Providence

Providence, a seaport and the semi-capital of the state of Rhode Island, the second city of New England and the twentieth in order of population in the United States, is situated at the head of navigation, on an arm of Narragansett Bay known as Providence River, 35 miles from the ocean and 44 miles by rail SSW. of Boston. It covers a wide area on both sides of the river, which, above its two bridges, expands into a cove, a mile in circuit, on the borders of which is a handsome park, shaded with noble elms. It is a city of large commerce, manufactures, and wealth, abounding with beautiful villas and gardens. Founded before the conventional type of American cities had been discovered, its streets are pleasantly irregular, and the site singularly uneven, rising in one place to 204 feet above high-water; and in one ward, much of which is still in farms, there are numerous hills and valleys. Among the many notable public buildings and institutions of Providence are a city hall, of granite, which cost upwards of $1,000,000, and has facing it the state's soldiers' monument; the state-house; the custom-house and post-office; the Athenæum, and the buildings of the Rhode Island Historical Society; the arcade and the Butler Exchange; a great number of churches, schools, and libraries, hospitals and asylums, including a noble charity known as the Dexter Asylum for the Poor; the Friends' Boarding-school (popularly, 'the Quaker College'); and Brown University, a Baptist institution, founded in 1764, and amply endowed: it has about 300 students, and ranks among the leading colleges of the United States. The city has lost most of its foreign trade, but instead it has become one of the great manufacturing centres of the country; two small rivers afford abundant water-power. The chief establishments are engaged in producing silver-ware, tools, stoves, engines, locomotives, cottons and woollens, corset-laces, shoe-laces, lamp-wicks, &c.; and besides there are scores of manufactories of jewellery, many bleaching-works, &c. Providence was settled in 1636 by Roger Williams. Pop. (1870) 68,904; (1880) 104,857; (1890) 132,146.