Early Sunday morning, Theta Delta Chi pledges rolled on the ground of Patriots Court completely naked, while older fraternity members chanted "Naked Roll!" to the dismay of several students attempting to sleep nearby. Just over half a century ago, though, Providence families lived in historic houses on the same ground where such collegiate antics now take place.
Back then, College Hill residents had no formal conduits through which to channel their University-related concerns. Today, with nearly 500 dues-paying members, the College Hill Neighborhood Association is one of several local groups that enables East Side residents to play a more active role in their community.
The CHNA was originally formed in the 1970s and was revived in the 1990s in part because of the growing popularity of e-mail communication, according to CHNA board member Ron Dwight '66. Before members began taking advantage of e-mail, which Dwight called "a miracle," the association would "fire up when Brown was trying to pull something on us," he said.
Dwight said he first began collecting e-mail addresses from neighbors he ran into on the street in June of 2000. Eventually, he was e-mailing a list of about 400 residents with informal crime alerts. The CHNA later began using Dwight's list to notify residents of other important issues, such as the University's expansion.
Electronic communication cannot help any neighborhood association succeed as much as the commitment of its members can, said Will Touret, vice president of the CHNA. Membership may increase when new issues affect the daily lives of previously uninvolved neighbors, such as Brown's plans to build the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences, which were announced several years ago. But active members - usually professionals who devote time outside of their workday to the CHNA - deal with multiple issues, not just ones that most directly affect them, Touret said.
"The level of involvement can change from year to year," Touret said. "(But) once people get involved, they stay involved."
Chris Tompkins, president of the CHNA, cited a motivation to participate in neighborhood associations separate from residents' desire to increase their quality of life. "When you're paying a lot of property taxes, you fight a little bit harder," he said, adding that Providence has the third-highest property tax rate in the United States.
The election of Tom Goddard P'09 as president of the CHNA in September 2002 also forced the University to "take us seriously," Dwight said.
"They couldn't dismiss us as neighborhood kooks" because Goddard comes from a prominent East Side family, Dwight said.
Goddard said his family has lived on College Hill for the past 200 years, and several of his relatives have worked for or attended the University.
"(The CHNA has) always been pretty active about issues like crime, absentee landlords, motorcycles and graffiti," Tompkins said, adding that Thayer Street has always been a concern for the CHNA.
In the past year, the CHNA has attempted to thwart four bars and restaurants' efforts to serve alcohol until closing time, and the University has written letters to the Providence Board of Licenses advocating for limitations on Thayer establishments' liquor licenses.
The CHNA prevented Liquid Lounge, located on Angell Street, from expanding into the second floor of the building it currently occupies. The association also prevented Providence Byblos, located on Meeting Street, from obtaining a liquor license and has an appeal pending to limit the serving of alcohol to midnight instead of 2 a.m. at Spats, which is located on Angell Street, Tompkins said.
Goddard also called the difference in crime rates on College Hill between 1990 and 2004 - the year he moved out of Providence - "striking."
"Drug deals have become commonplace on Bowen Street and in Prospect Park," Goddard said, adding that he witnessed street fights break out in front of his house and picked up hypodermic needles off the street before he left Providence.
"There's always crime, but the incidence and severity of the crimes increased dramatically over the (last 15 years)," Goddard said. He attributed part of the increase in crime to flourishing nightlife on Thayer Street, which attracts a clientele from off the Hill on the weekends.
University expansion through the decadesThe University began tearing down residential houses - such as those located in what is now Patriots Court - for its expansion on College Hill in the 1950s.
Wriston Quadrangle was completed in 1951. The University got off to a bad start on what would be rapid expansion over the next few decades when then-President Henry Wriston commented that the destruction of several houses to make way for the Wriston Quadrangle was "the greatest slum clearance since Sherman burned Atlanta," according to the Encyclopedia Brunoniana.
In 1957, construction of Keeney Quadrangle involved the destruction of several more houses, according to Goddard, as did the 1964 construction of the Rockefeller Library, the 1965 construction of Barus and Holley and the completion of several dorms on Pembroke Campus around the same time.
The house Goddard lived in from 1990 to 2004 on Bowen Street was one of the only homes saved. It was moved from 187 Bowen St. to 102 Bowen St. in 1946.
Goddard said neighbors felt a "significant sense of loss" when houses were destroyed in the late 1960s to make room for the BioMedical Center, which was completed in 1969. In addition, a church with a predominantly black congregation on Brown Street was razed to make way for the BioMed Center, Goddard said.
Residents put up a "tremendous fight" over the construction of Barus and Holley, which stands only 40 or 50 feet from residential houses, he said.
"From a city planning point of view, that is far from optimal because larger buildings should be in a core area," he said.
But the University has not been alone in constructing buildings that neighbors find unappealing: the Rhode Island School of Design has also put up unattractive buildings in residential neighborhoods, and "you'd think they would know better," Goddard said.
Dwight spoke more favorably of RISD, which he called "10 times more responsive to community concerns."
A few years ago, RISD was planning to build a residence hall on Prospect Street but moved dorms downtown to the Rhode Island Hospital Trust building after hearing residents' concerns, Dwight said.
When residents moved out of houses, the University bought up their land to use for projects such as Wriston Quad, Goddard said. Dwight put it in harsher terms.
"They're tearing down the historical fabric of the East Side," he said, adding that families sold their homes to the University with the expectation that they would be preserved.
Loss of style, construction of bad architecture since WWIIThere was no attempt to "protect the façade of the (30 or 40) houses" that were destroyed to make way for Wriston Quad in the 1950s, Dwight said.
Furthermore, the University doesn't "have a good track record" when it comes to creating new buildings that complement the environment in which they are placed, Dwight said, adding that most University buildings constructed since the 1950s "lack architectural merit."
Some buildings have prompted concern for reasons other than their potential aesthetic impact. In 2004 the CHNA and 11 residents filed suit in U.S. District Court against the University, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy, criticizing the University for insufficiently assessing the adverse environmental and health effects Frank Hall will have on the surrounding area.
Invoking an academic simile, Tompkins said worrying about buildings that have already been built is like worrying about a bad grade in a course that has already been completed. What matters is that the "University now recognizes that a prosperous College Hill is in its own interest," he said.
"Nothing's new in terms of historic preservation and University expansion," Tompkins said. "But now there is more consensus (between the University and residents) about where we have to go."
Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior advisor to the president, agreed. He said opportunities for community input about Frank Hall made discussion between neighbors and the University more "candid" than they have been in the past.
"It doesn't mean we don't disagree, but we're more open about disagreements and we try to find ways to resolve them instead of one side exerting itself over the other," Spies said.
"My understanding is that (residents) are dealing directly with Brown," said Ward 2 City Councilwoman Rita Williams, adding that she has received few phone calls about Brown's expansion.
