Thanks to everyone who came to The Museum Of Westminster Street. This is the final week of the window at 191 Westminster Street – but we’ll keep posting more stories on here for the next few weeks. Thanks for stopping by!

The STOP sign originated in Detroit, Michigan, in 1915. The original STOP sign had black letters on a white background. In 1924, the background changed to yellow, and then in 1954 to the current design of red. Its minimum mounting height in urban areas is seven feet.

The stop sign on the corner is attached to a red post that is what remains of an old fire department call box. On top of it was a phone that allowed residents and businesses on this street to alert the Fire Department in an emergency. If you go to the corner of Dorrance and Pine Streets, you can see one with its call box intact. Long in disuse, the post continues to be painted red by the Downtown Improvement District, who retouch the paintwork every spring.

Between 1964 and 1989, this section of Westminster Street was pedestrianized, and known as Westminster Mall. The lead designer in opening it up to traffic again was RISD graduate Kim Ahern, now a landscape architect in Massachusetts. “When we started laying the sidewalk,” she says, “we discovered a lot of disused coal cellars underneath, so we had to waterproof everything before putting down the bricks.”

The trash can was commissiond in 2006. It’s one of a series made by The Steel Yard, a Providence-based community organization that fosters the industrial arts and small business. You can see the Steel Yard logo, a tool known as ‘pincers,’ on the side of the can. A team of artists worked on its creation: are Curtis E. Aric, Nate Nadeau, Heidi Born, Monica Shinn, Ally, Tim Ferland, D Tillery, Howie Sneider, Adam Morosky. The yellow stripe around it was painted by the Downtown Improvement District in 2009, to indicate that it, rather than the City of Providence, takes care of emptying this can.

Most of the poles on parking signs in Providence are green in color, but on this street, and in much of downtown, they are black. That’s because the Downtown Improvement District paints all of the street furniture every year, from the lamp posts to the parking meter poles, using Rust-Oleum protective paint in the color “Gloss Black.”

The lamp posts were designed and manufactured by Urban Metal, based in Pennsylvania. The design is called “Providence” with a “National” base. They were installed as part of the reopening of the street to traffic in 1989. They’re unusually tall, to bring attention to the architecture of the buildings, and they were originally painted dark green.

The tall black vent on the street helps to cool the electricity lines that run underneath this street. It is owned and maintained by National Grid, and painted by the Downtown Improvement District. Occasionally, you can see steam rising out of it, and hear a fan whirring as the heat escapes.

The building owners are responsible for the sidewalks in front of their property – which explains the variation in quality and materials as you walk down the street. Check out the sidewalk in front of Tazza, and along the Eddy Street side of Two Brothers Beauty Supply – it’s actually tar, stamped with brick shapes and painted red.

Most days, you can find David writing poetry at a table in Tim Horton’s, on the other side of Dorrance Street. “I have an international following.” He worked in technology until 2005, when his $98,000 job went overseas. “I lost my home, my job, my marriage. I was homeless for 13 months. But I’m better off now then I was before. When you have to start over again, you appreciate what you have.” He’s been writing poetry for almost 40 years. You can read his poem about this window here

Mr Quasi Moto, who is part avocado, works with the group Big Nazo, whose studio is close by. In the mid 1980s, when this street was still pedestrianized, “I started doing some street performances on the corner of Union and Westminster. We needed a place to come and test the waters. We’d come out for an hour or two, work through material. We weren’t ready for the big time then.”

Daemion works for City Year, a nationwide organization that gives 17- to 24-year-olds the opportunity to engage in 10 months of full-time community service. Its local base is above where Bowl & Board used to be. He coordinates community projects for City Year volunteers. “I graduated from the University of Oregon and wanted to do something different. In his spare time, he likes going to the library and “checking out random books.”

Kristen works at Craftland, where she also sells notebooks that she makes, with covers made from old maps. “I have a textile background, which means I wear scarves most of the time. It’s one of my little addictions. I’m like the Carrie Bradshaw of scarves.”

In the 1870s, Christiana owned a high-class hair salon in a building where the store Oop! is. Though she was African-American at a time when few owned high-profile businesses in the city, her salon business thrived. It went by the name “Madame Carteaux”, Bannister’s first married name. Today she is better remembered as an abolitionist, a fundraiser for “colored regiments” and as the founder of the first Home for Aged Colored Women in the city, today a nursing home called Bannister House.

