Current Site

Providence Piers is located on the western shore of Providence Harbor at 180-200 Allens Avenue (Route 1A) in Providence, Rhode Island. The eleven-acre site, bisected by the eastern terminus of Public Street, offers easy access from Interstates I-95 and I-195 and is highly visible to its vehicular traffic. Providence Piers is bordered to the north by Sprague Energy and to the south by Promet Marine Services, a commercial boat repair and refurbishment business. The Promet property is better known as State Pier No. 1 for its prior role as a major port of entry for immigrants in the early twentieth century. Providence Piers sits at the northern edge of the city’s old industrial waterfront, just south of the revitalized Jewelry District and east of a major health care campus that provides employment to nearly ten thousand area residents. Until recently, Cargill Energy utilized a substantial portion of the Providence Piers site as an oil storage and distribution facility. In 2005, the developer cleared the site of all existing tanks and the distribution facility was dismantled. A 776-foot long dock, used primarily by tankers for offloading oil products, had not been in use for years and was in disrepair.

A four-story brick structure topped with an unusual barrel-roof located on the southern edge of the parcel was constructed in 1899 for use as a purification facility by the Providence Gas Company. Following World War I the building changed hands several times, serving for a period in the mid - 1920s as home to a teaming company that stored and distributed the imports of the Fabre Line. After Fabre ceased its calls at the Port of Providence in 1934, the building was vacant for several years before its acquisition by City Tire Company. From the 1940s until the 1990s, it served the automotive needs of area residents as City Tire. This structure (with later additions) was abandoned and acquired by the developer in 2001 at a city tax sale. The 45,000 square foot building, now known as Conley’s Wharf has been fully rehabilitated and is now open as a mixed use complex that houses artists studios,an art gallery, a conference center and a special function facility. Due to its status as the oldest surviving structure along the Allens Avenue waterfront and its unique engineering (utilizing a combination of cast-in-place concrete and a complex of steel trusses supporting both ceilings and floors), Conley’s Wharf was placed on the City’s historically significant “Industrial and Commercial Buildings Inventory”, and is now individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.