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Stringcourse A Providence Paper On What Buildings Used To Be

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Step 4 of five

The shape left in the ground

Nothing stands. The outline is still legible in a curb line, a change of paving, a wall that stops where a building used to start.

The two fronts at this step

  1. Step 4 of 5, the shape left in the groundA Curb Line That Remembers a TrackThe rails came up, the sidewalk stayed where it was, and the curve is still in the granite. A trace with no building at all, which is why it is the strangest entry in this paper.
  2. Step 4 of 5, the shape left in the groundA Lot With a Foundation Still In ItNothing stands. The building is still legible in a low wall, a step to nowhere and a scar on the neighbor, and that is more information than most standing buildings give up.

The five steps

  1. Step 1 of 5Still doing the first jobPut up for one purpose and still at it, which in a city that rebuilds itself this often is rarer than it sounds and worth going to look at while it lasts.
  2. Step 2 of 5New work in the old shellThe use inside has changed completely and the building has not. The most common step in this city and the one that rewards a slow walk past the outside.
  3. Step 3 of 5Pieces kept inside something newThe building came down and parts of it did not: a front, a stair, a run of iron columns, held inside whatever replaced it.
  4. Step 4 of 5The shape left in the groundNothing stands. The outline is still legible in a curb line, a change of paving, a wall that stops where a building used to start.
  5. Step 5 of 5Nothing left but the nameThe last step. No fabric at all, and a name still in use for a corner, a stop or a block, attached now to something that has no connection to it.