Historic shopping center in downtown Providence notable as the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States and as an example of commercial Greek Revival architecture

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Overview

The Westminster Arcade (also known as the Providence Arcade, Arcade Providence, or The Arcade) is a historic shopping center in downtown Providence, Rhode Island built in 1828. It is notable as the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States and has been lauded as a fine example of commercial Greek Revival architecture. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Description

The Arcade is a long, narrow building extending between Westminster and Weybosset Streets, north of Orange Street in downtown Providence. The two street-facing sides consist of Greek temple fronts, with six massive Ionic columns 45 feet (14 m) high. These massive columns were quarried eight miles (13 km) away in Johnston and hauled over dirt roads by teams of oxen. The columns on the Westminster Street side are topped by a triangular pediment; the Weybosset Street side has a block-and-panel railing above a simple entablature. Behind these fronts are open vestibule areas with stairs leading to the upper levels. The stairs leading to the third level are somewhat crowded beneath the roofline, particularly on the Weybosset Street side, where the vestibule was a late addition occasioned by the decision to add a third floor. The long sides of the building are relatively unadorned, as it was expected by the architects that structures would eventually be built abutting them.

The interior consists of a main avenue 13 feet (4.0 m) on the ground floor, above which the second and third floor lanes are protected by richly decorated cast iron railings capped in mahogany. The skylit roof extends the length of the building, its ridgeline aligned at the Westminster end with the top of the triangular pediment. Emphasis in all of the building's construction was on the use of fireproof materials; granite, brick, and cast iron are all used, and the roof was made of tin.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Westminster Arcade", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0