Upper South Providence (Providence, Rhode Island)

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Upper South Providence is marked by the size and number of institutions located there including Rhode Island Hospital, the Providence Campus of the Community College of Rhode Island, and many other social service organizations. This institutional theme makes this neighborhood separate from Lower South Providence where there is a more strictly residential pattern of development. Upper South Providence also includes the Jewelry District near downtown, which is now being touted as part of the new arts and entertainment district of the city.

In 1754, all of present day South Providence was ceded to form part of the new town of Cranston and did not rejoin Providence again until 1868. The effects of industrialization and immigration contributed to a tremendous population increase between 1860 and 1880. Upper South Providence was attractive to industry because of the availability of large plats of undeveloped land easily accessible to downtown.

There were two areas where industrial growth dominated, Pine Street and Dogtown. Pine Street runs parallel to Friendship Street southwesterly through a residential extension of the West Side Business district. Land holdings created a barrier that limited development in that area. In 1832, Providence Aqueduct Company subdivided its land between Pine and Broad Streets, thereby making the first residential settlement possible. Overall, the lack of public transportation limited the expansion of the northern sections of Upper South Providence.

The second area of industrial growth was Dogtown, located at the central part of the neighborhood. Most residents of Dogtown were Irish immigrants who were primarily employed in industrial complexes on the waterfront to the east of the Pawtuxet Turnpike (Eddy Street) and along Prairie Avenue. The availability of large, inexpensive, waterfront sites near downtown spurred various industries. In addition, the Pawtuxet Turnpike and the Providence-Stonington Railroad tracks provided convenient and efficient transportation.

South Providence became a vital community with rows of substantial new houses built closely together. As an Irish community grew during the late 19th century, so did industry. There were also a substantial number of Jewish residents of the area. Many members of the Jewish community in Upper South Providence have since left for the nearby municipalities of Cranston and Warwick.

By the 1870s, Upper South Providence was 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 of the 1860s. In the late 1880s, there was large scale speculative subdivision. In 1879, the first horse car line opened on Broad Street, making the nearby land more valuable as the development of both Upper and Lower South Providence began to take off.

Construction in the 1870s and 1880s 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. By 1900, streetcar lines made it easy to get downcity, industry provided jobs, and there was an adequate supply of affordable housing. There were elegant homes lining Broad Street and Pine Street while there were more modest homes towards the port facility and downtown. Many of these mansions and tenement structures still line the streets of the neighborhood and are often the target of redevelopment efforts.

Immigration, industrialization, and speculative development culminated between 1900 and 1950. The Irish community remained dominant, but by the 1950s many families were entering their second and third generation in the United States and were becoming more prosperous. A significant number started to move into the newer suburbs of Washington Park and Edgewood in Cranston and also to the Elmhurst and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods or Providence. This decline in population meant an increase in the supply of cheap rental housing and consequently contributed to lower land values.

After 1950, the rise in the popularity of the automobile intensified suburbanization. The construction of Intersection 95 and 195 created both a physical and psychological barrier between Upper South Providence and both downtown Providence and the port facilities. The construction also resulted in the clearance of some neighborhood houses.

41.2% of residents in Upper South Providence are Hispanic and 34% are African-American. 28.7% of the population is White, 2.6% are Asian or Pacific Islander, and 2.6% are Native American.

Nearly half of all public school children under the age of six speak a language other than English as their primary language. The median family income is $24,656, below the city-wide average of $32,058. The area's unemployment rate at 17% is the highest in the city. 36.4% of families live below the poverty line while 16% rely on some form of public assistance.

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