchange Place (now Kennedy Plaza) during a celebration of the return of our doughboys after World War I. The Union Trust Bank, visible in the background, was far more slender then, because its elevator addition had not been added (in a style consistent with, if not quite as sumptuous as, the original).

Campbell is a historian and the author, with fellow historian and local gadfly Patrick Conley, of two plushly illustrated histories of Providence and Rhode Island. He is willing to get his hands dirty, appropriate for the director of an archive of tatterdemalion aspect. Whether its state of disorderly disintegration might be said to aptly represent the fiscal status of the city, its director has, in his year's tenure so far, sought to smarten things up little by little.

As I used to say about the quest to transform Providence into a more beautiful place, it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it! If a neat desk is the sign of an orderly mind, then how fortunate that Paul Campbell, rather than your intrepid correspondent, is in charge of ordering the archives (whose conditions were criticized by a city report issued last July).

Campbell's most excellent adventure as archivist so far is his discovery of the city's original charter of 1648, long thought lost. He could not show it to me because it is being "relaxed" by conservators. Relaxed? Yes. Campbell believes that it was inscribed on deerskin, more readily at hand in the fledgling colony than sheepskin, its rival vellum (animal-skin parchment). Time has warped the charter into a bow shape. It is now being flattened - relaxed! - but is otherwise in admirable condition.

The archives are widely used to trace a family's local history. My family history in Providence began with my move here in 1984, but I already know that. What I do not know is when the house we bought here a year ago was built. It was supposedly built in 1920, but possibly as late as 1922. That is way too vague. Campbell heaved out several volumes of plat maps that brought me closer to an answer.

My house was not drawn onto the plat map of 1918, or the one for 1926. Hmm. By 1937 it was sketched in and recorded as owned by one Louis Forbes, identified as a dentist by the Providence House Directory. It was among the last houses to be built on our side of Overhill Road - which, according to the 1895 plat map, was originally named Granite Street. It ended at Lorimer Street then, and it still does, but what is now our dear Lippitt Park (where Hope Street and Blackstone Boulevard meet near the Pawtucket line, and where my wife used to play as a tot) was part of Swan Point Cemetery!

I wonder whether the two-story A-frame entry gable that first caught our house-hunting eye was part of the original design - described as Dutch colonial but really a catalogue mock-Tudor Revival with Cotswald flourishes.

Campbell told me that I might find yet more precision in the collection of building permits. I plan to delve into those, and maybe check out the history of the temple at risk on Broad Street at the same time. (Thus do tomorrow's column topics germinate in today's inbox!)

One of the assets of the archives is its access to the mansard dome of City Hall, which we inspected. For 11 years, until we moved last July, I kept an eye on the dome from my old loft to its rear, on the fifth floor of the Smith Building, at Eddy and Fulton Streets.

Ah! The Plunder Dome! Going through its records is still as dirty a job as archiving them. I don't know whether to envy Paul Campbell his job or not, but the city archives is a fascinating place to be. He obviously loves his job and enjoys being there. I shall return.

David Brussat (dbrussat@projo.com) is a member of The Journal's editorial board. His blog at projo.com is called Architecture Here and There.

 Tags  Archive David Brussat History Mayor Taveras Paul Campbell Providence Archives Providence City Hall Providence RI

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Tammy Schaarschmidt said:

My great-grandfather was a Providence Police Officer, Walter F. Bell and also his two brothers were officers there also. Can you give me any information about them? This would be in the early 1900's I don't know if there would be anything in the late 1800's, probably not. Walter Bell had 3 boys and was married to Margaret Bell, they lived neared the Jr. College, thanks for any help.

Link | August 26, 2011 4:34 PM
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Tammy Schaarschmidt said:

My great-grandfather was a Providence Police Officer, Walter F. Bell and also his two brothers were officers there also. Can you give me any information about them? This would be in the early 1900's I don't know if there would be anything in the late 1800's, probably not. Walter Bell had 3 boys and was married to Margaret Bell, they lived neared the Jr. College, thanks for any help.

Link | August 26, 2011 4:35 PM
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