Beyond the PC Bubble: Exploring Community & Place through Archival Research
The PC Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce a new installation, curated by students from PSP470. This exhibit is located on the second floor of the Phillips Memorial Library, on display now through summer 2025.
On January 14, 2025, we began our semester in a story circle at the Providence College/Smith Hill Annex, gathered with local Smith Hill residents and guided by the simple, yet profound question, “Why are you here?” (Morton, unpublished). That moment marked the beginning of a semester-long journey—one that invited us to decenter ourselves and reflect on our relationships with a neighborhood many of us had previously overlooked.
Through studying Smith Hill’s history, listening to community voices, and immersing ourselves in the neighborhood through walking tours, site visits, and archival research, we came to see Smith Hill not as distant or unfamiliar, but as a vibrant, resilient community—rooted in history, and shaped by enduring relationships. By adopting an asset-based lens, we learned to recognize the strengths and significance of the people and places that surround Providence College (PC) every day.
This exhibit presents one small, curated story—focused largely on the Smith Hill Community Development Corporation (CDC) and its relationship with PC, from the CDC’s founding in 1992 to its closing in 2025. Each object on display was carefully selected, offering a glimpse into a much larger narrative—one with many more facets still to explore and share.
We invite you to explore this exhibit with curiosity and care. Within Smith Hill and the Smith Hill Community Development Corporation Collection, countless stories reside. This is just one.
This exhibit highlights over three decades of affordable housing development and neighborhood revitalization in Smith Hill through the lens of the Smith Hill Community Development Corporation (CDC). Founded in 1992 by local residents, the CDC worked to expand access to affordable housing and support community development efforts. Over time, it became a key partner to Providence College’s (PC) Feinstein Institute for Public Service and the Public and Community Service Studies Department—collaborating on a range of community-engaged courses and projects.
While the CDC closed its doors in 2025, its impact and stories live on through the newly established Smith Hill Community Development Corporation Collection, housed in the Archives and Special Collections at PC’s Phillips Memorial Library. This archive preserves not only the organizational records of the CDC’s work, but also the often underrepresented history of the Smith Hill neighborhood.
Our class was the first to work with this new collection. We met regularly at PC/Smith Hill Annex to learn in and with community. Through conversations with former CDC staff and longtime residents, neighborhood engagements, and hands-on archival work, we began to tell a story of the CDC and Smith Hill—one grounded in community and place. We visited key landmarks, including the Smith Hill Library and the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, and learned about ongoing efforts related to neighborhood preservation, reinvestment, and revitalization.
Archives serve as tools for preserving memory. The objects featured here offer a glimpse into the neighborhood’s people and places—and their shared efforts to build a thriving community. This exhibit is just one part of a larger, evolving story—one we hope continues through dialogue, engaged scholarship, and collective care.
Exhibit Curatorial Team:
Student Curators: Ethar Altekreeti ‘26, Allegra Alvarado ‘25, Claire Atkinson ‘26, Sarah Bandoma ‘25, Katie Cota ‘26, Emily DiSarno ‘26, William Geiger ‘26, Cameron McClellan ‘25, Jolade Oshinkanlu ‘25, Abigail Prendergast ‘25, Margaret Price ‘25, Chase Quigley ‘26, Kenneth Ramirez ‘27
Faculty & Library Instructors: Michelle Chiles, Megan Lessard, Carmine Perrotti, Ph.D.
Special thanks to community members: Wole Akinbi, Zo Baker, Marisa Angell Brown, Joseph Cornwall, Ryan Dickerson, Councilwoman Althea Graves, Jean Lamb, Janice Luongo, Keith Morton, Ph.D., Shelley Parness, Larry Parness, Raquél Pérez, Katy Pickens, Dominique Resendes, Timothy Shea, John Smith, Rebecca Twitchell
