The Negatives of Gentrification

Paper Summary:

The paper looks closely at "Fort Thunder", a community in Rhode Island that ceased to be a thriving artistic area when city-planners and architects decided that it needed to be brought more in line with modern aesthetic sensibilities. The paper maintains that those who are looking at "refurbishing" an urban site should take into account the history of the site and whether the changes will take away more from the local community than any structural improvements might give back to it.

From the Paper:

"To begin with, it must be understood that the Fort Thunder community was not simply a meeting-place for local bohemian, artistic types; it was also an enormous milling operation at one time. To elaborate a little further, 1842 saw a gentleman named John Giles found Valley Worsted Mills on the location; the operation was one of the earliest worsted mills in all the United States. 1866 saw the impressive operation stricken by a catastrophic fire that destroyed the main mill. Despite this set-back, Giles immediately set upon building a new structure and the revamped mill site - now including further additions - soon became enormously profitable; indeed, by the 1890s it was producing 100,000 pounds of worsted yarn per month. Sadly for the employees of the mill, all good things must invariably come to an end and the twentieth century saw a gradual decline in the demand for the mill's products. In 1928, the American Woolen Company (which had taken over the mill in 1899) relinquished the property and the plot was (after three years had elapsed) sold to a local realtor who in turn leased the space to a variety of other businesses - including textile companies ("Eagle Square, formerly Valley Worsted Mills: History," para.1-3)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Deutsche, Rosalyn and Cara Gendel Ryan. "The Fine Art of Gentrification." October, 31 (1984): 91-111.
• "Eagle Square, formerly Valley Worsted Mills" History." Art in Ruins. 2006. AIR: ArtinRuins. 14 Dec. 2006 <http://www.artinruins.com/arch/rip/eaglesquare/>
• "Fort Thunder Forever." The Comics Reporter. 2006. Tom Spurgeon. 14 Dec. 2006 <http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/briefings/commentary/1863/>
• Ionnis, Ian. "News Stories - Dig the New Breed: Eagle Square Part I." Art in Ruins. Dec. 2000. AIR: ArtinRuins. 14 Dec. 2006 <http://www.artinruins.com/arch/rip/eaglesquare/>
• Wiesner, Jeff. "Fort Thunder: The Pigs Came in and Blew the House Down." Double Negative Magazine. N.d. Doublenegative.org. 14 Dec. 2006 <http://www.doublenegative.org/17/writing/thunder.html>

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