Lower South Providence

Lower South Providence is located along the west side of the Providence River, south of Downtown Providence with Broad Street to the west, Public Street and Upper South Providence to the north, and Interstate 95 to the south. While many feel that "South Providence" is a cohesive whole made up of Upper and Lower South Providence, Lower South Providence is markedly different in that it does not have nearly as many institutional buildings and spaces as Upper South Providence. Lower South Providence also contains a large parcel of open land which will soon become home to the Mandela-Woods housing complex.

The area that includes Lower South Providence, which was part of Roger Williams' original purchase from the Narragansett Indians in 1636, was predominantly used as pasture land. In 1754, all of Lower South Providence was ceded to form part of the new town of Cranston and did not rejoin Providence until 1868.

The development and expansion of the first horse drawn street railway line in 1865 helped transform Lower South Providence from farmland to Providence's first major streetcar suburb. The path of the streetcar extended from Eddy Street to Public Street, west to Ocean Street, from Ocean, west along Thurbers Avenue to the car barn on Prairie Avenue. Consequently, Ocean Street became a major thoroughfare, lined with small single family cottages in the 1860s and early 1870s. By 1879, both Prairie Avenue and Broad Street were the sites of intensive development.

The effects of industrialization and immigration also contributed to a tremendous population increase. Between 1860 and 1880 the population of Providence doubled to 104,857. Lower South Providence became a vital community with rows of substantial new houses built closely together. By 1868, the Irish settlement, which had concentrated in Upper South Providence, had expanded into Lower South Providence. It's growing size was large enough that the native, agrarian Republican Party that dominated the political structure of Cranston, to which Lower South Providence belonged at the time, became concerned about the growing political power of the immigrants.

Since the Irish community overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party, the Cranston Republicans feared that the Irish might become strong enough to elect a Democrat as the town's only Senator to the Rhode Island legislature, as had already occurred in Providence. To avoid this, Cranston ceded the South Providence and Washington Park sections back to the city of Providence in 1868.

As the Irish community grew during the late 19th century, so did industry. Whereas Upper South Providence was attractive to industry because of the availability of large plats of undeveloped land easily accessible to downtown, Lower South Providence was important in that it was very close to Narragansett Bay and freight rail lines via the Port of Providence. Various metal products and jewelry factories such as the loft-type businesses on Thurbers Avenue sprung up in residential neighborhoods. Industrial expansion also encouraged class mixture since both working class clerks and factory owners lived near their jobs. This is reflected in South Providence's architectural heritage.

By the 1870s, South Providence had become a predominantly rental community of two family houses. Single family homes existed in fewer numbers and were usually more elaborate and pretentious than the earlier ones built during the 1860s. Lower South Providence was a growing community of middle class, single family home owners and working class tenants. In 1879, the first horse car line opened on Broad Street making the nearby land more valuable and expensive. This resulted in more construction in the 1870s and 1880s which was limited to middle and upper class single family housing. When the trolley line was electrified in 1892, it meant faster transportation, encouraging middle class homeowners to move and settle to newly developing areas south of Chester Avenue.

Along some of the newer roads, contractor and developers began to build rows of similar closely spaced one and a half story cottages, such as those on Reynolds and Potters Avenues, while other streets such as Lillian Avenue were lined with houses that were more individually designed. By 1900, streetcar lines made it easy to get downtown, industry provided jobs, and there was an adequate supply of affordable housing. By most definitions, Lower South Providence was a thriving community.

Immigration, industrialization, and speculative development culminated between 1900 and 1950. The Irish community remained dominant, but by the 1950s, many were entering the second and third generation and becoming more prosperous. A significant number of Irish were starting to move into the newer suburbs of Washington Park in Providence, Edgewood in Cranston, and the City of Warwick. After 1950, the rise in the popularity of the automobile further intensified suburbanization. At the same time across the city of Providence, street "improvements" and expansion resulted in the loss of many tree-lined streetscapes. More green space was lost as small yards and back lots were converted into driveways and garages. As car owning tenants started to look beyond South Providence, the area experienced a gradual decrease in its middle class and older population.

