Jef NickersonThere was a fire in The Narrow Building on Washington Street this afternoon.
Photos by Jef Nickerson
I took these photos around 5:45pm and the fire seemed to be out. Mathewson, Washington, and Union Streets were shut down and the URI Building had been evacuated. No word on the cause or amount of damage. Work had been taking place in the building in recent weeks.
ProJo Blog has a post about the fire. Not much more info.
This was one of the buildings involved in that bogus court ruling back when the city was sued a few years ago, briefly voiding the entire historic district downtown. The judge, in the same ruling, blocked the demolition of the building itself, since the owner wanted to knock it down to expand the parking lot behind it directly up to the street. I call this a suspicious fire, but then again, who wouldn’t?
On a personal note, two of my friends, both incredible artists, lived in this building. It’s incredibly sad for them to have lost all their work.
I work with one of the owners of Downtown Liquors, maybe I can get the full scoop from him tomorrow.
David Brussat has a column in the ProJo about the Arnold (“Narrow”) Building. What he says about the insidiousness of surface parking is of course spot on, but even more so is what Beth had to say when she wrote about David’s column over on the Dose:
Amen! Sistah!
Well, clearly she hasn’t heard about The Parking Crisis! I am away from Providence now, but during downtown’s heyday (2007?) I never had trouble finding parking, day or night. Maybe I’d have to park a block or two away, or maybe a street over, but so?
David Brussat writes in the ProJo about the Edgewood Yacht Club and the Providence Revolving Fund’s possible loan to the owner the Narrow Building.