A Bit of the Industrial Revolution in the 21st Century

Rhode Islanders...like the Industrial Revolution. I’ve always known this, but it wasn’t until I kinda sorta accidentally produced a documentary on it that I really began to grasp the extent of it. I say “accidentally” because well, I kinda didn’t mean to. I’m not an industrial historian. Truth be told, I’m not even the biggest … Continue reading A Bit of the Industrial Revolution in the 21st Century

Providence riots, 1824, 1831 — Architecture Here and There

Here is my Feb. 24, 2005, column in the Providence Journal, headlined “Hardscrabble and Snowtown of yore”: *** HARDSCRABBLE and Snowtown are old Providence neighborhoods that have fallen off the map. In 1824, Hardscrabble was a poor enclave of houses owned or rented mainly by free African-Americans along Olney’s Lane (now Olney Street) and North […] … Continue reading Providence riots, 1824, 1831 — Architecture Here and There

Hardscrabble and Snowtown — Architecture Here and There

Hardscrabble in 1824 was a poor hamlet of respectable families headed mostly by free black tradesmen, craftsmen and servants in the town of Providence. Blacks and others along Olney Lane (now Olney Street) lived cheek by jowl, however, with prostitutes, gamblers and others of low repute on the edges of society. On Oct. 18, an […] … Continue reading Hardscrabble and Snowtown — Architecture Here and There