Saving E.P.’s Odd Fellows Hall

ODD FIT: East Providence officials see a renovated Odd Fellows Hall as a key part of a plan to create a thriving arts and entertainment district. / COURTESY EAST PROVIDENCE HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION
ODD FIT: East Providence officials see a renovated Odd Fellows Hall as a key part of a plan to create a thriving arts and entertainment district. / COURTESY EAST PROVIDENCE HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows didn’t cut corners when they built a new meeting hall to accommodate their growing brotherhood in the 1880s.
They hired leading Providence architectural firm Gould & Angell to design the new building in the then-fashionable Shingle style and gave it an ample 8,300 square feet of interior space.
For a location they chose the bustling center of 19th-century East Providence, the riverfront western end of Warren Avenue known as Watchemoket Square. The building at 63-65 Warren Ave. would serve as the Odd Fellows’ Rhode Island headquarters for 82 years, but eventually the influence of both the fraternal organization and their neighborhood would wane.
By the 1960s, American culture had changed and the construction of Interstate 195 had leveled half of Watchemoket Square, leaving the remainder a backwater under the shadow of highway ramps.
Now as East Providence redevelops its underutilized waterfront, city leaders want to transform Watchemoket Square into a thriving arts and entertainment district. At the center of the revitalization plan is Odd Fellows Hall, which the city seized last year for an unpaid tax bill and hopes to restore to its former glory.
“My perspective is it is the gateway to the East Providence arts and entertainment district,” said East Providence Director of Community Development David Bachrach about the Odd Fellows Hall. “We purposefully acquired it a few months ago even though there was interest to pay off the back taxes. We made the argument that this is a significant historic structure and we want to maintain control to make sure it’s restored the right way.
To jump-start the Watchemoket arts district plan, the city recently secured a $7,500 state historic-preservation grant to assess the physical condition of Odd Fellows Hall and figure out what work will be required to fix it. The East Providence Waterfront Commission has promised to match the grant, bumping the total resources for the project up to $15,000.
Built in 1889 and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Odd Fellows Hall is valued at $179,500, according to assessor records. The Odd Fellows, a fraternal philanthropic order founded in 18th-century England, moved out of the building in 1970.
The building hosted a restaurant called the Arboretum in the 1970s and 1980s.
Marc J. Pearlman was the last owner before the city.
A drive-by look at the building points to the need for some significant exterior and roof work, but Bachrach said a recent tour of the property, including the basement, did not show any obvious threats to its safety.
In addition to being one of the few architecturally significant buildings in the area, Odd Fellows Hall interests city planners because of what’s above the ground-floor storefront: a stately auditorium with soaring two-story windows facing the river and Providence skyline.
With the first floor hopefully remaining a revenue generator, Bachrach said he could envision the upper floors hosting an art gallery, public meeting rooms, performance space and possibly a Cape Verdean museum.
With a destination restaurant on the first floor and popular events upstairs, Bachrach said the Odd Fellows Hall could anchor a cluster of eating, drinking and entertainment options stretching down to the river.
The area already has a bar, café and comedy club to the water side of Odd Fellows and a popular Korean restaurant just inland.
To make the neighborhood a bigger draw, Bachrach has reached out for planning help to colleges in the area.
Roger Williams University’s Community Partnership Center, which gives students real-life experience on public projects, is interested in working on Watchemoket and is hoping to put a few classes toward the project this fall.
“There is a very willing and competent community partner in East Providence and the fact that they have a macro plan that is seeing results makes it very attractive,” said RWU Community Partnership Director Arnold Robinson. “It is a very multidisciplinary project. You can’t plan for what the buildings will look like unless you … see what the economics will be.” Bachrach’s vision includes public parking, signs and lighting that he hopes Roger Williams’ students can help flesh out in a way that ties the neighborhood to the waterfront with its marinas and remnants of former bridges.
Across the river in Providence’s India Point Park, the state is working with a group that hopes to turn the former Shooter’s nightclub property into a concert venue and art center.
Bachrach said he sees Watchemoket as potentially attracting a more mature crowd than Providence, one that will appreciate the easier car access and parking.
That vision would likely receive a major boost from the construction of two large apartment-condominium projects planned for former oil-company properties on the waterfront to the south.
The 407-unit Kettle Point project proposed by Churchill & Banks Co. was approved by the Waterfront Commission in May and the 600-unit Village on the Waterfront is doing environmental work and waiting for market improvement.
The reopening of the East Bay Bike Path bridge to Providence, which is being turned into a “linear park” will also boost the area.
Once the study of the Odd Fellows Hall is complete, Bachrach said the city will likely solicit bids from interested private-sector partners to redevelop the building.
State and federal aid, in the form of grants or historic tax credits, may also be needed to make the project viable, he said.
Nedd Connors, chairman of the East Providence Historic District Commission, said even apart from the arts-district plan, rescuing the Odd Fellows Hall is important for the city.
“What is important about the building for East Providence is, while there are many great civic buildings from that period left in Providence, in East Providence, we have one, the Odd Fellows,” Connors said. “It was very beautifully built and the really smart thing the Odd Fellows did is set aside the ground floor for commercial space while they had all their secret meetings on the second-floor assembly hall. The building still has value because of that.” •

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