01:00 AM EST on Thursday, December 29, 2005

IF THE BEST GIFTS come in small packages, here's a heads up: One of the nicest in town goes on auction soon. The Atlantic Bank Building, erected in 1866, sits next to the Weybosset Street end of the Arcade, filling the southeastern quadrant of the cross formed by the nation's oldest (not its first) shopping mall. It's only 20 feet wide and 42 feet deep, with 840 square feet on each of three floors.

Yes, that little jewel box of a building.

"Elizabethan 3-story brick-and-masonry structure," reads its entry in the 1981 survey of downtown by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission; "3-bay facade of ornately carved puddingstone with round-head windows on each story and corbel stringcourses between stories; ornate bracketed cornice." The survey concludes that "the delicate surface decoration of this small structure provides a fine contrast to Russell Warren's powerfully composed Arcade next door."

The 1981 survey entry doesn't say who designed the Atlantic Bank Building. Neither does its entry in the commission's 1985 survey of the entire city. The 1985 entry opens by noting that the building is "diminutive and most unusual," and adds that the cornice is "surmounted by bulbous urns," although it fails to mention the urns surmounting the equally ornate corbel stringcourse between the second and third stories, or that there are eight urns in all.

The 1985 entry's conclusion is identical, except that it attributes the Arcade's powerful composition not just to Warren but to "Bucklin & Warren." In the 1981 survey's entry for the Arcade, the stepped-parapet Weybosset end is attributed to Warren and the pedimented Westminster end to James Bucklin. The 1981 survey was by Wm. McKenzie Woodward; for the 1985 survey, he was joined by Ted Sanderson. Whoever wrote the 1985 survey's Atlantic Bank Building entry may well have consulted Buildings on Paper, by Christopher Monkhouse and the late William Jordy. Published in 1982, it catalogues an exhibit of drawings by Rhode Island architects. It describes the two ends of the Arcade as jointly designed by the pair during its construction, after developer Cyrus Butler decided to add a third story.

(One of the joys of investigative architectural criticism in Providence is comparing the respective entries for particular buildings in these two surveys. Most amusing, for example, is the wording of the denunciations of the impact of certain modernist buildings on downtown's historic streetscapes. Both Sanderson and Woodward still work at RIHPHC a quarter of a century later, but each seems to have consigned his awareness of modernism's negative impact to his own respective dustbin of history.

(Speaking of which, I note with sadness the recent demolition of another jewel, the Providence National Bank [1929], to make way for a 35-story condo tower on the other side of the Arcade. I trust that absolutely ironclad assurances are in place to protect the Arcade from accident. Yes, the condo developer owns the Arcade, too; still, an overabundance of care is not too much to ask, indeed to demand.)

I'm afraid I am ignoring the petite subject of this essay. It won't be the first time. When I first came to Providence for a job interview at The Journal, in 1984, I visited the Arcade, entering at the Westminster Street end. When I emerged at the other end, my attention was drawn to the left, down that astonishing curve of Weybosset -- as lovely and urbane a stretch of street as any in this nation. One glimpse of this stretch confirmed my desire to move to this city. I do not recall glancing to the right, for I would certainly have noticed the Atlantic Bank Building.

Years later, in 1999, I was walking by it, no doubt admiring its beauty, when its owner, Jim Sohar, beckoned me in. He told me that he had bought the Atlantic Bank Building, for $237,000 (!), had set up his optician shop on the first floor, and had renovated the upstairs for him and his wife, Kathy, to live in. It's a groovy place: wood floors, moldings, mirrors, fireplace, bookcases, etc. The tub has a great view east down Peck Street. A fire escape/balcony hangs snugly between the apartment and the Arcade.

In 2004, the Sohars moved out of their bank loft and into the O'Gorman Building, on Westminster Street. A year later, they relocated to a rented condo in the new Cosmopolitan, on Fountain Street. He has tried to rent out the Atlantic Bank Building apartment to corporations as a kind of temporary executive suite, but without success, except for some Lion King actors, who don't count as executives.

Last week, Sohar paid me a surprise visit, and told me he now contemplates retiring his optician's shingle, putting up a house on land he has acquired on Prudence Island, and selling the Atlantic Bank Building. He said that before he had decided to do that, he turned down an offer of $700,000 for the building. He plans to auction it.

Frankly, I think he's nuts. Whoever relieves him of his tiny treasure will have earned my envy!

David Brussat is a member of The Journal's editorial board. His e-mail is: dbrussat@projo.com