PROVIDENCE – The former Old Stone Bank building, a South Main Street landmark topped by a signature gold-leaf dome, has been sold.
Brown University sold it for $2.14 million to Gold Dome Properties LLC, according to an October filing with the city’s recorder of deeds.
Gold Dome’s principal is listed as Barrett Bready, who is president and CEO of NABsys Inc. In a brief phone interview yesterday, Bready declined to comment on the sale or the future of the building.
A spokesman from Brown University could not be reached for comment.
The building last changed hands in 1995, when Brown bought it for $1.15 million from the Resolution Trust Corporation, a federal receivership agency.
As part of a $12 million project – including the purchase price – Brown had planned to build an addition and install its Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology in the 27,780-square-foot neoclassical building. But in 1999 the university announced that it had decided not to, saying the move “would have required extensive renovation of the historic structure as well as significant new construction, including a multistory addition.”
The Corporation of Brown University, a board of trustees and fellows, in May 2008 approved putting the building up for sale.
R.I. Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission Executive Director Edward F. Sanderson said the building’s main lobby, where bank tellers once operated, is a “wonderful” space.
“It’s one large volume of space, all the way up to the dome,” he said. “It’s one of the great architectural spaces in the city.”