Danielle works part time in clothing store Clover, and part time as an art-and-design teacher at an elementary school in Cumberland, RI. “We don’t have a dedicated art room, so I’m art-on-a-cart. None of the students can see I have tattoos. I get them done at Federal Hill Tattoo on Atwell’s Avenue. They’re about the things in my life that mould the person I am.”

Juan has been head of security in the AAA building for the last 16 years. “You never know, sometimes we have trouble. But we like things to be quiet.” Before he worked here, “for 25 years, I was supervisor of maintenance at City Hall. Before that, I was in the marines as a boilerman. I traveled halfway around the world, to England, Scotland, the Mediterranean, West Africa.”

Deborah is one of the downtown parking attendants. “For 21 years, I worked in a bank, taking care of people who wanted to open big trust accounts. I used to write checks for millions of dollars.” Seven years ago she switched to a less stressful job that involved being outside – though she does sometimes have to suffer irate motorists. “We’ve gotten grabbed by people. One attendant got hit by a car. We can call for backup, the cops will be here in two minutes.”

Sin works as a bartender at The 201, next to this window, every Thursday night. She specializes in improvized cocktails: give her a name, and she’ll make you a drink to fit it. She’s previously been a stage carpenter at Trinity Rep, and toured the world with a children’s show. Next fall, she’ll be starting graduate school, to get a Masters degree in teaching Latin. “Classics has always been a passion of mine. It’s about time I explored it professionally.”

Daniel works for Centrex, a drinks distribution company. About once a week he comes to Westminster Street to deliver to Eno, Tazza, and The 201. “Beer, wine, liquor, water, Red Bull, you name it. I’ve been working for this company for eight years. It’s a job, that’s all that matters.”

Nathan is a manager at Subway on Weybosset Street. He works between 50 and 60 hours a week. Right now, he’s carrying a bottle of vinegar over to the store. He lives with his brother, and they have three cats. “My favorite sub? The Italian.”

On the spot where the window now is once stood the Chin Lee Chinese restaurant, whose menu offered more American dishes than Chinese. It was opened in 1914 by Chinese immigrant Dong Goon Chin. His family lived for a while here above the restaurant. In 1924, the family moved to New York City. That same year, a Chin Lee restaurant opened on Broadway, seating nearly a thousand people.

Some days, Al goes next door to Mama Teresa’s for lunch. “I usually go for the chicken pizza strips.” Then he returns to his desk at AAA, on the other side of this window, where he helps members compile information for upcoming road trips. His own favorite destination? “The Grand Canyon. It’s just beautiful.”

Jacob works in Farmstead, selling cheese, meats, and sandwiches. He also studies music at Rhode Island College. “My favorite band around here is [alternative brass marching band] What Cheer? Brigade. They embody the Providence musical spirit of being inclusive, they’re always in the middle of the crowd. It really makes a difference in how the audience perceives the music. “That’s what Providence is, the music is just a part of the city.”

Donna and Marie have lunch every day at Amenities deli, a block further down Westminster Street. “They fax us the specials each morning,” says Donna. “Everything there is delicious,” adds Marie. They’ve both been working at Rhode Island Housing, a few blocks away, for more than a decade. “They really take care of their employees and their customers.”

Sara is studying graphic design at RISD. We met her in November, buying a turkey sandwich at Farmstead. “I’m buying turkey because we didn’t have it for Thanksgiving. My boyfriend is a vegetarian, and we had tofu. “It was delicious though.”

According to the latest statistics from the US Census Bureau, 47.8% of people in Providence speak a language that isn’t English at home.

Over the last 30 years, the percentage of Providence residents who define themselves as ‘Hispanic’ or ‘Latino’ in the census has risen from 5.8% to 37.6%. Here in Downtown, the last census reported that 11.1% of residents fit in this category.

For English translations of the texts, see below.

En camino a su clase de español en la Universidad de Rhode Island, Jane, una profesora de inglés, cuenta, “I saw a movie about someone who writes a list of things to do before he dies. I went and found the lists I wrote when I was 20 years old. Number two or three on every list was ‘learn Spanish.’” (Vi una película sobre un señor que escribe listas de cosas que quiere hacer antes de morir. Fui a casa y encontré las listas que escribí cuando tenía 20 años. El número dos o tres en cada una de ellas era ‘aprender español’.)

