Thursday, June 25, 2015

Haunted Providence Journal Building Sold



   The sale of such an old significant building as 75 Fountain St. , the Providence Journal Building , the very source of so much local history, is worthy of a sentimental poem-if not the new owners.
Could there be any building in Rhode Island more haunted by the past, by memorable personalities ? At least a section of the reconstructed edifice might be considered for a Providence Journal museum or " morgue " as they say.
Viewing old PROJO microfilms might be as poignant an experience as the fictional last scene in the popular Hollywood movie " Cinema Paradiso ".
I can see that at the Cranston Public Library microfilm technology has improved. Perhaps -like many other old newspapers- the Providence Journal can be completely digitized. Last year I read about a similar project for the Brown Daily Herald.
Way back in 1972 I was able to read the real printed versions of the Providence Journal going back to the 1920s at Brown's Rockefeller Library.
It was the next best thing to an H.G. Wells time machine.
I got a feel for what it was like to be poor in Providence in the year of the Great Depression-1933. I also came across my first anti-war letter published in 1967: " Dying for a Colossal Lie ".

           

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Ron