vip in the city

Scenes from Providence

On the way back to New York City, we spent a few hours in Providence, since none of us knew when we would be driving this route again any time soon. All those years to and from the Cape, and I don’t think we ever made this stop.

We hit downtown just as the Veteran’s Day celebrations were winding down; the day’s highlight was the dedication of the newly constructed World War II Monument for which several news vans were on site. The $1.3 million memorial features a main columned rotunda, flanked by two angled walls of granite, engraved with the names of the 2,562 Rhode Islanders who died while serving during World War II.

A parade, which began at the Rhode Island State House, had preceded the dedication ceremony but by late afternoon, most of the crowds had already dispersed.

We came across this random bit of risd detritus in an abandoned shopping cart:

The First Baptist Church in America, founded by Providence-founder Roger Williams; his National Memorial is located just a few blocks north. The 80-foot square church, completed in the Spring of 1775, was the largest building project in New England at that time. (The 185-foot steeple was added after completion.)  Its construction benefited greatly from the British closing of Boston’s ports in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, which freed up many shipwrights and carpenters who eventually made their way to Providence in search of alternate work. Capacity of the meeting house was 1,200 people, then equal to one third the entire population of Providence.

Views of architect/planner William D. Warner’s $270 million 10-year waterfront project, which began as a 1982 study into reconnecting Providence with its lost waterfronts. Warner’s “Waterplace Park” (with its dozen low, graceful, arched river-spanning bridges), the nearby $435 million 1.3-million-square-foot Providence Place shopping and entertainment complex, and the NBC television series ”Providence” (er, seriously?) all have been credited with giving this city of 175,000 a new cachet.

Tags: parade, Providence, Rhode Island, river, skyline

There are 4 Comments ... Scenes from Providence

Qsoz
December 4, 2007

Providence has cachet? What?

vipnyc
December 4, 2007

Well… it’s got one of the best college radio stations in the country… I used to turn the car’s dial — back when it was a dial — to “95.5 WBRU, The Original Alt Rock” whenever I passed through the area. (Now, of course, the station streams through the Internet.)

assassin
December 6, 2007

reserve a page for when you get tagged…

rockthing
January 6, 2008

I liked the history about the church.

All hail internet radio! 🙂

I’m rather partial to KUSF, but WNYU or of course WRCT get a good bit of ‘air-time’ too. Oh, and WFMU.

I was trying to be adventurous recently and look for new stations, but couldn’t find anything in the 5 minutes I spent searching. Next time I’ll look for WBRU.
Thanks.

Go for it ...