Aneudy, líder de proyectos para City Year, visita escuelas públicas para ayudar a estudiantes con dificultades escolares a graduarse. “Soy dominicano,” dice, “y la mayoría de los jóvenes con los que nosotros trabajamos son hispanos. Nuestra comunicación se hace más fácil cuando hablo con ellos en español.”

Laura nació en Nueva York de una familia dominicana. Tiene siete años viviendo en Rhode Island y trabaja al lado de la ventana en AAA. “Yo hago cosas de matriculación. Cuando la gente tiene que renovar su licencia, yo soy la persona que lo hace. Y si alguien viene que no habla inglés y necesita seguros, les ayudo a ellos también. Es mi primer ‘real job’, y me gusta.”

Belén, staffing specialist para Manpower que está localizado en el tercer piso del edificio AAA, es puertorriqueña y lleva 30 años en Rhode Island. “Me considero una Rhode Islander. Aproximadamente el 75% de la gente que viene a Manpower es hispana, pero if they don’t speak enough English, we can’t help them get a job.” (si no hablan suficiente inglés, no les podemos ayudar a conseguir trabajo.)

Daniel es puertorriqueño. “From twelve generations on both sides of my family. In over 80% of the island, there’s someone with one of my last names.” (Doce generaciones de cada lado de mi familia viene de Puerto Rico. En más del 80% de la isla, hay alguien con uno de mis apellidos.) Trabaja como vigilante de seguridad mientras estudia justicia criminal. Lleva nueve años practicando artes marciales. “When you get into it, it starts to envelop you.” (Cuando te metes en ello, empieza a envolverte.)

Mario lleva 30 años en Rhode Island. “Quiero a este estado, me siento bien aquí. Me gusta la tranquilidad sobre todo.” Este colombiano quien vive en Pawtucket hace la limpieza de los cuatro edificios de Westminster Lofts de la calle Westminster. “Me gusta lo que hago, nos tiene que gustar lo que hacemos, no?”

English Translations

Jane, an English teacher, is on her way to a Spanish class at URI. “I saw a movie about someone who writes a list of things to do before he dies. I went and found the lists I wrote when I was 20 years old. Number two or three on every list was ‘learn Spanish.’”

Aneudy is a project leader for City Year. He visits public schools to help students who have academic difficulties so that they can graduate and go to college. “I’m Dominican. The majority of the young people we work with are Hispanic. It’s much easier to talk with them in Spanish.”

Laura was born in New York to a Dominican family. She’s been in Rhode Island for seven years, and works next to the Westminster Stories window in AAA. “I do the driving licenses. When people need to renew their license, I’m the person who does it. And if anyone comes here who doesn’t speak English, and they need insurance, I help them out. It’s my first ‘real job’ and I like it.”

Belén is a staffing specialist for Manpower, on the third floor of the AAA building. She’s Puerto Rican, and has lived in Rhode Island for 30 years. “I consider myself a Rhode Islander. About 75% of people who come to Manpower are Hispanic, but if they don’t speak enough English, we can’t help them get a job.”

Daniel is Puerto Rican. “From twelve generations on both sides of my family. In over 80% of the island, there’s someone with one of my last names.” He works as a security guard while studying for a masters in criminal justice. He’s also being a practicing martial artist for the last nine years. “When you get into it, it starts to envelop you.”

Mario has spent the last 30 years in Rhode Island. “I love this state, I feel good here. Above all, I like its peaceful nature.” Originally born in Colombia, he lives in Pawtucket and he cleans the four buildings owned by Westminster Lofts on and around Westminster Street. “I like what I do. We have to like what we do, don’t we”?

Mandy is from Tennessee. One day, she went out to visit her sister in LA. “I met Curt there – end of story.” They’ve been married almost seven years. They now live in Rhode Island, and work together at Fidelity Investments. They visit The 201, next to the Westminster Stories window, pretty regularly – two months ago, Mandy’s band played a special gig there for Curt’s birthday.

Andrea and Josh are here to celebrate their anniversary. They live together in Boston, where they are both graduate students. They chose to come celebrate in Providence because “we’ve never been here before.” They’re staying at the Biltmore, and are heading for breakfast at Tazza. “Do you know where it is? Right over there? Great!”

