A group tours the former St. Patrick Church in Cumberland, which closed in 2018. Photo by David DelPoio/The Providence Journal
The project is estimated to cost $18.1 million
By Wheeler Cowperthwaite
The Providence Journal
CUMBERLAND − Towering over Broad Street, St. Patrick Church in Cumberland will be getting a second life, having closed in 2018.
The parish merged with the St. Aidan Parish, and the building has been empty for years. Inside, paint is peeling from the ceiling. The confessional booths are intact, but cinderblocks and mortar mark where the altar was once installed.
The pews are gone, as are most of the stained-glass windows, moved to the new, combined St. Aidan-St. Patrick Parish. At the end of the building at 301 Broad St., sitting above where parishioners once sat, the hulking organ remains silent, its future uncertain.
The cavernous building and other structures on the property are all to become affordable housing as the nonprofit One Neighborhood Builders tries to secure state funding for 44 affordable-housing units.
“100% of the units will be capital-A affordable,” said One Neighborhood Builders Executive Director Jennifer Hawkins. “They will have long-term deed restrictions and be leased to low-income households.”
That means the units will be available to people making 60% or less of the area median income.
One Neighborhood Builders is seeking a subsidy from RI Housing for 10 of the units to rent them to very low-income older people with complex medical issues.
Hawkins said she is excited for the project because it will be in Cumberland’s Valley Falls neighborhood, already densely populated.
“I think it was a unique opportunity to not be disrupting the forested areas,” she said.
Hawkins said feedback from community members has been positive as the property will be reused and prevented from becoming a blight on Broad Street. The project has been approved by Cumberland officials.
What will the ‘Stone and Steeple’ project look like?
While normally a church conversion brings a lot of consternation because it’s hard to turn large, arched spaces into housing easily, Hawkins said her group and their architect are up to the challenge.
They will build a second floor throughout the body of the church. The second floor will be connected to the rectory next door by a glass hallway because the rectory will house an elevator serving both buildings.
