Almy Street School being converted to modern apartments

ALMY STREET School in the Federal Hill section of Providence, one of the city’s oldest public elementary schools, is slowly being transformed into 10 modern apartments. / PBN PHOTO/MARY MACDONALD
ALMY STREET School in the Federal Hill section of Providence, one of the city’s oldest public elementary schools, is slowly being transformed into 10 modern apartments. / PBN PHOTO/MARY MACDONALD

PROVIDENCE – One of the city’s oldest public elementary schools is slowly being transformed into 10 modern apartments.
The Almy Street School in Federal Hill was built in 1892 as immigrants swelled the city’s population. It operated as a public school until the 1970s, and then was converted to offices for the Head Start program for the next several decades.
By 2000, the building was vacant, and became a persistent concern to residents of the surrounding neighborhood, as well as preservationists and community organizations, according to a history published by the West Broadway Neighborhood Association.
In 2016, the Providence Preservation Society named the schoolhouse to its annual list of Most Endangered Properties.
Its fortunes changed earlier this year, when the WBNA learned it was eligible for $250,000 in state historic preservation tax credits to help facilitate a renovation.
In 90 days, WBNA reported it assembled a development team. The property then was sold by the Providence Redevelopment Agency to Elementary LLC, a partnership between B.J. Dupre of the Armory Revival Co. and the Providence Revolving Fund.
With financial assistance from the nonprofit Providence Revolving Fund, Elementary LLC began exterior work in April.
Elementary LLC recently received zoning permission to convert the former school to 10 apartments, which will be leased at market rates, Dupre said, in an interview Monday.
His interest in the building at 20 Almy St. dates back several decades. “We’ve been working in the [neighborhood] for the past 30 years. I kept driving by this building and couldn’t understand why it was in such deplorable condition.”
The former school is located in the Broadway-Armory Historic District, and was built in the Queen Anne style. Most of the architectural details are intact, according to the R.I. Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.
Over the past six months, contractors have refreshed the exterior, replacing rotted clapboards and original fish-scale shingles that could not be saved.
About three-quarters of the asphalt playground that surrounded the building has been torn up and replaced with new soil, and raised garden beds were installed for the future tenants. A small orchard of pear and apple trees also has been planted, Dupre said, and bee hives will be coming.
The interior renovation will begin once permits are in hand, he said, under a design created by Providence architect Monika Kraemer.
The Almy Street school house, one of a few remaining wooden school buildings in Providence, has two main stairwells, one apparently used by boys, one by girls, according to Dupre. The school originally had 50 students in each of its four classrooms, each with 12.5-foot ceilings.
The interior design will divide the large classrooms into two apartments each. The original coat closets used by children will become kitchens for some units.
The completed project should be finished in the summer of 2017.

No posts to display