2024 most endangered places of Providence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) —  The Providence Preservation Society has announced the city’s most endangered places of 2024.

PPS assembles its annual list to bring attention to the city’s most vulnerable pieces of historical and cultural architecture.

PPS 2024 Most Endangered Places List:

This is an image of Providence College off-campus apartments. (WLNE)

• Neighborhoods from student housing in Wanskuck, Elmhurst, Smith Hill, Washington Park, and College Hill 

Developers are buying out affordable and multi-family housing, typically used for students, and plan on converting them into expensive rental properties, PPS shared.

This is a photo of the Cranston Street Armory in Providence. (WLNE)

• Cranston Street Armory (1907)

The “Castle for the People” is yet again on the MEP list, due to its uncertain future after its development plan was scrapped in 2023.

This is a photo of Mount Pleasant High School in Providence. (WLNE)

• Providence Public School Buildings, as represented by Asa Messer Elementary School and Mount Pleasant High School

PPS said that these two historic Providence schools were nominated by community members who are concerned about the potential demolition of the buildings due to high costs of renovations.

This is photo of Grace Church Cemetery damage (WLNE).

• (1834, 1843, c. 1860)

According to PPS, Providence’s nine-acre cemetery, home to over 8,500 burial plots, has become vandalized and littered with trash which is jeopardizing its existence.

St. Johns closes its doors. (WLNE)

• Sacred Places, as represented by the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, Broad Street Synagogue, and Cathedral of St. John

Providence has been home to many beautiful cathedrals, churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, and other religious meeting places for decades. PPS shares that some congregations have decreased in size, which have caused the buildings to become vacant, leaving their futures questionable.

• South Providence Waterfront and Providence Gas Purifier Building

The PPS shared that a nomination put it best when they said, “I’m calling for a relocation of the industrial sites at Fields Point and adjacent properties to a less populated area that no longer targets the poor and/or racially discriminated populations. I’m calling for advocacy and for a government that treats its population justly and appropriately by removing these toxic sites that are unnecessarily located on our waterfront.”

• Atlantic Mills Complex (1863, 1882)

Due to its poor maintenance upkeep and hazardous conditions, the complex has made its way onto the MEP list for several years.

The Superman building, Providence, RI. (Kyle Ramsden)

• Industrial Trust Building, aka Superman Building (1928)

One of New England’s most iconic buildings, the Superman Building, formerly home to Industrial Trust and then Bank of America, is yet again making its appearance on the MEP. The Art Deco-style skyscraper has been formerly advocated for by the PPS and remains a top-priority, the society shared. However, the PPS announced that The Superman Building’s period of uncertainty may finally be coming to an end and hopes that this will be the last time its name appears on the MEP List.

The PPS noted that the list was previously known as the ‘Most Endangered Properties List”, but has been renamed as it better reflects the diversity of place-based heritage in Providence.