(05-02-2020 12:28 PM)billyjack Wrote:  

(05-01-2020 08:10 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  To keep this thread going during the doldrums of spring/summer, I will "study" a Big East campus each week and post some thoughts. I will geographically move from east and move west. So the Providence campus should be my first "assessment." We've touched on the UConn campus but I might return with some final takes.

Enjoy your day, gents, and I shall be touch.

Hi Bill,
I can touch on the general PC area as you make your way around Google maps.

PC has a relatively small campus, pretty much square-shaped. It's in a working-class residential area on the north side of the city, like a couple of miles from downtown Providence. To what i'm gonna call the south and west are single family houses; to the east are typical 3 story tenement houses; to the north is a mix.

Generally, the city of Providence has a downtown, and then a series of roads heading out like spokes on a bicycle wheel. Two spokes border the campus-- Admiral Street to the north and Eaton Street to the south. But parallel and just to the south of Eaton, one block, is a high-traffic 2 lane road-- Route 44, aka Smith Street-- that is packed at rush hour heading to NW suburb towns of North Providence, Johnston, and Smithfield.

On the north side is River Ave, just a cut-across road. To the east waa Huxley Ave (dog mascot named after it). Huxley was closed to traffic just in the past couple of years.

Historically, the area if heavy Irish, Italuan, and Armenian. The There is no real solid "main street" for PC... a couple if random bars are in the area, on Admiral (in Eagle Park), and on Smith. There's an excellent Italian bakery on Smith (LaSalle Bakery), amd another one named Zaccagnini's which is not far from a supermarket plaza. Mainly, the few restaurants in this area are used by locals as much as PC students. There are no chain restaurants in the general area. There's a Newport Creamery, the statewide burger-ice cream shop, on Smith Street.

The more popular college hangout area is on Thayer Street at the Brown campus, which is on the "East Side" of the city, up the hill from downtown. When on Thayer Street, i do see Friar students hanging out, along with Brown and RISD students. it's too far to walk from PC to Brown, with no good sidewalks, but i guess they drive. Sometimes after PC games, i take the kuds to eat on Thayer, and often see Friar players sitting in the next booth. After the Marquette win, Luwane Pipkins was with us at Shake Shack, and other Friars were at a smoothie bar.

The PC vampus entrance is ob the corner of River and Eaton, with the original building and current admun right there in Harkley Hall. The track is just to its north. The north side of campus also has, going clockwise, the new Ruane Center for PC hoops, Student Union and bookstore known as the Slavin Center, the lacrosse field, the gorgeous and renovated 3500 seat on-campus hockey rink (Schneider Arena) which is on the corner of Admiral and Huxley, the new soccer field and softball field (site of former baseball field). To the south side of campus are dorms, classrooms, the library, and that important academic stuff. There's a small chapel on campus, but the area church is really St Pius, on the south side of Eaton Street.

Ok, that's a quick rundown to help get you going. Safe area. As kids there were lemonade shops (Google up Mr Lemon on Hawkins Street just to the northeast), my dentist, drug store, supermarket, bakeries like i mentioned. My grandmother was born in a tenement on Hawkins in the mill area of Wanskuck. Our Italian church was St Anne's, also on Hawkins-- Google that, it loooks like something in Siena.

Also, PC gave kids of immigrants a chance for a college education, like some in my family the generation before me. Kids could live at home at go to school at PC. it's very well-respected in the community-- it's not some insular heavy-handed scholl that bullies the locals. I didnt even go there (i'm a RISD alum), but i'm a huge fan of the school going back to my childhood in the 70's.

Also, PC played on campus thru 1972. Then the Friars moved into the Dunk (back then, the Providence Civic Center), which fit 12k, the second largest arena in New England at the time, behind only the Boston Garden. Major national program, lot of NBA-ers, one of the few colleges in a major downtown arena (another groundbreaking PC idea).

Ok, enjoy. I can try to answer any other questions you have.