In February 2004, Tazza hosted a celebration of International Quirkyalone Day – which takes place on Valentine’s Day. According to the Quirkyalone website, it’s “a call to arms to celebrate the possibiliies open to single people today. It’s not anti-Valentine’s Day. It just happens to fall on the same day.” To learn more, visit www.quirkyalone.net

Ten years ago, a man approached Tony the Dancing Cop with something for him to look after, and an idea. A few hours later, the man crossed the intersection of Dorrance and Westminster Street, with his girlfriend. Tony stopped the traffic… then the man got down on one knee. Tony handed him the engagement ring, and the man proposed right there in the middle of the street. “When she said yes, all the cars beeped their horns in celebration. It was a really lovely thing.”

Tiffany and Jessie were the first Rhode Islanders to get married in Massachusetts after the law changed. “It worked out perfectly – our marriage certificate was issued four years to the day after our civil union in Vermont, and it’s the anniversary of the day we met.” They’ve been together for 14 years, after meeting on the first day of college. “It’s still working out.”

For fifty years, until the late 1980s, engaged couples would get their portraits taken by Stephen Gabermann, whose final studio was in the Alice Building, opposite Craftland. Originally from Austria, he moved to the US in the 1920s, when he was still a child, and went on to serve in the navy at Guantanamo Bay during WWII. His pictures, which always carried his distinctive signature, were retouched by hand. Like he used to say, “People like to be flattered.”

Sharon and Charlie are window shopping on Westminster Street, “looking at things we can’t afford.” They’re been together for 30 years. He’s holding a book he just picked up at Symposium Books across the street, while she has a copy of Providence Monthly. “We’ve always loved Providence,” says Sharon. Charlie agrees. “You never know who you’re going to bump into.”

Where Design Within Reach is today, just opposite Two Brothers, used to be a store called Richley’s Cards and Gifts. On Valentine’s Day, it sold a variety of special items, including candles and cards. The store opened in 1962, and stayed the entire pedestrianization throughout of Westminster Street, closing a few years after the street was opened up again to traffic. The name itself was a hybrid of the names of the owner’s two children: Richard and Shelley.

Devina is the store manager at Craftland. “I work here two days a week. I also have my own jewelry line, and I’m a mother of two. Who needs sleep, right?” Originally from Indonesia, she went to study in Oregon in 1997, and then came to RISD in 2004. She started working at Craftland just after graduation, four years ago. “I just loved working with the people who were organizing the store, so I decided to become one of them.”

The building on the corner of Westminster and Dorrance Streets was built in 1922 to house a Woolworth’s store. It still has the letter ‘W’ inscribed in various details, though the store left in the 1950s to move a block further up the street. Before Woolworth’s, there was a 120-room hotel on the same spot. The Dorrance Hotel’s rates in 1882 were between $2.50 to $4.00 per day.

About six years ago, Jerry was working on the renovation of these buildings, “and we were chatting about what might go here. We agreed it needed a good liquor store. “Two weeks later, a liquor license came up for auction. I got it, and went ahead with this store.” He called it Eno. “I know the least about wine of any of the people here, but my employees have been teaching me about it.”

Two Brothers Beauty Supply is not the first store of its kind on Westminster Street. A hundred and fifty years ago, right across the street, E Chabassol “from Paris” sold “wigs, half wigs, toupees, braids etc” as well as “bachelor’s hair dye.” They also offered “bathing rooms for both sexes.”

When Mike was about eight years old, he went shopping with his sister at the Peerless store, on the corner of Union Street. “I was in the elevator and it got stuck between the first and second floors. They forced the doors, and pulled me up. Just afterwards, the elevator suddenly started moving. Kinda disturbing to think about now.” Two years ago, Mike, who is a police officer, moved into an apartment in the former Peerless building. “I truly love living there,” he says. He takes the elevator every day.

The building with the Westminster Stories window has the name “Kresge” written on it, after the SS Kresge Company that built it in 1930. The company started in 1897 as a five-and-dime store in Memphis, Tennessee. By 1915, the Kresge store was occupying a building on this spot, sharing the space with the Chin Lee Chinese restaurant, before it built this building. In 1977, by which time it had already left Westminster Street, the company changed its name from Kresge to Kmart.

Pamela and Janet are roommates at Johnson and Wales University. They went to CVS in the mall to buy some food, and ended up “spending $200 at Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret.” They are sophomores in International Business and Criminal Justice. They describe themselves as “shopoholics.”

