Ashbel T. Wall established a company for the production of gold-plated wire in rented quarters on Sabin Street in 1888. In 1908, Wall was ready to enlarge his operation and commissioned Bowerman Brothers of Boston to design a new manufacturing building. The four-story reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof and large windows represents an important milestone in the history of modern architecture. It is one of the earliest known examples of a reinforced concrete construction employing the mushroom-column-and-flat-slab technique. This mode of construction, developed by the American Engineer C.A.P. Turner in 1905–06 and patented in 1908, allowed for a freer floor plan than the traditional beam-and-column structure.

The wood and coal stoves produced by Amos Chafee Barstow in his Point Street foundry starting in 1849 were immensely successful and won several national awards, as well as a medal of merit at the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair. Before the end of the century the company was the largest stove company in New England, employing 200 workers and offering 50 different kinds of stoves. The Barstow Stove Factory filled the entire 2 ½-acre plot. The three brick buildings remaining today are: the oldest, gable-roofed structure of 1849 with a clerestory monitor; east of this, a four-story structure from 1855; and a later structure at the corner of Point and Richmond streets. The company failed in 1930.

Formerly, a wooden Methodist church stood on this lot across from the Irons and Russell Building from 1820–1954. A major restoration project added a spire in 1836 (like many in New England, based on designs from a pattern book by British architect James Gibbs of 1728), but it fell victim to a storm in 1869. The congregation shrunk in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the area became less residential and the church was torn down to make way for the I-195 highway.

Similar to the Little Nemo Building by the same architect, Frank S. Perry, or the Doran-Speidel Building, this manufacturing complex, built in 1929, belongs to the type of reinforced concrete, pier-and-spandrel factory buildings with expansive windows. The Coro Company (founded as Cohn and Rosenberger in New York) had a branch in Providence since 1911, and subsequently became the largest manufacturer of costume jewelry in Providence in the 1950s and 1960s. After Coro closed in 1979, the structure was refurbished as a health care facility.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the company occupied a four-acre campus of connected brick buildings, which grew from smaller structures at the intersection of Point and Eddy streets. In contrast to its neighbors in the Jewelry District, the Davol Rubber Company was a pioneer of American rubber medical supplies. The company started at the Simmons Building across the street in 1880 and remained in that location until 1977. In 1980–82, “Davol Square” was developed into a shopping mall, which later closed in the early 1990s, followed by offices moving into the space.

James C. Doran commissioned the building in 1912 to house rental units for jewelry manufacturing next to his headquarters at 150 Chestnut Street. It was designed by Monks & Johnson, a fledgling Boston engineering firm, who adopted the structure and aesthetics introduced four years earlier at the A.T. Wall Building. The earliest tenant was the German immigrant Albert Speidel’s Watch Chain Company. After WWII, Speidel shifted production from chains to extendable bracelet watchbands designed by Albert’s brother Edwin. The so-called “Twist-O-Flex” design of the band was one of the first brands to be advertised on television in 1949.

The five-story brick building was built in 1888 for Stanton B. Champlin and his son George, manufacturers of gold rings and chains. It was large enough to provide rental space for other jewelry manufacturers as well. In 1901, the building was enlarged to the south. Stylistically, it set the stage for similar buildings nearby.

What is today called Imperial Place consists of the buildings of the former Vesta Knitting Mills and Imperial Knife Company. The Vesta Knitting Mills (originally Elba Woolen Mills) grew from 35 knitting, carding and spinning machines in 1888 to 175 knitting machines in 1908, producing women’s, men’s and children’s underwear. That same year, Vesta built a second L-shaped factory, as an investment, to house jewelry manufacturing. In 1916, Italian immigrants Felix and Michael Mirando founded the Imperial Knife Company to produce specialized knives for jewelers. By the 1930s, it had become one of the largest pocket knife manufacturers in the world. One of its best-sellers was the Kamp-King camping knife.

While you're here: Experience a diverse menu in an eclectic antique-filled setting at CAV.

Charles Irons and Charles Russell, manufacturers of pins and charms, commissioned the building in 1903–04 from the prominent local architects Martin & Hall. The building consists of six stories with a flat roof, a bent-horseshoe plan, and a brick facade with “corbeled” cornices — a unified and striking exterior. The prominent brown stone entrance carries the company’s name. It was one of the city’s first fully electrically powered industrial structures. In 2017–18, the Providence firm Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels turned the building into lofts, and in the process, carefully restored its historical details, such as the ornate birdcage elevator and terrazzo tiles.

James C. Doran and his sons James and Joseph, who specialized in jewelry findings (also umbrella fittings, collar buttons, emblem findings, box-settings, and a joint-and-catch tool for making collar pins) commissioned the building in 1907. Most space was rented to other small jewelry companies. In 1909, an eighth floor was added and the building was expanded to the south. The load-bearing brick walls are reduced in depth as they go up, “slow burning” heavy timber beams carry the floors, and fire escapes have been added to comply with codes. The Doran family sold the building in 1966. In 1979 it was subdivided into condominiums.

A parking structure for the adjacent court house today, this site long housed the headquarters of soap manufacturer Kendall Manufacturing Company. The prominent American feminist and writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935), who lived in Providence during much of her youth and enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design in 1878, made her income with the design of trading cards and the writing of advertising for the Kendall Manufacturing Company, and its flagship product, Soapine. Her most famous work, the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” appeared in 1892 in New England Magazine.

