Manton

The Manton neighborhood is located in the northwest quadrant of Providence. It is bordered by the towns of North Providence to the north, the town of Johnston to the west, and the neighborhoods of Mount Pleasant to the east, Olneyville to the southeast, and Hartford to the southwest. The Woonasquatucket River forms the western boundary for Manton. Manton Avenue is the major commercial artery in the neighborhood, running from Olneyville Square to the adjacent town of Johnston and eventually reaching the town of North Providence. The intersection of Manton Avenue and Fruit Hill Avenue is the transportation and retail hub of the area.

The first white settlers to the area were almost exclusively farmers. Like Hartford on the other side of the Woonasquatucket River, Manton remained a rural, agricultural region throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One of the original owners during this period was Edward Manton, who established his homestead in 1683. By the time his grandson was in his 20s, the Manton family owned a huge tract of land which today bears their name.

Although the area of Manton was primarily used for farming, the proximity of the Woonasquatucket River fostered some industry. During the late 18th and early 19th century in Manton and Olneyville, farmers used to tan the hides of animals for shoes and consequently established several tanneries in Olneyville along the banks of the Woonasquatucket River.

The rural atmosphere and the rolling hills of the Manton area also provided the ideal location for the establishment of vacation homes. The Fruit Hill area, named for the hills that were filled with cherry orchards, was one of the more popular locations for retreats during the summer. A stagecoach inn originally called the Thayer Tavern House and later called Fruit Hill Hotel as one of the earliest establishments where one could take summer vacations. In 1835, the hotel was converted into a school, Fruit Hill Seminary. After the first year, the school changed its name to Fruit Hill Classical Institute. Twenty-six years later in 1862, the school was demolished. Now, this area is marked by the presence of Rhode Island College, a public, four-year institution.

In the first decades of the 19th century, the rural character of the Manton neighborhood began to change. Taking advantage of the water power provided by the Woonasquatucket River, early industrialists constructed textile mills in Manton. The Manton mill began operations in 1827, while the Dyer Mill was built three years later at 610 Manton Avenue. The workers at these early mills lived in company housing built west of Manton Avenue.

Industrial development and population growth accelerated in Manton as transportation improved. Railroad lines originating east of Manton in Olneyville and running to the center of Providence facilitated the transportation of goods and people between the neighborhood and the rest of the city. By the end of the 19th century, sections of Manton neighborhood had become heavily industrial. This industrial base remained until World War II when the textile industry declined heavily and most of the large plants closed or moved operations elsewhere.

The closing of textile plants encouraged the exodus of Manton's working-class from the neighborhood to the suburbs. In 1953, the city built Manton Heights, a 330 unit housing project, as part of its program to provide public housing to residents in Providence. The addition of a large public housing project, actually located near Manton Avenue in Olneyville but next to the Manton neighborhood border, may have contributed to flight of working class whites out of Manton. During the 1970s, Manton lost 15 percent of its population, and the price of single-family homes declined.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Manton Heights public housing complex had fallen into disrepair. During the same period, the Manton-Fruit Hill Neighborhood Association made active efforts to promote neighborhood organization and neighborhood participation in encouraging improvements. The association meets at the St. Thomas Church on Fruit Hill Avenue. Since 1893, St. Thomas has been a neighborhood landmark and one of Manton's key institutions.

Manton's population increased 5.6 percent in the past decade, rising from 2,569 in 1990 to 2,718 in 2000. According to the 2000 Census, sixty-six percent of Manton residents were white; a fifth were Hispanic; almost ten percent were African American; less than two percent were Asian; and about one percent were Native Americans. Two-thirds of the Manton residents of age 25 or older had completed high school, according to the 2000 Census. Professional services (28%),sales and office (28%), and service occupations (21%) were the largest sources of employment for Manton residents in 2000. The 11.3 percent unemployment rate in Manton in 2000 was almost a fifth higher (17%) than the 9.3 percent rate for Providence.

The median family income in Manton in 1999 was $30,960, 3.5 percent lower than the citywide median family income. The incidence of poverty increased across all categories of the population over the past decade, with the exception of the elderly. The proportion of persons living in poverty increased from 12.2 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 2000, almost doubling. The percentage of families with income below the poverty level rose from 8.6 percent in 1990, to 16% in 2000. And the proportion of children that were poor increased from 14.7 to 38.1 percent during this same period. The incidence of poverty for elderly Manton residents decreased over the past decade, declining from 23.9 percent in 1990 to 17 percent in 2000.

The number of housing units in Manton had more than doubled during the eighties, increasing from 549 in 1980 to 1,216 in 1990, but only increased by 34 units between 1990 and 2000. Over the last decade, the housing tenure remained steady, with 41 percent owner-occupied in 2000, an increase of 4.8 percent. Renter occupied housing increased 6 percent to represent 59 percent of all units. The housing stock in Manton is fairly well balanced in terms of unit size. One-third of all housing units in Manton are single family homes, about 41 percent of all units are located in buildings that house two to four families, and a quarter of all housing units are located in structures with five or more units.

Almost a fifth of all units were built after 1980, while a little more than half of all units were constructed before 1960. The median value of a single-family owner-occupied housing unit in Manton in 1990 was $103,900, 7 percent lower than the citywide median. The median rent in Manton was 4 percent lower than the citywide figure. According to the 2000 Census, A fifth of all Manton residents have lived in their present home for more than a decade while another quarter of all residents have lived in their present home for five years or less.
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Sources: Manton: 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).