Sights ~ The Seal House ~ Roger Williams Park ~ Providence
We've been to Roger Williams Park on several occasions. It's one of our favorite outdoor places.
Near the Casino, on Roosevelt Lake, sits a small, charming stone building.
We'd wondered what it was for the longest time, and why it had been allowed to fall into such disrepair. You can see near the chimney the sorry state of the roof.
The windows are boarded up and it has a general look of neglect, complete with graffiti.
As lovers of small houses, Bear and I wondered if it might be a caretaker's cottage, and speculated on what it looked like inside. We also dreamed of what it might be like to fix it up and live in it.
It wasn't until the Providence Preservation Society released its 2012 list of 10 Most Endangered Properties that I learned the building's original purpose: it was a seal house.
Built in 1938 as part of the Works Progress Administration project, the building and that section of Roosevelt Lake housed seals. I don't know what it might have looked like 74 years ago, but today it's sad to think of seals being stuck in that sad, dank end of the lake. According to the PPS, it was just one of three buildings created to house animals during the WPA project. The other two housed monkeys and elephants.
The zoo consolidated all its animals in the 1970s, and since then the seal house has sat abandoned. I hope it lasts until economics allow it to be restored.
update: the Seal House underwent renovation in 2014
Near the Casino, on Roosevelt Lake, sits a small, charming stone building.
We'd wondered what it was for the longest time, and why it had been allowed to fall into such disrepair. You can see near the chimney the sorry state of the roof.
The windows are boarded up and it has a general look of neglect, complete with graffiti.
As lovers of small houses, Bear and I wondered if it might be a caretaker's cottage, and speculated on what it looked like inside. We also dreamed of what it might be like to fix it up and live in it.
It wasn't until the Providence Preservation Society released its 2012 list of 10 Most Endangered Properties that I learned the building's original purpose: it was a seal house.
Built in 1938 as part of the Works Progress Administration project, the building and that section of Roosevelt Lake housed seals. I don't know what it might have looked like 74 years ago, but today it's sad to think of seals being stuck in that sad, dank end of the lake. According to the PPS, it was just one of three buildings created to house animals during the WPA project. The other two housed monkeys and elephants.
The zoo consolidated all its animals in the 1970s, and since then the seal house has sat abandoned. I hope it lasts until economics allow it to be restored.
update: the Seal House underwent renovation in 2014
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