Merry Christmas to all my readers. I value all of you so much and this year I have met quite a few of you, here and there, at genealogy events. That was so nice! You all keep me going, and you are all moving Rhode Island genealogy forward.
Hope you enjoy this stroll through a Providence Christmas of 75 years ago as much as I did. Clicking on the pictures will expand them.
Providence, December, 1940
The Outlet Department Store on Weybosset Street, in the snow. This is my favorite photo. I remember the fancy “O” on each upper window.
Putting up the Christmas decorations (in December!).
The Shepard’s Clock on Westminster Street. There is Beauty Shoppe Entrance sign at the top of the photo. Except for the clock, most of this is unfamiliar to me.
Trolley cars in the snow near the Veterans Memorial Auditorium and what I believe used to be the unoccupied Masonic Hall.
Christmas trees being unloaded near Brown & Sharpe.
I believe this is shoppers looking at a doll display in the window of the Outlet. The Market Basket, a supermarket, is across the street.
The Veterans Memorial Auditorium/Masonic Hall, with the State House lawn to one side. The Industrial National Bank building rises in the distance.
Santa and some toys, this was a Shepards’ window (thanks Midge Frazel for spotting the sign). I love the woman with curlers in her hair. You don’t see that much anymore.
R.I. Cycle Co., a view of people looking in the window.
A display window at Woolworths with children’s books. This is my second favorite photo.
Rain/snow at a busy intersection, Providence
Gazing at a display for the Toy Department, 4th floor. This doesn’t look like the other Outlet windows. Could it be Shepards?
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Photos by Jack Delano, U.S. Farm Security Administration. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection.
One Rhode Island Family 
My God what wonderful memories these pictures bring ! I remember the Providence of the early 1950’s, 10 years after the pictures, but close enough. I do recall electrified buses rather than street cars, which had the overhead electrical cables and they used to spark a good deal which frightened me.
I worked in the Outlet for a year in 1970-71 after college to start paying off my school loan and before I went into programming. I remember the most amazing people there, Eddie Dember and Paul Windsor of Greenville in the shoe department, they were always making hilarious jokes and teaching me about how the system worked, and old Mr. Bachman, then in his late 70’s who my mother remembered had run a very swank men’s clothing store on Federal Hill years earlier. What a salesman he was, it was an education to watch him. He would stop a customer and point to his shoes and say something like, “those are getting worn out, we’ve got a good sale right over here !”. I also worked with Irving R. Levine’s father in the basement who taught me what constituted a good buy in men’s suits. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and get a better paying job and career, but I’ll never forget the year I spent there. I also met Dody Sinclair, the owner on the day that an elderly man came in and was looking all over the store as if recalling something from the past. It was Dody’s father and the look of remembrance on his face was priceless. I can only imagine the memories he must have had.
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Thanks so much for sharing these memories. Brought back a lot for me too; from a pretty young age kids were allowed to take a bus downtown, I was there many times. I remember the Outlet basement from about 1972 very well. A shiny red vinyl handle on the stairway going down. Old wooden counters everywhere down there, probably castoffs from fancier departments.
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Wonderful experience!
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Just found your blog via Perserve RI (?). Love the old pictures and the chance to glimpse historical Providence. Great work!
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Thanks iheartrhody!!
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Hi Diane, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! These pics are wonderful. Many times I think back to how wonderful it was to shop in the city at Christmas time. A friend and I did “nothing more than $3” for any item in a stocking and I still have a $3 gift certificate from the Outlet. I also have my mothers charge plate from the Shepard’s store. Thanks for posting!
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I remember those charge plates! They were metal. Happy New Year to you!
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What wonderful photos, Diane. I have many memories of shopping in the city where I was born, grew up in, and continue to live, Vancouver BC Canada. The window display for the big stores (Eaton’s, Hudson’s Bay) for Christmas were worth a special trip downtown, and our noses were pressed to the windows to watch the moving displays.
Merry Christmas, and best of the season now and in the New Year.
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Thank you for sharing those great photos. I was an infant at that time, but growing up, a trip downtown to see the Outlet windows was a wonderful treat. Many years later, I worked at the Outlet Company.
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