In 1859, seven years after the first department store opened in New York, Callender, McAuslan & Troup, aka The Boston Store, arrived in Providence. They built the building on the corner of Union and Westminster, currently housing Craftland and others, in 1873, expanding it in 1892. You can still their name written in the brickwork. In the 1950s, the Peerless Company of Pawtucket took over the space. It closed in the late 1980s, but its name remains as well. There are now loft apartments here, in a space known as 
The Peerless Building.

Anne, who is in grad school at RISD studying community-based art education, grew up in Detroit. Ruth was born in Austria, while her dad was working in Eastern Europe, and is a double major in furniture and textile design at RISD. Right now, they are working on a classmate’s project. “We have to find locations using a GPS device, then switch locations, and the other team has to find where we mark on the device.”

Suzanne is studying biological science at URI. “I want to be a doctor. I’ve had several relatives and friends die of cancer, and I want to become a cancer research scientist, and understand how people are being treated for cancer. “I decided to do that maybe thirty years ago, but because I’ve always been poor, I didn’t think I had a chance. Five years ago, I thought I would try anyway. I have no idea when I’ll finish –I have to drop out from time to time, for financial reasons.”

Elsa is from Texas, and has lived downtown for about two years. She is an international hotel and tourism student at Johnson and Wales, and last spring she spent two months working in Switzerland as part of her course. She originally studied psychology, and “then decided to take my people skills in a different direction.” She bought her tights at American Apparel. “I love 
all things colorful.”

Johnell is studying criminal justice with the Comprehensive Community Action Program. “I want to work with young teens, be a probation officer, try to prevent them from getting in trouble.”

These children are aged three to five years old, and are on their way to Monument Park. Never heard of it? That’s because they have their own names for city landmarks – Monument Park is actually Memorial Park, just across the river. They are students at the Dr. Pat Feinstein Early Childhood Education Center at URI, at the corner of Union Street and Westminster Street. One of their teachers, Deb, says that the city is their classroom.  “A lot of parents want their child to be exposed to the diversity in the city.”

Vellachi is on her way to her studio at RISD. She’s a graduate student, studying textiles. “I came here from southern India, from Bangalore. “My options were UK and US, I chose here because culturally there’s more exposure to television and movies from the US in India. I’m not sure if I’ll stay afterwards. Textiles is a really important export economy in India, and it’s a lot more hands on. I’m happy for what I’ve learnt here, but that’s where the playing field is. I can go back and put what I’ve learned here to use.”

Beth “committed the ultimate sin – I never went to college after high school.” She’s now studying for a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Johnson and Wales part time. In her day job, she works in human resources, upstairs at the Bank of America building, down Westminster Street to your right. “In the summer, we have our windows open, and we listen to this one guy who always plays the sax down here.”

On the other side of Dorrance Street, where Tim Horton’s is now, was the original Providence location of Bryant, Stratton and Mason’s College of Business Administration, founded in 1863 to teach business skills to Civil War veterans. About ten years later, it transferred to a building further up Westminster Street, and then in 1916, it moved to where the Bank of America building now is. The College finally left Providence for Smithfield in 1971, where it is now known as Bryant University.

The trees on Westminster Street are a mixture of honey locusts and kwanzan cherries. They were planted in 1989 when the all-pedestrian Westminster Mall was demolished. In the wild, most honey locusts have sharp, six-inch thorns and messy seed pods. This variety, Gleditsia triacanthos ‘inermis’, has been specially bred to have neither. They live to up to 130 years old, and according to Doug, the City Forester, are “one of the toughest urban trees around.”

Peter works from home as a graphic designer, and takes breaks to photograph birds from the roof of his apartment building. He then puts his pictures online, and sometimes exhibits them. “If you’re walking past Kennedy Plaza and you see the pigeons are going nuts, maybe the red-tailed hawk is there. It’s funny, it is a downtown area, but the other day there was an owl in front of Starbucks. I’ve also seen a kestrel right outside my window, and an osprey by Waterplace Park. But the falcons are just beautiful. I can’t believe I get to see them every day.”

The evergreen shrub outside AAA is a Japanese yew whose Latin name is Taxus cuspidata. Originally from East Asia, examples have been found in Russia that were over a thousand years old. Behind it are planters, donated to the city two years ago by The Arcade. They’re empty right now, but every spring, they are filled with flowers such as petunias, begonias and impatiens by the Downtown Improvement District, who also maintain the seasonal hanging baskets on the lampposts.

