Mount Hope (Providence, Rhode Island)

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Mount Hope was first settled in the 17th century, yet did not experience any significant development until much later. More settlers came to the neighborhood in the first part of the 19th century, locating primarily in the southern area of Mount Hope on Olney Street, Bacon Street (no longer in existence), Jenkins Street, Pleasant Street, Abbott Street, and North Main Street. African-Americans, deeply ingrained in the history of the neighborhood, were the predominant residents of this new settlement. Racial tension, however, was a powerful force, and in 1831 a serious race riot erupted on Olney Street.

Even with the growth of this southern Mount Hope settlement, the neighborhood was still largely a suburban and rural area until well into the second part of the 19th century. The establishment of industry along the Moshassuck River corridor attracted large numbers of mostly unskilled laborers to the neighborhood. Developers constructed many small single-family homes, in addition to triple-deckers and other multifamily houses, to accommodate the growing numbers of workers. Streetcar service came to Mount Hope along North Main Street (1875) and Camp Street (1886), leading to the rapid expansion of middle-income housing along the rail lines. Around the turn of the century, the Gilbane Company, now a major Providence-based construction company, established one of Providence's first areas of tract housing on Catalpa Street.

In the early part of the 20th century, North Main Street was the site of rapid commercial expansion. Urban renewal had an enormous impact on the physical structure of the neighborhood. The Lippitt Hill Redevelopment Project, spanning from the 1950s to the 1970s, resulted in the demolition of a large portion of dilapidated low-income housing in the southern portion of Mount Hope. This project displaced large numbers of residents, particularly African-Americans. These homes were replaced by the University Heights shopping center and apartment complex, the Olney Street Baptist Church, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School.

Demographically, Mount Hope emerged by mid-century as an ethnically diverse, mixed-income neighborhood. African-Americans, Irish-Americans (whose ancestors first immigrated as workers to the Moshassuck industrial area) and Russian Jews are the major ethnic groups in the neighborhood's history.

Mostly a residential neighborhood, Mount Hope includes both working class and middle class sections. In addition to its residential areas, the neighborhood contains the North Burial Ground, a view of the Moshassuck Valley from many streets, a busy commercial district along North Main Street, and an industrial and commercial area to the immediate west of North Main Street.

As of 2000, the neighborhood was 44.5% Non-Hispanic White, 29.4% Black or African American, 10.5% Hispanic, and 3.4% Asian or Pacific Islander.

The median family income is $35,476 above the city-wide average of $32,058. 24.0% of families live below the poverty line while 7.3% of families receive some form of public assistance.

www.providenceri.com/ONS/neighborhoods/mount-hope