The newly renovated Park View Apartments in Providence’s West End neighborhood has a long and interesting past. The four-story brick and brownstone rowhouse building was originally built at the Frances M. Andrews Houses in 1878. At the turn of the century part of the building was renovated as a birthing hospital, and eventually, in 1925, the building was modified to become the first home of Miriam Hospital. When Miriam Hospital moved to its current Eastside location in the 1950’s, the building became Park View Nursing Home and operated there until 2018.

Each change of the building’s use resulted in modifications to the structure. First, the change to Miriam Hospital removed the rowhouse’s entry steps leading to grand second floor entries and added large copper windows and skylights to let in additional light in the Operating Room. Later, the change to the nursing home modified the entryway to reflect a new style of the time and added an annex building and elevator. To bring the building into the next century as apartments, the building was recently completely renovated; stripping away poorly done alterations; restoring long concealed historic detailing; and designing a modern addition to the back of the building.

The historic brick and brownstone bay-fronted building, overlooking the open greenspace of Dexter Training Grounds and the Armory Building, has been renovated into eight large two-bedroom apartments. To the rear of the historic structure is the new addition with four large two-bedroom apartments, a new building entry, and code compliant staircase. The exterior has been carefully renovated to National Park Service Department of the Interior historic standards. Cream and blue colored mineral paint was applied to the historic building and the decorative metal cornice was restored. The trapezoidal massing of the addition, with its angular bay windows, responds to the oblique site geometry.

Interior historic details were preserved and restored where they remained, including plaster ceiling moldings, ceiling rosettes, pocketing parlor doors, and wood wall paneling. Smaller rooms were opened up to each other to create new larger living spaces with modern kitchens. Each unit is unique and has its own particularities, like the large copper window and skylight of the former operating room that is now the kitchen window overlooking the park. The apartments in the addition have large floor to ceiling south facing bay windows in the living areas, and angular reading nook windows in the bedrooms. A concealed solar photovoltaic array has been added to the building’s roof in such a way as not to be visible from the below.