2019 PPS Annual Report

2019 annual report places matter education programs The year of this report, 2019, seems like a lifetime ago, a world away. To be issuing a report that examines that year feels We launch each year’s full calendar of programming with our Annual Meeting. Our membership and the public are disjointed and out of step, but looking back helps assess how we did and how we can do better. Rest assured, most of our invited to this event where we elect new officers and trustees, hear the executive director’s review of the previous time these days is spent thinking about the future of PPS, of Providence, of Rhode Island, and beyond. At the same time, we year’s activities, announce the new Most Engangered Properties (MEP) list, and feature a prominent speaker. are quite tethered to the current moment, with pressing concerns for our families and friends, those who are sick, and those In January 2019, we welcomed Tom Mayes, VP and Senior Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, whose economic circumstances have taken a downturn. We feel for community members whose restaurants, shops, and who spoke about his book, Why Old Places Matter. businesses may not recover from this calamity, even more for those who have lost loved ones. We don’t save buildings simply to study them, or advocate for good design and planning for the sake of A two-year program titled SITES and STORIES EXPLORED Through Art, Scholarship, and Community Engagement some metrics. Places matter. They matter for the histories held in those places, histories that can be took the place of our 2019 spring programs. In a culmination of walking tours, research and creation throughout 2018 admirable or deplorable. They matter for the way they make us feel. Places matter for the environmental and 2019, PPS unveiled five original artistic works that explore hidden and layered narratives of four sites on our 2018 benefits that they create. Places matter for the way they engender community. At no time in the MEP list: Earnescliff/Paragon Mill, Knight Memorial Library, Parcel 1A, and the Broad Street Synagogue. The works recent past has that been more important. And there is no better way to connect people to place provoked conversations about the meaning of place, what happens when a site tells more than one story, and what than through story. kind of reparative work can ensue when a site erases some of its narratives in favor of others. Artists included Rebecca Noon and Jed Hancock-Brainerd, Megan and Murray McMillan, Deborah Spears Moorehead, David Wells, and In 2019, we worked with artists to convey untold or forgotten narratives of several historic places. Walker Mettling. These artists dove into social histories and contemporary stories with the help of scholars and the community. At Knight Memorial Library, Channavy Chhay shared her experience as a young Since 1994, PPS has used the MEP program to engage the public in thinking about the future of significant historic refugee using the library to learn English and understand her new home. Through our program, buildings, landscapes, structures, and neighborhoods. With SITES and STORIES, we hoped to expand this more-recent immigrants – students at the Center for Southeast Asians – learned the history engagement through the work of Rhode Island-based artists, involving the community in the re-building of narratives and architecture of the library, helping to strengthen their understanding of its past while around the human beings who inhabited these important properties. Artists and artist teams helping bring to light the role the library plays in the lives of Rhode Islanders today. worked with scholars, historic preservationists, and community members, interpreting endangered sites, drawing out hidden histories, and provoking essential public conversations. Later that year, hundreds gathered at Earnescliffe Woolen Mill/Paragon Worsted Mill in Collaborating with PPS on the project were artists Mary Beth Meehan and Holly Ewald, and Olneyville to participate in a “one-night-only choral haunting concerning the women Maureen Taylor, a photography and genealogy expert. who worked from 1898-1960 in the textile mill” titled, She Died for Our Convenience. Readers and singers conveyed stories of the place from its original inhabitation by the This project was supported by an anonymous donor, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Narragansett Nation to the workers in the mill until its closing to the artists who the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism and Rhode Island State Council created massive countercultural artworks here. It is important that we remember and on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly, a grant from the record these layers of history, especially as uses change and people are displaced. This National Endowment for the Arts and private funders. is done too infrequently, so we were happy to engage artists to enhance the public Original work by Indigenous artist Deborah remembrance and