Past Public Programming

Fall 2009 Symposium

The American Renaissance and Providence:  A Golden Age in Architecture and the Arts, October 23-24, 2009

The late nineteenth century saw a rapid acceleration of America’s transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society. The diminishing frontier, exploding immigration, unprecedented technological innovation, and highly networked transportation converged to make the urban center the new organizing entity of American life. Against this backdrop, the American Renaissance period (1876 – 1917) in architecture and the arts emerged. 

As a major industrial center, Providence transformed during this period as well. The city was the home of industrial entrepreneurs and attracted record numbers of immigrants to work in their factories. Numerous local companies rose to preeminence in their industries, both nationally and internationally, among them Brown and Sharpe, Corliss Steam Engine Company, Nicholson File, and Gorham Manufacturing Company.  By the turn of the century, the nation’s smallest state produced its highest per capita value of manufactured goods.  Providence was the center of manufacturing in Rhode Island and among the leaders in the northeast.  

The architectural landscape of Providence changed to accommodate this exceptional physical, demographic, and economic growth. Through the design and construction of new schools, universities, and libraries; an ornate and elaborate City Hall; broad, tree-lined thoroughfares such as Blackstone Boulevard and Elmwood Avenue; and the expansive Roger Williams Park, the newly built environment expressed a return to academic classicism, anticipating the subsequent City Beautiful Movement.

The 2009 Providence Preservation Society Fall Symposium explored this golden age in the city’s history with a look at some of the developments in architecture and design resulting from this era of great change and growth.  Its impact and the monuments that remain from the thriving metropolis that was Providence during the American Renaissance continue to shape civic life  more than a century later and constitute much of the fabric of the city that the Providence Preservation Society strives to protect and enhance through its mission of advocacy for, and education about, the built environment.