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A sharply angled, almost-triangular-plan 5-story brick industrial building, this was constructed by the S.B. Champlin Company (established 1872) to house its manufacturing of gold rings and gold-filled chains as well as provide rental space for other jewelry manufacturers, an own-and-rent practice then common in the jewelry industry and characteristic of neighboring contemporary buildings in the Jewelry District. The building was so successful that it was enlarged to the south in 1901; only a faintly visible seam marks the union of the two sections. In 1978, the building was converted to condominium use, the first of its type in the area, and retains mixed residential and commercial use. 

— 2012 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook


A simple, five-story brick building with segmental-arch windows and a corbel cornice, built to the lot lines at the acute angle of Ship and Chestnut Streets, the Champlin Building was converted to commercial and residential condominium lofts in 1978, the first in what became a popular neighborhood for such use.

– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture

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