Matilda the bulldog comes to Westminster Street a couple of times a month, along with her owners, Rich and Sheryl, from their home on the East Side. “She’s really a city dog,” says Sheryl. “Most stores downtown let her in, which is part of the reason we bring her here.” Matilda is seven years old, and used to belong to a family with six girls. “They dressed her up all the time,” says Rich. “We tried one time to dress her as a French poodle. She didn’t like that at all.”

Between 1960 and 1994, Woolworth’s occupied the space where Elsa Arms, Homestyle, and Eno are today. Its pet department began in the basement, before moving to the ground floor in the late 1980s, to be closer to the toy department. Don was store manager then. “We had hamsters, guinea pigs, goldfish – not that much.” Today, he runs a pet store in East Providence called Dr Doolittle’s.

Charlie likes to watch life on Westminster Street, from a window perch on the sixth floor of the William H. Low Building. A kitten of seven months, he was born a few blocks away in the Providence Animal Rescue League shelter. “They called him ‘Leather Face’, from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” say his owners, Andrew and Lyra. “Because of his little moustache, we renamed him ‘Charlie.’”

The dogs who sniff them may not know it, but the cast-iron tree grates and some of the trash cans on the street have a canine connection. They were made twenty years ago by Urban Accessories in Tacoma, WA, and were named “OT”, after the company owner’s husky, Otie. Although no longer alive, Otie’s image still graces their catalogs today.

The peregrine falcon is the fastest creature on the planet, reaching speeds of more than 200mph in its hunting dive. Two of them live in a special box on the Bank of America building, and can often be seen flying around Westminster Street. The female has been here for ten years, and she’s now with what is thought to be her third mate. Last year, they had four chicks together – all of whom flew elsewhere as soon as they were big enough.

Kim is an organic garden designer and singer-songwriter. She lives in Tiverton, but regularly comes into Providence to perform. For a song she wrote recently, “I sent out a text message to my friends saying ‘Tell me something about your dad.’ I got crazy stuff. One of the lines was ‘The blue hue bouncing off and through his beer bottle.’ How beautiful is that? The chorus is ‘I’ll pretend to fall asleep on the ride home.’ I know a lot of kids who pretended to fall asleep when they were little, so their dads would carry them into the house.”

Lina is from East Providence, and has been working for public accounting and consulting firm Sansiveri, Kimball and McNamee for 24 years. Their main offices are on the fifth floor above AAA, where she is a secretary in the tax department. She has two sons, aged 14 and 18. “The oldest one’s at Brown University, I can be there in less than ten minutes. I’ll drive up, he’ll come out with his bag of dirty clothes, and then I bring it back clean. I don’t mind, I did offer. His roommate’s jealous — his parents aren’t close enough to do that.”

John lost his parents “very early”, and was raised in Federal Hill by his grandmother. “She couldn’t speak a word of English. It was food stamps, welfare clothes, cold water, no tub. Carry the kerosene upstairs, heat the bricks, put them in the bed. My uncle went to jail for killing somebody. Another uncle went there for stealing.” When he was 13, his family decided to send him to an orphanage. “I came to a crossroads when I was 18. I was either going to go to jail, or continue at school.” He chose to train to be a teacher, and then as a lawyer. For the last 26 years, John has been the City Councilman representing this section of downtown, as well as the West End and Federal Hill. “We do what we got to do.”

Patty and Brian work around the corner at Rhode Island Housing, and come by regularly to get coffee at Tazza. At home, they have “four kids, a bulldog, a Yorkie, and two cats, and they all get along.”

Seung named her store for her sons: Two Brothers. They were teenagers when the store opened in 1994, and they worked behind the counter in its original location, where the parking lot across from Tazza now lies. When that building was demolished, the store moved to its current location inside the former Providence Journal building. Now one brother has his own business in Boston, while the other works on Wall Street. Seung is originally from Korea, and most of her customers are black. Her favorite item on sale? “I love my wigs!”

Teresa was a widowed mother of six who could speak only broken English, when she decided to open up her own restaurant. “It all started with this brave little Italian woman,” says Teresa’s daughter Angela. Now aged 72, Teresa still rules the kitchen at Mama Teresa’s, which has been downtown next to this window since 1994. Her kids are now married with children of their own, but they nearly all help out sometimes at this popular lunch spot. “At night, this turns into a bar, The 201, and Mama Teresa goes to bed. That is, if she’s not playing poker with her sisters,” says granddaughter Adriana. As for Teresa herself, we asked her to name the most popular dish that she makes. She has a simple answer: “The people, they like everything!”

