Downtown

Downtown Providence is located at the confluence of the Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers and is made up of approximately 150 acres. The neighborhood is surrounded by College Hill, Smith Hill, Federal Hill and Upper South Providence, and also faces the head of Narragansett Bay. Characterized by a concentration of mid-rise buildings, downtown Providence has a small area of light industry and sizable financial and retail districts.

Formerly known as "Weybosset Neck" or the "Weybosset Side" or more recently during the mid-twentieth century as "Downcity," downtown Providence remained largely unsettled until the mid-eighteenth century. The Rev. Joseph Snow, Jr. and his followers, religious dissenters from the First Congregational Society, established downtown's first settlement in 1746 and marked the beginning of approximately 25 years of development where Westminster Street exists today.

By the turn of the 19th century, downtown Providence, along with commercial ventures at the foot of College Hill, was becoming a regional center of commerce and industry. With the British capture and partial destruction of Newport during the Revolutionary War, Providence's harbor was soon the central Rhode Island port. Industrial development in Providence required more advanced commercial and financial services, and by the early 19th century, the downtown area near Turk's Head had become the site of concentrated financial services.

The Turk's Head Building still stands at the confluence of Westminster and Weybosset Streets. The Exchange Bank, Union Bank and Washington Insurance Company were major institutions established during this period. Just west of Turk's Head Place, settlers set about establishing a residential enclave of grand homes in the 1820s. While all but three of these homes have given way to a retail district, several of the churches, including Grace Church, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, and Beneficent Congregational Church, still exist today.

The period from 1828 to 1928 included dramatic changes in the nature of downtown. Transportation improved dramatically during this time, particularly with the creation of an inter-city rail system. Six railroads converged at downtown's Union Station (1848), increasing the area's importance as a regional economic and transportation hub. Furthermore, by the late 1800s, the Union Railroad Company had established rail service from downtown to outlying sections of the city, including Olneyville, Elmwood, and South Providence. Expanding streetcar service caused increased residential construction and the development of a more substantial industrial infrastructure.

Commercial and retail growth, however, continued to occur downtown. By 1860, downtown Providence was a regional banking center with nearly 40 banks and $15 million in capital. The Industrial National Bank (1928) and the Hospital Trust (1919) buildings were two of the many buildings constructed toward the latter part of this period of heavy development. The nation's first enclosed retail mall, the Arcade (1828), was the key development in an active retail district that also eventually included three 19th century department stores which are now gone: the Boston Store, Shepard's and the Outlet Company.

The commercial and retail viability of downtown served as an impetus for the growth of civic, arts and entertainment institutions. The establishment of theaters, churches, hotels, and restaurants occurred rapidly during this century-long era of activity, and included the now demolished Narragansett Hotel (1828), the Biltmore Hotel (1922), and theaters like the Providence Opera House (1871) and Loew's State Theater, known today as the Providence Performing Arts Center. The development of the Providence Public Library in 1900 also served to make downtown the center of civic activity.

After some stagnation, the 1950s saw numerous urban renewal schemes. The Weybosset Hill Redevelopment Project involved the clearance and redevelopment of a blighted area on the western rim of downtown. Further demolition occurred near Turk's Head in order to create more parking. In general, these urban renewal efforts were planned poorly and did little to bolster the image and prosperity of downtown. With the construction of interstates 95 and 195, and Route 10, there was an even greater flight of business, particularly retail, out of downtown. Not until the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the construction of the Providence Civic Center (1972) and the Hospital Trust Tower (1973) did downtown experience a resurgence in growth. The almost forgotten residential make-up of the area is characterized by a large scale public housing complex called Dexter Manor and other types of housing like the Regency Plaza apartments.

According to the 2000 census, 2,678 persons reside in Downtown, an increase of 9 percent from 1990. The neighborhood is predominantly white (64%), but this segment of the population decreased by nearly twenty percent since 1990 while other groups grew substantially: 11 percent of the population is Hispanic (194% increase), 11 percent African American (87% increase), and 8 percent Asian (177% increase). In 2000, nearly all residents (78%) age 25 or older were high school graduates and nearly one in five obtained graduate or professional degrees, up 106% from 1990. The employed residents in the Downtown neighborhood are evenly divided with a third employed in management and professional, a third in the services sector, and a third in sales and office occupations. The unemployment rate in 2000 was 17 percent, substantially above the citywide figure of 9.3 percent, an increase of 81% from 1990.

The median family income Downtown in 1999 was $42,558, down 15% from 1989 and slightly higher than the city's median family income of $32,058. 14 percent of families in Downtown were living below poverty in 2000; up 55% from 1990, but none of these families had children.

Less than two percent o f housing units were occupied by their owners in 2000, by far the lowest rate of home ownership of any neighborhood in the city. As of 2000, nearly all (96%) of all housing units in Downtown are buildings with ten or more units, half of which were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. Median rents were almost twenty percent higher than the citywide rate. According to the 2000 Census, 59 percent of Blackstone homeowners moved into their present housing unit more than 10 years ago while the remaining 41% moved in within one year prior to the Census.

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Sources: Downtown: Neighborhood Analysis, Department of Planning and Urban Development (City of Providence, 1977) and Providence: A Citywide Survey of Historic Resources, edited by William McKenzie Woodward and Edward F. Sanderson (Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, 1986).