CityState : Current
Coal Comfort
For more than a century , a coal mine operated on the site of Garden City Center . By Paul Kandarian
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE CRANSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE PROVIDENCE PUBLIC LIBRARY ’ S DIGITAL COLLECTIONS .
What ’ s a deep , dark , dirty secret in Rhode Island — not related to politics ?
The coal mine that laced the earth under Garden City Center in Cranston , a mine that operated for more than a century .
There were a variety of much smaller coal facilities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries scattered around the state , but Cranston ’ s was the biggest and longest lasting , even if records show the coal quality was poor and provided a lousy burn . How poor ? It was said if you didn ’ t want your home to accidentally go up in flames from a coal fire , use Cranston coal .
The mine opened in 1857 and was shut down by the state 102 years later when a cave-in killed a miner , the only fatality in its history .
In 2001 the mine let itself be known when a sinkhole opened up under a piece of heavy machinery in the shopping center parking lot , where most of the mine was . Faith Lockhart , Garden City ’ s marketing director , said management now keeps a keen eye on things , doing geological surveys down below when work is done above .
One sunny day , I did an unofficial but fun survey of shoppers and store personnel in the retail mecca now in its seventy-fifth year , that revealed how many people knew of the mine . Turns out , not a lot .
Crate & Barrel ? You can carry a lot of coal in either one , but no one there knew what lies beneath . Restore Hyperwellness ? They have many treatments there , including chilly cryotherapy , but the cold hard fact is no one had heard of the mine . A Gracious Soul ? They were most gracious , but nary a soul knew Garden City ’ s subterranean secret . Ben and Jerry ’ s ? A nifty offering here could be Baby , It ’ s Coal Underside !, but no one knew a drip about the mine .
Diamonds are formed over millions of years from coal , so surely people at Providence Diamond knew , right ? Wrong . No one , from the security guard who lets people in to the staff , knew a single carat ’ s worth of Garden City ’ s gem of a secret . In all , of twenty-four people asked , zero were in the know of the history under their feet .
“ Not a lot of people realize it ’ s there ,” says Lockhart , a Connecticut native who knew nothing of the mine herself until she moved here for her job a few years ago . “ It ’ s not really a secret — it ’ s just that not many know of it .”
24 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l AUGUST 2023