The two buildings at 219-227 Westminster Street were named after dead parents. The heirs of Hannah Greene erected the smaller, red building in 1879, and named it after her. Next door, The William H. Low Estate Building was built in 1897 — named after a 19th-century property investor, memorialized this way by his son, William H. Low Jr. Directly across the street is the Alice Building. Alice was the daughter of Irish-born rubber magnate Joseph Banigan, whose picture is here. She was very much alive when the building was finished in 1898, though he died later that year. Alice herself died of influenza in 1909, aged 43.

In 2007, Ted moved downtown from Warwick, to start the Downcity Church in Kennedy Plaza. “It was a strategic decision to be around political and business leaders who influence other people. Let’s engage them with the difference Jesus can make in their life.” Ted lives in the Peerless Building, above Craftland. He is the son of a Baptist pastor, and his church is non-denominational. “I think denominational tags remove you a couple of steps away from the scripture itself.”

Joyce believes in peace. Every Wednesday lunchtime for seven years during the 1980s, Joyce stood on Westminster Street as part of a vigil “for world peace and disarmament.” Sometimes she’d be on her own, while other times, people would join her. “We stood here for years, through all different kinds of weather.” Today, she stands in vigil outside the 169th Military Police barracks in Warren. “I prefer doing a vigil by myself, as I can say ‘This is my opinion and this is my statement. What’s yours?’ Shine your own light, get a sign and pick a spot.”

Right now, Bob is “studying mysticism a lot. There’s a writer who is very fascinating to me, Caroline Myss. She’s supposed to be able to look at people and see what’s wrong with them internally. I stay open minded, sometimes you learn things that you wouldn’t think you would learn.” You can find him downtown most days. “This is my neighborhood.”

The tall red building at the junction of Westminster and Union Streets stands on the site of Providence’s First Universalist Church. Opened in 1823, on a lot that cost $2,000, it burnt down two years later. A new church was then built on the same spot, and dedicated on December 29th 1825. It contained 122 pews, and a tall wooden steeple with a clock. The congregation was around 600 people. In 1870, the land was sold to a department store for $101,500, and the church made way for the current building. The congregation built a new church a few blocks away, on Washington Street, which is still there today.

Lou believes in giving back. “It keeps me going.” In the morning, he helps to keep Westminster Street and the rest of downtown clean, while at night he is a drug and alcohol counsellor at MAP Alcohol and Drug Rehab Services on Elmwood Avenue. Twenty years ago, he got clean, and since then has been working to help others make the same step. “I love reaching out to people. You have to not judge, but try to figure out what kinds of problems people have. Some people had a good life, some had a rough life. We run from different things.”

Alissa is doing a doctorate in the philosophy of religion at Brown University, while Heidi is studying Roman religion and archaeology. Six mornings a week, they go running down Westminster Street, together with Heidi’s dog Delphi, who is named after an ancient Greek religious sanctuary. “Faith is a resource for the questions we all ask about what we’re doing, what is the meaning of life, all the big cheesy questions,” says Alissa, who used to be a journalist in New York before moving to an apartment downtown. Heidi, who lives up on the East Side, agrees, saying that “these are questions that underpin a lot of politics and history.” “And getting to sleep at night,” adds Alissa. “I’m serious!”

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when this section of Westminster Street was pedestrianized, Irene and Ada were a local fixture, playing Christian hymns on their trumpet and keyboard to passersby. They were members of the Grace and Hope Mission, and they moved to Providence from Philadelphia in 1935. They were paid a $5 weekly stipend, were celibate and would often enter local bars and restaurants, offering to pray with people. They finally left Providence in 2006, after a doctor advised them to stop their street performances. Ada died aged 88 in January 2007, while Irene died in April 2009, aged 93.

Catherine recently moved to Providence, but “you wouldn’t believe why if I told you. The good Lord sent me here. I hesitated, but He said ‘Go to Rhode Island.’” She was born in Liberia and grew up in New York City, where she worked as a banker for 25 years. She’s now studying at URI for a degree in human development and family services. “At my age, I feel it’s never too old. Nothing is impossible.”