West End (Providence, Rhode Island)

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The area's first village developed in the northernmost section of the West End. In 1739, Obidiah Brown established Hoyle Tavern at the intersections of Westminster and Cranston Streets, and soon thereafter early settlers built eight houses in close proximity to the tavern. Westminster Street was the major route between downtown Providence and Olneyville Square and was settled at a more rapid pace than was Cranston Street. For the most part, however, the West End throughout the 18th century was an area of farms and wealthy country estates.

In the 19th century, the West End began to develop as an industrial and residential area. By mid-century the area was host to several factories, including the New England Butt Company's factory on Perkins Street, and the Winsor & Brown gun factory on Central Street. Several developments in this industrial section of the West End, including the Providence Gas Company, remain in operation today.

Residential development took place primarily in the second half of the 19th century, following the growth of industry and transportation services in the area. The Elmwood Omnibus Company began operation of horse-drawn coaches in 1855, with service on Elmwood Avenue and Broad Street. Then in 1865, the Union Railroad Company ran its first streetcars along Westminster Street between downtown and Olneyville; additional lines quickly opened for Cranston Street and Elmwood Avenue.

Construction patterns led to the emergence of distinct communities in the West End neighborhood. North of Cranston Street, around Dexter and Parade streets, they developed a predominantly middle-class, Yankee area of one and two-family homes. This area also included the Dexter Training Grounds (formerly a private estate donated to the city in 1824, it became part of the city's park system in 1893), the Cranston Street Armory, and the Cranston Street Baptist Church, all of which still exist today.

Another distinct community of the West End took shape south of Cranston Street. By the mid 1800s, increasingly large numbers of Irish, French-Canadians, African-Americans inhabited this southern part of the West End. Much of the residential construction was in the form of triple-deckers and other multifamily houses to accommodate the growing numbers of lower-income residents.

For much of the 20th century, particularly after the 1930s, the West End has been a slowly decaying inner-city neighborhood. Middle class residents moved out of the neighborhood in large numbers, leaving the area with limited resources. The neighborhood is adjacent to the Huntington Industrial Park, created as one of the city's two industrial districts in the 1970s. When the Gorham Manufacturing Company left the neighborhood, Olneyville lost importance as a freight rail hub, and Route 10 was constructed, many residents of the southern part of the neighborhood were left unemployed and both physically and psychologically disconnected from other parts of the city.

In recent years residents have become increasingly active in their efforts to restore and renovate the neighborhood's housing supply. The West End includes two National Register Historic Districts: Broadway/Armory, shared with Federal Hill, and the Bridgham and Arch Street area.


According to the Providence Plan, a local nonprofit aimed at improving city life, half of all West End residents are Hispanic while 19% are African-American, 14% white, 13% Asian, and 1.6% Native American. 68% of children under the age of six speak a language other than English as their primary language.

The median family income is $23,346, below the city-wide average of $32,058. 36.6% of families live below the poverty line while one in ten families receives some form of public assistance.

www.providenceri.com/ONS/neighborhoods/west-end