Tilden-Thurber Building. (Sandor Bodo/Providence Journal)
The Tilden-Thurber Building, erected in 1895, designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, of Boston, was sold last week but remains, so far as I can tell, as it was built, inside and out. Stanley Weiss, the local developer and fine antique furniture impresario, sold it to former mayor and longtime developer Joseph Paolino. “Providence’s historic Tilden-Thurber building sells for $712,000,” said the headline in the Providence Journal. That sounds like a tiny amount for so great a monument to the beauty of architecture in its heyday.
Here is a line from the downtown survey by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission: “4-story masonry building with classically inspired detailing including original stone pier-and-spandrel system on first and second stories with plate-glass and metal infill, colossal engaged and rusticated columns and quoined corners on third and fourth stories, broad Ionic entablature and ornate bracketed cornice; handsome, little-altered mahogany-cased interior space.” Gorham silver was on display here long after the firm evaporated.
The deal included side arrangements that may render the price meaningless. Paolino also bought Weiss’s mansion on Prospect Street, bought him a house on Pratt Street (which Weiss says will be renovated by Friedrich St. Florian, who designed the modernist house next door), and sold him a warehouse on Fourth Street for his massive collection behind the Festival Ballet Providence dance studio. The current tenant, a bike shop, will move elsewhere.
All that is neither here nor there. Who knows what will happen inside the building. A coffee shop on the ground floor? Offices upstairs? I hear but I don’t know. Weiss had the best office in the city, on the second story, whose huge plate-glass windows look out upon Grace Church across Mathewson and, kitty-corner, Grace Park at Freeman Square (or vice versa), a site he developed as the ritzy Hotel Providence. Its piazza is as close to European urbanism as it gets in Providence – which is, frankly, very, very close in many stretches of downtown. Weiss says his business is mainly catalogue sales to wealthy collectors from around the world, so he has not needed this elegant space for years. No doubt hesitant to leave it, he has been there for almost a quarter of a century. Because he has done so much, I have written about his activities for almost as long, and spent more than any man’s fair share of time in that office and in the magnificent showroom below.
But even if Paolino rents to new tenants with excellent taste in preserving the space and decorating it with rare sensibility, the interior cannot live up to the look of its recent past. Tomorrow it will be gone, but today it still takes much of its beauty from the collection of antiques crammed with a certain grace into the large rooms. Below are some shots taken in a spirit of joyful mourning, and blessed memory, before the advent of the men in vans.
Architecture Here and There 
I have an Old Pastel Picture That was from Tilden & Thurber that I had picked up back in 1975 for my fathers anniversary.
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John, is it a picture of the building or is it an item from the collection of art housed in the building?
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Hello David
It Is a nature scene
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Hello David This is the pastel drawing I was telling you about.
On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 8:12 PM Architecture Here and There wrote:
> David Brussat commented: “John, is it a picture of the building or is it > an item from the collection of art housed in the building?” >
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Thanks Dave for this lovely testimonial about our family store. I have many fond memories of working there. Tilden-Thurber was Old School and run by gentleman back when quality was paramount. To this day, I can usually tell when a diamond or emerald came from Tilden-Thurber because of the quality.
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Fred, since I knew Stan so well as a developer, I had many occasions to visit his office above the main floor since about 1990. It was always such a joy for someone with a taste for the elegant. I’m afraid I never actually made a purchase. I will miss it dearly. Maybe Stan will arrange the 4th Street warehouse nicely, but it will not be the same.
…Hope you are well. Happy holidays.
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My Aunt Hazel Cuffee worked for the Thurber family for years. I remember going to the home that she baby sat with I believe a child named Nancy Thurber. Back then I was not able to leave the kitchen. I was totally in awe with the home. Hazel has since died, and I so remember a bracelet from Tilden-Thurber that was 18K gold and several other items given to my Aunt Hazel. She had no children. When she died, I was living in Athens, Greece and never learned what or where her personal possessions went. I so hope that there is a family member that remembers Hazel Cuffee. She was from the Shinnecock Indian Nation as was her sister Madelyn Cuffee.
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I’ve had many happy visits to the Tilden-Thurber Building/Weiss collection, thanks mainly to the kind and friendly staff. Steve was nice enough to show me around the base architecture of the main floor, where the diamond viewing area was, the history of the original jewelry cases, and other charming bits of history. He knows as much about the interior design of the building as he does about the stock.I’ll miss the antiquey-ness of the place. I hope whoever moves in has the sense to maintain the interior as well as the exterior.
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Steve is a most wonderful person, and have known him forever. I am glad to hear that Stan’s staff will continue their good work at the new location.
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A wonderful record, David. This one’s a keeper!
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