Antoinette Forrester Downing (July 14, 1904 – May 9, 2001) was an American architectural historian and preservationist who wrote the standard reference work on historical houses in Rhode Island.

She is credited with spearheading a movement that saved many of Providence's historic buildings from demolition in the mid 20th century and for her leadership was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1978.

[1][2] She married art historian George Elliot Downing and moved to Rhode Island in 1932, beginning her career as an historical preservationist a couple of years later.

Though many of these buildings were run-down and under threat of demolition to accommodate the expansion plans of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design, Downing recognized their historical value and with other area residents organized the Providence Preservation Society to save them.

[4] In the 1970s, she became a board member of SWAP (Stop Wasting Abandoned Property), an organization dedicated to managing urban renewal in ways that do not displace resident populations.

[3] An interview with Downing forms part of the National Historic Preservation Program Oral Histories project housed at Cornell University.