Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

What to do with that huge rundown white elephant, the castle-like Cranston Street Armory in Providence? It’s hard to see how it could be rehabbed, whatever the grandeur of its exterior and some of its interior space. (There are other old fort-or-castle like armories in New England.)

The only thing that makes much sense to me is if the entire edifice were transformed into a one-building college campus; there’s even plenty of room for athletics. (And an indoor farm?} The idea, floated by some, of making it into some sort of regional meeting center, say for big events that might otherwise go to the Providence Civic Center, and a home for a wide range of businesses, seems implausible, at least if the state and city are unable or unwilling to fork over many tens of millions of dollars to retrofit the complex. Even with massive retrofitting, how many folks would want to come to that neighborhood to work or for events? Maybe more than I’d think?

Old places like Rhode Island have many big buildings that are no longer used for their original purposes. Nothing lasts, and some of these impressive piles will just have to be torn down.

I had a fantasy dream that someone very, very rich would buy the armory and turn it into his/her private palace, as Dr. Barrett Bready did with the glorious granite former Old Stone Bank Building on Providence’s South Main Street. But as big as that it is, it’s minuscule compared to the Cranston Street Armory.

If only Rhode Island had a king or queen (a constitutional monarch, of course!); the armory could be turned into a royal palace. Maybe surround it with a few cannons.

Too big to save?

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