While textile and manufacturing mills are being renovated for expansive loft living, and stylish condos are being built in downtown Providence, there are surprisingly few apartment-building renovation projects in the area like Rosedale Landing, located on Narragansett Bay in Cranston’s Edgewood neighborhood.
The 33 condominiums that are about to hit the market there are Art Moderne renovations, a style that makes the project unique, said Ned Connors, a self-employed historic preservation consultant. On April 10, 2007, the 69-year-old building – being renovated by Belvoir Properties Inc. – made it onto the National Register of Historic Places with Connors’ help.
During the course of his historical research, he found a July 1939 clipping from The Providence Journal that mentioned the name of the architect: Herbert R. Hunt, who also designed Cherry & Webb’s first retail stores.
“I was able to find the architect’s son, who had a shoebox with some of his old stuff from his father,” Connors said. “Included among them were two 8×10 photos of the building under construction, showing the elaborate, stepped parapet, which is very much an Art Moderne feature.”
Those parapets had been lopped off sometime during the 1970s, Connors said. But with the help of the architect’s pictures, Belvoir re-created the “entire zigzagged parapet. It was a remarkable effort.”
Sales Manager Dee Southerland said the three-year construction project is nearly finished. She said the condos are being marketed as architecturally interesting and centrally located in the state. And while the renovation is embracing the building’s past, the amenities are all new, she said.
“Everything in here is basically new, but it has the original banisters, original wood staircases,” she said.
The U-shaped three-story building has seven three-bedroom condos, two two-bedroom condos and 24 one-bedroom condos, she said. They range from $385,000 to $850,000, she said, as the units go from 1,000-2,000 square feet in size.
“And we have a 250-foot, brand-new boardwalk and seawall – that’s big,” Southerland said. “And the plan for the next phase is to gain further access to the water – and we’re seeking approval for this now – with a 175-foot pier off of the boardwalk.”
After the 1938 hurricane, textile manufacturers were moving south and the Great Depression was in full swing. Because of economic problems, 1939 was not a great year for construction projects – especially highly-stylized ones – in Providence, Connors said. “At that time, to create a high-style, Art Moderne apartment building on that scale was very, very rare,” he said.
At the time, glass blocks had just been introduced into construction. “It was not only an interesting building in terms of its design, but it was also interesting in terms of its materials – the modern materials used,” Connors said.
Because of that, the Rosedale, at 1180 Narragansett Blvd., is a rarity for its design, Connors said.
“It’s not like Miami Beach, where there was just this incredible efflorescence of Art Deco and Moderne,” Connors said. “Providence was a real backwater for that type of design. But what we have is quite wonderful.” •