The Brier Manufacturing Company, the second largest costume jewelry maker in Providence, commissioned this building in 1928 from the architect Frank B. Perry (who would also build the Coro Building on Point Street the following year) and occupied it until the late 1970s. Its brand name “Little Nemo” was inspired by the successful comic strip by Winsor McCay from 1905 to 1926 in the New York Herald. Due to the success of the jewelry, Brier changed its name to the Little Nemo Manufacturing Company. The building is today occupied by Brown University’s Alpert Medical School.

While you're here: Stop in The District for a pizza or a weekend brunch.

The structure was built for a jewelry manufacturer in 1919 and enlarged in 1926 when a baking supply company moved in. Since the 1960s, it has been the studio of prominent American graphic designer Malcolm Grear (1931–2016), whose work encompassed visual identity programs, print publications, environmental design, packaging, and website design. His firm (now led by his son) is best known for visual identity work and designed logos for the Guggenheim Museum, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Veterans Administration.

While you're here: Stop in Xaco Taco for margaritas, nachos and more.

The power station was built in 1903–04 by the Rhode Island (later, New England) Electric Company, which supplied energy for electric street cars and trolleys in Providence at the beginning of the 20th century. The original, northern building with its stepped gable was added onto in 1913 and 1933. A major renovation in 1992 was led by William H. Warner, the architect of the downtown river relocation and Waterplace Park.

The Phenix Iron Foundry had a national monopoly on producing machines for dying, bleaching and print works, which supported the textile industry. Founded in 1830, it first had a shop on the waterfront on Elm Street, which was demolished in 1903 after having been purchased by the Narragansett Lighting Company. This machine shop of 1848 is 2 ½ stories high, with gables on both ends and heavy random-ashlar walls. Perhaps most memorable are the three round arch freight doors on each side, with heavy granite sills. The original sash windows have survived.

Point Street Grammar School previously stood roughly where the access ramp descends down to I-95 from West Franklin Street. It was designed by local architect Clifton A. Hall in the typical Second Empire Style (similar to City Hall at the same time) and was opened in 1874 by Mayor Thomas Doyle. It stood at the center of the growing residential portion of the neighborhood. In 1889, adjacent land was converted into Hayward Park, while dozens of houses and another school were built on land south of Maple Street. The school, the park and its neighboring buildings were demolished in 1960 to make room for the I-95 highway.

The museum was founded in Pawtucket in 1977. It moved to its current South Street location 20 years later — a simple, 1926 industrial brick structure with large metal frame windows. Since then, more than 2.5 million people have visited. The 8,000-square-foot museum is full of sophisticated interactive exhibits designed by museum curators and educators.

As part of a Jewelry District Master Plan, a new park was conceived on the western side of the Providence River — an open space that retains the memory of the former location of the I-195 highway. Following the idea of a RISD student to use the foundations of the former highway overpass in the riverbed as the substructure for a pedestrian bridge, a competition was held to identify a firm to design the bridge, subsequently leading to savings in demolition costs, while keeping a visible sign of the former highway location.

While you're here: Enjoy a summertime beverage at The Guild PVD beer garden and spend a sunny afternoon exploring the local vendors and artisans at The Providence Flea.

Thomas Doyle (1827–1886) was mayor of Providence for 18 years for three separate periods between 1864 and 1886. He built the current city hall and founded Roger Williams Park. The house at the corner of Bassett and Chestnut streets, where he lived from 1851–1869, had been built in 1825 by the mason Samuel Lewis. Doyle’s sister Sarah (1830–1922), a noted educator and reformer, also lived there. She was a charter member of the corporation of the Rhode Island School of Design and served as secretary from 1877 to 1899. She successfully campaigned for the admission of women to Brown University. In the 1920s, the house was used by a small company to make jewelry supplies and fittings.

Originally the main building of the Davol Rubber Company, the Simmons Building of 1880 was named after Eban Simmons, the grandfather-in-law of Charles Davol. It is one of the most elegantly proportioned brick buildings in the Jewelry District. When the company expanded diagonally across the street, a metal conveyor belt connected the two buildings. In the 1940s, an overpass above Point and Eddy streets let motorists bypass the notoriously crowded intersection.

The Narragansett Electric Company Power Station was built in stages between 1912 and 1952. An excellent example of early 20th-century power plant design, it burned coal to provide electrical power to the city. It was gradually replaced by the more modern nearby Manchester Street Station and was decommissioned in 1995. From 2013–17, Brown University, the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Rhode Island College (RIC) redeveloped the station into a URI/RIC nursing school and administrative offices, with a new parking structure and the River House student housing structure (architects: Spagnolo, Gisness & Associates) on its southeastern corner.

Wexford Science and Technology of Baltimore is responsible for a $158 million commercial development project with a 191,000-square-foot office building and a 170-room Aloft Hotel, a Starwood property. Among the tenants are Brown’s 50,000-square-foot School of Professional Studies and the 66,000-square-foot Cambridge Innovation Center. The architects are Ayers Saint Gross and Ennead, which is handling the interiors of the School of Professional Studies. There is also a café and public event space.

While you're here: Head to The Aloft's rooftop bar, Blu Violet, for a cocktail with a view.