Blackstone (Providence, Rhode Island)

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Blackstone sits within a shallow part of the north-south valley between the eastern ridge of the Moshassuck River Valley and the western bank of the Seekonk River. Because of the uninviting geography and marshy land, the area did not inspire early colonial settlement.

During the middle years of the 19th century, Blackstone began to develop as a middle and upper income residential neighborhood, though the area's isolation from the rest of the city precluded substantial growth. Before the 1880s, residents traveled between the Blackstone area and the rest of Providence, either by carriage or public horse car along a circuitous route from Downtown through Fox Point to Butler Avenue. In 1884, a second line along Waterman and Angell Streets was completed, which allowed a more direct route downtown.

The most significant improvement that stimulated residential development in Blackstone was the construction of a landscaped boulevard, 200 feet wide, connecting the Waterman and Angell Street corridor on the south with Hope Street on the north at the Pawtucket city line. By 1894, Blackstone Boulevard was completed and landscaped. Today, it remains one of the city's greatest examples of planning and landscape architecture.

Between 1890 and 1923, land values along the boulevard tripled and the Blackstone area began to fill in with single-family homes that were architecturally distinctive. During this period, Blackstone became one of the most desirable and fashionable addresses in the city.

The scenic beauty created by the bluffs overlooking the Seekonk River was inviting and conducive to institutional establishment. Butler Hospital, one of the nation's oldest psychiatric institutions, was built in 1847. Its gothic structure was landscaped in a rural setting as part of a plan to remove patients from the stresses of the everyday world.

Swan Point Cemetery was established adjacent to the hospital grounds in 1847 as part of the nation's rural cemetery movement of the 1830s and 1840s. The grave of H.P. Lovecraft, the horror and science fiction writer, is located there with an epitaph reading "I Am Providence."

As of 2000, the neighborhood was 90.9% Non-Hispanic White, 3.9% Asian or Pacific Islander, 2.1% Hispanic and 1.5% Black or African American.

The median family income is $117,522 above the city-wide average of $32,058. 1.1% of families live below the poverty line while 0.6% of families receive some form of public assistance.

www.providenceri.com/ONS/neighborhoods/blackstone