Affordable Downtown Housing Restored
Published on Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Historic rooming house rehabbed and listed in the National Register
(Providence) A newly restored multi-unit building in South Providence is evidence that urban workforce housing has been in high demand for at least a century. Copley Chambers, a downtown rooming house built in 1913 to serve the needs of a growing city, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and historical significance. The building is a good example of a 20th-century “downtown rooming house,” which offered convenient and affordable housing for urban workers. The property was recently rehabilitated by Marathon Construction & Development with the help of state and federal Historic Tax Credits. Copley Chambers reopened in 2024 as housing for young adults transitioning out of foster care.
Built on Broad Street in 1913, Copley Chambers served a rapidly expanding class of urban workers seeking affordable short-term lodging with easy access to workplaces and amenities. Commercial space on the first floor operated beneath approximately 41 small, shared-bath residential rooms above. For $5.75 a week, a residential tenant could secure a “sumptuously furnished room” with easy trolley access to work, community life, and entertainment. Potential employers such as the American Screw Company, Providence Machine Company, and Rhode Island Hospital were less than a mile away, and downtown amenities were also close at hand. Copley Chambers was just one of many multi-tenant residential buildings in the neighborhood.
Providence-born real estate developer Edwin Foster Cary built Copley Chambers as an investment property, and he sold the building within a year of opening. Cary likely borrowed the name from Boston’s Copley Plaza Hotel, completed the year before, to capitalize on that building’s respectable image.
Generally, residents of downtown rooming houses were young and single, and they worked across industries and trades, from clerks, salesmen, and policemen, to nurses, machinists, and carpenters. These urban professionals – who included men and women – boarded in rooming houses, rather than apartment buildings, because they were more affordable. Advertisements, census records, and city directories provide information about Copley Chambers’ early tenants, who were all white, mostly male, American-born, and employed in white-collar jobs. The clientele turned over regularly, as was common in rooming houses, and by 1920, records show more married couples and blue-collar workers living at Copley Chambers.
Ownership of the building changed several times between 1925 and 1960, and the property was variously known as the Copley Plaza Hotel, the Milner Hotel, and the Continental. Tenancy slowed after World War II as demand for rooming houses like Copley Chambers, as new housing options became available and urban population growth slowed. Post-war urban renewal and the construction of I-95 through Providence resulted in the demolition of hundreds of buildings in the neighborhood, including the loss of many rooming houses, and separated Broad Street from downtown life. A series of code violations and fires in the early 1970s forced Copley Chambers to permanently close in 1975.
50 years later, Copley Chambers is once again home to dozens of young residents. Like much of Rhode Island, Providence currently faces a housing crisis, and affordable rental housing is scarce. Redevelopment projects like Copley Chambers are part of the solution – in this case, essentially restoring a historic rooming house to its original purpose. Many of the original rooming house features – both its layout and materials – remain in the 26 small apartments that now populate the building.
Joanna Doherty, Deputy Director at the State Historic Preservation Office, is proud of what this accomplishment means for documenting the history of working Americans. She commented, “Copley Chambers’ inclusion in the National Register is a testament to the significance of everyday places. Buildings that housed Providence’s booming working class tell an important story, and we are pleased to see that recognized through this nomination.”
In 2020, Marathon Construction & Development began planning for a new type of affordable housing at Copley Chambers. They used historic and low-income housing tax credits, combined with other incentives, to turn the building into fully-furnished apartments for young adults who are aging out of the foster care system and who have few affordable options otherwise. Marathon Construction received a historic preservation award from Preserve RI for the project in 2023, recognizing both the thoughtful restoration and the meaningful contribution to the community. Upon receiving the award, President and CEO Harry Angevine remarked, “To be able to repurpose an existing building is much more valuable to the fabric of the community than building any new construction project.”
About the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission / State Historic Preservation Office (RIHPHC / SHPO)
The Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission identifies and protects historic buildings, districts, structures, landscapes, and archaeological sites with state and national significance. As the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), the agency is responsible for submitting Rhode Island nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of sites worthy of preservation. The agency also develops and carries out programs to document and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Rhode Islanders, past and present. For more information, visit PRESERVATION.RI.GOV.
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