The Bayard Ewing Building is a Greek Revival structure on South Main Street in Providence, with a gable pediment facing the street. The Fall River Iron Works Company, founded in 1822 to make nails, built it in 1848 and occupied it until 1881.
It then served as the main office of the Rumford Chemical Works, a baking powder maker founded by Eben Horsford. In 1927 the Phillips Lead Company, a plumbing supply house, bought the property and used it until 1973. That year the city acquired it under an Urban Renewal plan, and the building was judged significant and preserved.
The Rhode Island School of Design bought it and converted it into classroom and studio spaces in 1978 for several departments. Local architect Irving B. Haynes oversaw the restoration, one of the earliest adaptive reuse projects in Providence. The RISD directory lists the Architecture Department office here.
This building has no Wikipedia article. Facts come from Buildings of New England, RISD Architecture Department directory.
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