This outmigration, in turn, led to an increase in the supply of cheap, poorly maintained rental housing. Absentee landlords carved up single family homes into multifamily units and neglected the maintenance of their properties. Similar to what was going on in the rest of the poorer neighborhoods of Providence, Lower South Providence was subject to heavy speculative home purchases during the 1980s. These new landlords are carrying large debt loads and thus, must charge high rents in order to meet their obligations. Consequently, property values have fallen and building conditions have declined for the increasing number of poor tenants. The problem of property abandonment has left Lower South Providence with numerous vacant lots and buildings.

An indicator of the growing poor population in Lower South Providence was the construction of the Roger Williams Housing Project in 1943 on vacant land bounded by Thurbers, Prairie and Pavilion Avenues and Rugby Street. The project originally contained 744 low cost modern housing units with pleasantly landscaped grounds and the Roger Williams Middle School bordering it on the west. During its first 15 years, the project was considered a success. The housing project included a strong tenants association, who set up social services and helped maintain the grounds.

By the 1960s and 1970s, maintenance funds were cut at the federal level at a time when the 20 year old project began to need major renovation. Gradually, the Roger Williams Housing Project became blighted and units were vandalized and boarded up. By 1970, all but one of the buildings had been abandoned, and in 1975, the one occupied building was renovated. In 1991, all but two of the buildings were demolished in preparation for the first phase of Mandela-Woods, a 136 unit townhouse style apartment complex being constructed for low- and moderate-income families.

In addition, the spread of industrial and commercial enterprises into residential areas contributed to the physical deterioration of Lower South Providence. The construction of Interstate 95 not only required the demolition of several buildings, but it also physically separated Lower South Providence from the rest of the city and consequently destroyed its historical relationships with downtown and the waterfront.

This isolation accelerated the deterioration of the neighborhood. Lower South Providence became the refuge for poor minorities displaced from other areas of the city by redevelopment projects such as those at Mashapaug Pond, West River, College Hill and Lippitt Hill. In addition, the containment of the growing visible blight in a concentrated area where it was considered unable to spread to other parts of the city made South Providence's problems less urgent to the rest of the city.

The population of Lower South Providence was 5,744 in 2000, a rise of about 13 percent from 1990. More than one third (31%) of the population is African American, a 19% decline from 1990; more than half of the residents are Hispanic (55%), a 63% increase from 1990 (the citywide Hispanic population doubled between 1990 and 2000); and 5 percent are white, reducing this population by half over the last ten years. Asians constituted about 2 percent of the population and Native Americans represented 2.7 percent.

One in three residents in Lower South Providence was foreign born according to the 2000 census and half of all residents spoke a language other than English at home. Half of Lower South Providence residents of age 25 or older had completed high school by 2000. Among employed Lower South Providence residents, manufacturing (28%) and education, health, and social services (23%) accounted for the largest share of jobs. The 15 percent unemployment rate in Lower South Providence in 2000 was a 28% decrease from its 1990 rate, but still much higher than the citywide rate of 9.3 percent.

Median family income in Lower South Providence in 1999 was $20,013, about one-third lower than the citywide median family income. The poverty status of persons, families, children, and the elderly in Lower South Providence all increased over the past decade, and the poverty rates among each category remained high relative to other neighborhoods in the city. In 2000, four in ten (41%) persons was poor, a 61% increase from 1990, and the same level as 1980. In 1980, the percentage of families below poverty was 40.4 percent, and declined to 30.1 percent in 1990, only to rise back to 40% in 2000. And the proportion of children that were poor dropped from 47.4 percent to 36.6 percent between 1980 and 1990, only to rise to 52.6% in 2000. Poverty among the elderly declined from 44.9 percent to 27.5 percent between 1980 and 1990, and rose to 31% in 2000.

Housing tenure remained relatively stable, with about three tenths of all units owner-occupied and seven tenths renter-occupied. The number of vacant units has been reduced by forty percent between 1990 and 2000. Over six out of ten housing units (65%) in Lower South Providence are located in buildings with two to four units, about a quarter of housing units are single family units, and about 10 percent of all units are in structures with five or more units.

According to the 2000 Census, more than one in ten structures (12%) were built between 1990 and 2000. More than one in four structures were built within the past 20 years. More than half of all structures in Lower South Providence were built before 1960. Almost a third of all Lower South Providence residents moved into their present housing unit within the past five years according to the 2000 census; almost one in four residents had moved into their present housing unit more than 10 years ago.
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Sources: Lower South Providence: 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).