Industrial Revolution

One of Providence’s lesser-known accomplishments may be its reputation as the Costume Jewelry Capital of the World. For the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, the city’s Jewelry District teemed with workers who toiled in dozens of factory buildings. By the latter half of the 1900s, though, as companies moved to the suburbs, sold out or shut down, the area became a forgotten part of Providence.

Enter a handful of forward-thinking souls with the bright idea of remaking the sturdy red brick buildings into lofts where artists could live and work. In 1978, the Hedison Building became the first in Rhode Island to be turned into condominiums, and artists, grateful for the lower real estate prices and plentiful parking in the area, began moving in, starting a neighborhood revival that’s still a work in progress.

Meanwhile, Tricia and Michael Hogue were raising their family on the other side of the city, in a spacious Victorian on the East Side. Once the family was grown, the couple dreamed of a smaller, lower-maintenance place. A loft seemed like the right sort of space, and the top-floor unit of the Hedison Building—now one of many repurposed factories in the neighborhood—just happened to be on the market. The Hogues were attracted to the hard maple floors that still bore scars left by chemicals and heavy machinery. They liked the openness and the weathered brick walls. Most of all, they were drawn to the views of the city that filled the big, arched windows on three sides of the loft.

ARCHITECTURE
Mary Brewster and Mark Rapp
INTERIOR DESIGN
Tricia Hogue, Scarborough Phillips
PRODUCED BY
Stacy Kunstel