Built 1906, 1925 Opened 1925 Demolished 2008 | NRHP Reference # 04000197 Area 3,238 m² Added to NRHP 18 March 2004 | |
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Architectural style Colonial Revival architecture Similar Brick Schoolhouse, Roger Williams Park, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Touro Synagogue, White Horse Tavern | ||
Louttit Laundry (or What Cheer Steam Laundry) was a historic commercial building at 93 Cranston Street in Providence, Rhode Island. It was built in 1906, expanded in 1925, damaged by fire in 2001, and demolished in 2008.
Contents
The building
The main building was a long two-story brick structure with modest Georgian Colonial Revival styling built in 1906, with an office block at one end, added in 1925. Its frontispiece featured a "projecting pedimented entrance."
History
William Louttit's Home Hand Laundry was established in 1896 by William E. Louttit, and his business grew rapidly, moving to this site in 1918, where the What Cheer Laundry (purchased by Loutitt) had operated since 1901. Loutitt operated from a 1906 building built by the What Cheer proprietors, and expanded in 1925 with the construction of this larger facility. At that time, Louttit was the largest laundry facility in Rhode Island, with over 150 employees and 16 locations. The building complex was sold in 1985 for 1.2 million dollars, and it closed two years later. A fire in 2001 destroyed most of the original 1906 building, leaving only the 1925 building standing.
The ground under the lot was contaminated over the years with cleaning chemicals and heating oil, requiring an extensive cleanup before the land could be used again. In 2005, the city received a $200,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency for a cleanup.
Unfortunately, the soil contamination was judged so bad that the only way to clean up the site would be to take down the building. Even efforts to keep Cranston Street Façade intact were decided in the end to be impractical. The city's Historic District Commission gave permission for demolition in October 2007, and the following year the entire structure was demolished by the J.R. Vinagro Corp.
As of 2012, the site has not been developed, and remains a vacant lot.
Preservation efforts
In an effort to attract attention to the site, the Providence Preservation Society listed the site on their Most Endangered List seven times, as well as listing it on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.