[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 65 (Monday, May 14, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4887-S4888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IN MEMORY OF ANTOINETTE F. DOWNING

 Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Mrs. 
Antoinette F. Downing.
  Mrs. Downing, acclaimed architectural historian and founding member 
of the Providence Preservation Society, passed away on Wednesday 
morning, May 9, 2001 at the age of 96.
  During her extraordinary lifetime, Antoinette believed in the 
intrinsic value of historic buildings, a revolutionary idea that 
changed Providence and Rhode Island. Mrs. Downing began her 
distinguished career as a scholar, researching and recording the 
State's historic structures. In 1937, her book Early Homes of Rhode 
Island was published, and remains the standard reference on 17th, 18th, 
and early 19th century building in the State. During the

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1930s and 1940s, Mrs. Downing raised a family and taught school. In the 
late 1940s, she returned to the study of architecture by assisting the 
newly founded Preservation Society of Newport County with a program to 
document and bring attention to the magnificent historic buildings in 
Newport. The effort produced the publication of The Architectural 
Heritage of Newport, Rhode Island, co-authored by Vincent J. Scully, 
Jr., in 1952.
  In the 1950s', Mrs. Downing's scholarship turned into activism in the 
College Hill neighborhood of her adopted hometown of Providence, an 
area with many dilapidated and unappreciated historic buildings 
threatened by plans for demolition. Mrs. Downing and other residents, 
determined to maintain the character of this neighborhood, organized 
the Providence Preservation Society. A report, which she helped to 
research and write, College Hill, A Demonstration Study of Historic 
Area Renewal (1959), became the blueprint for the neighborhood's 
restoration and a national model for using historic preservation as a 
means of community renewal.
  Through her hard work and conviction, Mrs. Downing made historic 
preservation part of every life in Rhode Island. Under her leadership, 
the Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission's statewide survey 
has identified about 50,000 historic buildings and sites in Rhode 
Island's 39 cities and towns. In all, more than 15,000 Rhode Island 
properties have been listed on the National Register of Historic 
Places. Furthermore, the reuse and rehabilitation of historic buildings 
has become an important part of the state's economy in the last decade.
  Throughout Antoinette Downing's lifelong work has run the belief that 
our historic districts, structures, and sites are resources worth 
keeping. Her work has created for our time and coming generations a way 
of connecting to history while building links to the future. We 
remember and thank Antoinette for her tireless efforts to save our 
heritage. We are all the beneficiaries of her visionary 
leadership.

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