Editorial: Protecting a civic landmark

For more than four decades, Rhode Island’s elegant, marble-domed State House, completed in 1904, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that speaks to the building’s beauty and its historic importance as the seat of state government.

More recently, however, the State House — or more precisely, its grounds — has been added to a more dubious list: one for places that are threatened by ill-considered development.

With the Rhode Island Department of Transportation pressing forward with a plan that could put an “intermodal transportation center” on a portion of the State House lawn, the Washington-based Cultural Landscape Foundation has added the “State House Grounds” to a nationwide list of 128 “At Risk” sites.