understanding of some of our Most Endangered Properties. Spears Moorehead interpreting the history of In June of 2019, the 39th Festival of Historic Houses explored late the Providence River, at the site of 2018 Most In 2020, we are striving to connect people as much as possible, not only to place but to each nineteenth and early twentieth century dwellings and historic landscapes of the Endangered Property, Parcel 1A other. That is something our annual Festival of Historic Houses does quite well. In thinking about Paterson Park Neighborhood, located in the Blackstone Park Historic District. how to produce the event this year, we found that it was nearly impossible because of the serious The Festival offered an inside view of lovingly-cared-for private homes, buildings and green spaces. prospect of exposure to the coronavirus, and a virtual version of the Festival was deemed unworkable. Though we can’t Paterson Park boasts houses from the turn of the twentieth century, reflecting the era’s appreciation bring people together in person, we have launched new online programming to serve a diversity of interests. for city planning and the development of public parks and recreational facilities. The neighborhood We encourage you to join us for our lunchtime series, Bite-Sized Preservation, which explores topics related to advocacy, was also where the writer H.P. Lovecraft spent early years of his life. research tools and the practice of historic preservation. Our social media channels are great ways to connect with others who share your passion for architecture, placemaking, history, and culture. We recently saluted health care workers in an Instagram series on Providence’s historic hospitals and we’re now exploring each of the city’s unique neighborhoods with PVD25. While we may not be able to see each other in person, there are many ways we are engaging the community. Our biennial Preservation Awards were presented at the Providence Public Library in November Our work continues. 2019, and guests were treated to a cocktail hour sneak-peak of the exciting restoration work in the 1953 wing. Eight As we look back at 2019 with pride in our many accomplishments, advocacy efforts, and rich programming, we must thank awards chosen by a jury of design and preservation experts from New Orleans were presented to celebrate excellence the hundreds of members and thousands of supporters that make our work possible. Additionally, none of this would be in preservation and new construction. Additional honorees were recognized by PPS for their contributions to the possible without the dedication and hard work by our fine staff and our Executive Director Brent Runyon. As we look ahead, improvement of the Providence landscape. The Dirt Palace women’s art collective accepted the Fan Favorite Award even during these unsettled times, we have never been more optimistic about the important role PPS plays in our for their restoration of the Kendrick-Prentice-Tirocchi House, also known as the Wedding Cake House. community, working to ensure that Providence continues to be the unique, diverse and relevant city that it has always been. 1 Christopher J. Marsella President of the PPS Board of Trustees, 2018-2020 2 advocacy update Douglas Ave 146 95 Each year is busy with constant and necessary advocacy work, but 2019 was an especially active year in Providence! PPS continues to closely monitor local and state commissions whose reviews and decision-making have a literal impact on North Main St 5 Smith St the treatment of historic resources and the future landscape of Providence’s built environment. Projects of concern remain 4 6 the Fane Tower proposal before the I-195 Redevelopment District Commission and private student housing projects on the 2019 MEPs East Side, among countless others. Industrial Trust Co. Building One advocacy effort cleared a major hurdle in September 2019. The City Plan Commission voted unanimously to Kennedy Plaza east side Threats Demoliton by neglect, demolition, lack of recommend to City Council the proposed expansion of the College Hill Local Historic District – a multi-year effort by 1 government leadership and support neighbors in College Hill’s east side with the full support of PPS. Once approved by the City Council, this zoning overlay will Waterman St provide much needed preservation protection for buildings, mostly residential, within the National Register Historic District William R. Babcock II House SAVED 145 Lexington Avenue downtown (a largely honorary designation) left vulnerable to demolition, development, and institutional expansion. 6/10 2 Threats Vacancy, vandalism 3 1 On the eve of the Industrial Trust Building reaching six years of vacancy (April 2019), PPS pledged to prioritize bringing 8 west side attention to this vulnerable and important local landmark. In May 2019, we succeeded in having the beloved Superman 10 7 Rialto Theatre 195 Building (1928) listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

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