Providence Public Schools Listed Again – 31st Listing for PPSD or an Individual Providence Public School since 1994
Every year, Providence Preservation Society (PPS) invites community members to nominate places to its annual Most Endangered Places (MEP) List to bring attention to vulnerable places and pressure points across the city that are of architectural, historic, or cultural significance to their communities. The list serves as an agenda for PPS for the year ahead as we prioritize work across the city, developing policy recommendations and building coalitions that can secure a future for these heritage sites.
PPS will announce its 2026 Most Endangered Places List on February 4. This year, the “Resistance Houses” in Upper South Providence are at the top of the list. They include four homes dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries located at the edges of a massive asphalt parking lot on the Rhode Island Hospital campus. As the pace of development picks up around them today, the Resistance Houses face an uncertain future. There was a fifth Resistance House, but it was demolished between 2011 and 2014. Two weeks ago, one of the four remaining Resistance Houses was listed for sale and as of this writing, it is already under contract.
PPS’s Executive Director, Marisa Brown, said, “South Providence residents have fought hard for their neighborhood for decades, and continue to do so today. The Resistance Houses symbolize both struggle and resilience, and their precarity speaks to the challenges facing this neighborhood as a whole, which will see more redevelopment over the next decade than at any other time since the urban renewal era and the expansion of Rhode Island Hospital that followed.”
PPS notes that in May 2025, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition released a study documenting the national wave of displacement impacting historically Black neighborhoods in cities across the country. The Resistance Houses stand — for now — as a reminder that this neighborhood is home to thousands of residents and that the community deserves to benefit from this next chapter of investment and development. The listing includes addresses for the four Resistance Houses, a map, and PPS’s advocacy position on steps that would support equitable development in this neighborhood.
The Providence Public Schools listing notes that together, Providence Public Schools District (PPSD) and individual PPSD schools have been included on PPS’s Most Endangered Places List 30 times since 1994. The listing recognizes that sometimes historic buildings, especially schools, reach a point when they can no longer adequately serve the people who learn and
work inside of them, but argues that when this determination has been made, building owners have a responsibility to explore adaptive reuse or an alternative use. The seven schools that have been or are scheduled to be demolished in the period 2022 to 2027 total about 625,000 square feet, enough to provide almost 700 units of housing. The listing includes recommendations for specific reforms related to the policies and procedures PPSD and the City follow to decommission, replace, renovate, or demolish its historic buildings, including calling for the salvage of old-growth lumber and other historic building materials in the case of demolition. Brown stated, “School-to-housing conversions are on the rise in other cities and towns: it’s time for more creative and sustainable thinking here in Providence.”
“Providence Icons” pairs the Industrial Trust Building (1928) and the Cranston Street Armory (1907). While the Industrial Trust Building benefits from a stronger coalition of business and city leaders lobbying for its future, we list them as a duo to make the case that securing a next chapter for both of these city landmarks needs to be a priority this year.
The 02908 listing spotlights rapid redevelopment and gentrification led by corporate landlords in the neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Smith Hill, and Wanskuck. An updated 2025 PPS map tracks ownership of about 300 buildings by the 02908 Club/Amicus Property, Strive, D&D Realty, and Green Light in the streets surrounding Providence College. Brown stated, “In 2026, PPS will continue to report on the pressure facing these neighborhoods and to work with community members and public officials to find policy solutions that achieve more balance between town and gown.”
Providence Place Mall makes its first appearance on the MEP List given its financial challenges, which may jeopardize its future as a mall: though not endangered right now, the listing suggests that the best time to find an alternative use for this behemoth, if that is required, is now. With the last listing of Crook Point Bascule Bridge, PPS throws its support behind Mayor Smiley and other lawmakers who are exploring the creation of a public authority to resuscitate this historic structure and bring it back into use.
Providence Preservation Society’s Most Endangered Places List of 2026 can be found online here. The site contains photographs, maps and renderings related to all the listings.
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