12/9/11- photos

This post is a little belated, but shares some of the photos that I took at the site on 12th September 2011. I was there on a weekday around 1pm, and so got to experience part lunch time in the business district.

View of the Arcade from Westminster Street looking south-west

View of the Westminster facade of the Arcade, looking south-west

Women chatting and eating lunch on the steps of the Arcade, Westminster facade. 

Notice the sign displayed prominently on the street advertising the presence of the little newsagents shop located in the north-east corner of the Arcade. I went in to talk to the owner. He said that although he had only been running the shop for six years, it has been there for twenty-five, and the space is leased from the owners of the Arcade. There seemed to be fairly regular traffic in the little shop, where there is barely room for two customers to stand shoulder to shoulder, with people coming in to pick up things like cigarettes, gum, or something to snack on. 

Oddly placed marble steps and an empty cigarette packet in the Westminster street portico

Notice taped to the door of the Arcade (Westminster entrance)

View up to the second level of the Westminster portico

Graffiti and a sticker on the south wall of the Westminster portico

View back towards Westminster Street from the alley on the west side of the Arcade

This alleyway was something that I had not noticed before. I probably wouldn't have noticed it then, except that while I was sitting on the edge of the Westminster portico, two men walked out of the alley right next to me. It leads down the side of the Arcade, and comes out on the Weybosset side next to the eatery "Tommy's Place" and into a parking lot. 

Graffiti on the side entrance to the Arcade in the alley

Chippings and rust at the foot of the Arcade in the alley

Graffiti on the side of the Arcade. The red brick building is (now) Providence Optical, and was built into the niche created by the Arcade's shape

View of the Weybosset facade of the Arcade

You might notice that the two porticos are different- the Westminster one has a pediment, while the Weybosset one does not. Purportedly, the two collaborating architects could not decide on a design, and so each designed one facade. 

View of the Arcade from Weybosset Street, facing north-east

The building that now houses Providence Optical was built to fit into the space left by the Arcade's shape. It is jigsawed in very satisfactorily. There is a photograph in the RIHS library of this view before that building was built, enabling me to easily conceive of the layering of the built environment over time.

Reflection of the columns in the glass display cases in the Weybosset portico

View along the interior of the Weybosset portico

View into the interior of the Arcade from the Weybosset portico

View of the second floor of the Weybosset portico

Dust and wear marks on the floor of the second level of the Weybosset portico

View of the Arcade from Weybosset Street across the empty lot on its east side. The remaining facade of the Providence National Bank, known as the "Weybosset Facade" can be seen on the left supported by iron scaffolding.