Preservationists, city officials, and artists preview the renovation of the former Eastern Butcher Block in Providence through a 20,000 sq. ft. multimedia exhibition organized with Tabitha Piseno, Sam Keller, Neal Walsh, Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts, and the Providence Preservation Society.

A project of Butcher Block Mill, LLC and managed by Partnership for Creative Industrial Space, the historic preservation of the Joseph Banigan Rubber Co. (1896 to 1910) along the Woonasquatucket River signals a reuse of the industrial property into affordable space for citizens.

Butcher Block Mill
The manufacture of rubber goods at the United States Rubber Co. complex evolved over a period of almost 80 years. From its inception as the Joseph Banigan Rubber Co. (1896 to 1910), through its acquisition and expansion as a vital regional plant of the United States Rubber Co. (1910-1975), to its current use as owned or leased space for a wide array of industrial and commercial uses, this complex is highly representative of a pattern of industrial rise, decline, and re-use seen throughout New England as large-scale manufacturers shut down or moved operations out of state.

The former buildings of the United States Rubber Company lie north of the Woonasquatucket River in Providence, Rhode Island. Uniroyal, the successor to this company, vacated the complex in 1975 as it moved its production facilities out of state. The extant buildings of from one to five stories occupy a site lining several city blocks along Valley Street, spreading south to the banks of the Woonasquatucket River.

The entire complex occupies an area of slightly more than 23 acres. It is defined by Valley Street to the north, Richmond Place to the west, Hemlock Street to the east, and the Woonasquatucket River to the south. Eagle Street, the former eastern boundary of the late 19th-century Joseph Banigan Rubber Company Complex, now runs in a north-south axis through the complex. The U.S. Rubber company Complex consists of buildings, overhead walkways and pipeways, asphalted areas, and interior roadways. This application only concerns 4 buildings out of 37 structures inventoried in the National Register Nomination.

The buildings are located in the western end of the complex, where The Joseph Banigan Rubber Company began operations in 1896. Building 14 remains from this ownersip. The complex was acquired by Revere Rubber Company, a division of U.S. Rubber Company, in 1910. Buildings 11,18, and 15 where built soon after the acquisition by the Revere Rubber Company. The buildings were most recently occupied by Eastern Butcher Block, a furniture manufacturer.

Over time, U.S. Rubber improved the Banigan complex, expanding easterly across Eagle Street to the vicinity of the American Locomotive Company plant at the eastern end of the property. In 1918 the United States Rubber Company acquired the works of the American Locomotive Company (successor to the Rhode Island Locomotive Works, 1866-1898). One RI Locomotive Works (RILW) building, the former office (Bldg. 61), survives. Three buildings associated with American Locomotive Works (1902-1918), successor to RILW and manufacturer of the Berliet and ALCO automobiles, also survive. These were incorporated into the U.S. Rubber Co. plant in 1918. The remainder of the complex represents the U.S. Rubber Company’s addition of buildings in its eastward expansion to Hemlock Street. — Providence Revolving Fund