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Rhode Island Mid-Century Modern Buildings

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Post Office
Providence, RI
This Post Office was built in 1960 as the "world's first fully automatic post office". It is also referred to as the "Turnkey Post Office. The building was designed to handle great quantities of mail with incredible efficiency. The interior of the building has been remodeled and looks nothing like the exterior. The first image is a postcard from 1960. For more, see this website. [map]

Ladd Academy
Fogarty Building [gone]
Exeter, RI		 Apex Department Store
Pawtucket, RI
The Ladd Academy started out as the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded in 1907. The Fogarty Building was built in 1962 and was used as the hospital. The property had been abandoned for many years. This photo is from 2010. Most of the buildings were demolished by 2013. The Fogarty Building was demolished in 2014.

This Apex Department Store had three locations. This is the only one left. The chain started out as "Apex Tire", a tire retailer, and grew into a department store. This pyramid-shaped building was designed by Andrew Geller and built in 1969. The parking lot lights must have dated from the same time. They were removed around 2019. For more, see this website. [map]

geodesic dome [gone]
Warwick, RI
This geodesic dome was built in 1962 to house airport maintenance equipment and vehicles. It is 140 feet in diameter. In later years, it was used for salt storage by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. It was last used in 2008. These photos are from 2010. In 2016, the building was disassembled and put in storage.

More Rhode Island:
Brown University: Center for Computation and Visualization (Providence)
Community College of Rhode Island (Warwick) [map]

Rhode Island
Churches		 Mid-Century Modern Buildings
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