Like many industrial buildings from the early 20th century, this 3-story building has a reinforced-concrete structure, revealed in the vertical piers on the exterior, with Roman-brick horizontal spandrels and banded metal windows. A central parapet above the Richmond Street entrance retains its geometric Art Deco detailing. Architect Perry was one of most adept and prolific early 20th-century designer of industrial architecture. The property was rehabilitated in 1978 for use as office space. In 2010-11, Brown University renovated the building for use as the Warren Alpert Medical School, which occasioned some interior structural reworking to accommodate two open-plan lecture halls.
— 2012 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
Frank S. Perry’s modulations on a theme show decorative detailing slightly different from that on the Coro Building (167 Point Street). Unlike Coro, this is built to the lot line and responds quite delightfully to the corner of Ship and Richmond Streets with a smooth curve. Like Coro, this was an individually occupied corporate headquarters. The Little Nemo Manufacturing Company was established in 1913 by Benjamin and Charles Brier and Samuel Magid to manufacture imitation diamond jewelry, an activity that continued here until the late 1970s. The rehabilitation of the building at least serves to keep it in continuing use, now as offices; on the other hand, the fenestration could have been more thoughtfully designed, and the penthouse compromises the overall massing.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
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