Providence Neighborhood Profiles

Mount Pleasant

Mount Pleasant is a primarily middle-class residential neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of the city. The area is bounded by the neighborhoods of Manton to the west, Olneyville to the south, Valley to the east, Elmhurst to the east and northeast, and the town of North Providence to the northwest. The major street boundaries that define the Mount Pleasant area are Academy Avenue to the east, Smith Street to the northeast, Atwells Avenue to the south, and portions of Bullock, Chalkstone, Mera, and Rushmore Avenues to the west. Mount Pleasant was one of the last sections of the city to be developed, and as a result, most of the houses are of medium size on well landscaped lots and tree-lined streets. Although some houses were constructed in the 19th century, most were built in the early 20th century.

The common land in Mount Pleasant remained farm land through much of the 18th century with little development activity. By the 1730s, two roads had been established with the purpose of delivering produce from the outlying farms. The roads included the northern branch along what are now Douglas Avenue and Eaton Street, and the southern branch along Chalkstone Avenue.

Settlement remained sparse in Mount Pleasant until nearly the end of the 19th century. During the early 1870s, plats of house lots were laid out, but the national economic panic of 1873 dramatically slowed down development plans. Although plats sized for more modest houses were laid out, there were some large lots intended for more substantial houses located south of Chalkstone Avenue and west of Academy Avenues. A couple of houses appeared along the major streets before the late 1880s, but substantial residential development occurred only after the economy picked up and public transportation improved. By 1882, streetcars traversed Chalkstone Avenue, extending out to Smith Street and North Providence by the 1890s. In the early 1900s, a neighborhood commercial strip formed along Chalkstone Avenue between River Avenue and Mount Pleasant Avenue. Today, that commercial strip is still a thriving part of the neighborhood. Another neighborhood landmark is Triggs Memorial Golf Course, a full 9 holes and a clubhouse in the middle of the city.

By the early 20th century, the Mount Pleasant area was predominantly middle and upper middle-class. The ethnic composition of the area began to become more diverse after 1900, as second and third generation Irish began to move into the area to escape from more crowded neighborhoods like Smith Hill and Upper and Lower South Providence. By the mid 20th century, second and third-generation Italians comprised a significant portion of the neighborhood's ethnic composition, many of them having moved to Mount Pleasant from Federal Hill.

The quiet and spacious qualities of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, in conjunction with the availability of large tracts of undeveloped land in the form of 19th century estates, attracted various large educational institutions. The area bounded by Mount Pleasant, Bullock, and Chalkstone Avenues contains Rhode Island College, Mount Pleasant High School, and LaSalle Academy. Along with Triggs Memorial Golf Course, this institutional area is significant in that it provides the neighborhood with substantial open space.

The 1990 census reported 9,236 residents living in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, a decline of about 3 percent from the 1980 figure of 9,478. The area is predominantly white; Hispanics represent less than 5 percent of the population, Asians account for about 2 percent and African Americans make up about 1 percent of the population. In 1990 two out of three Mount Pleasant residents of age 25 or older were high school graduates. One out of four employed residents worked in professional services in 1990, about one in five employed Mount Pleasant residents worked in manufacturing, and retail trade was the source of employment for about 18 percent of employed residents. The 6.5 percent unemployment rate for Mount Pleasant in 1990 was well below the citywide rate of 9.2 percent.

The median family income in Mount Pleasant in 1989 was $36,073, 27 percent higher than the citywide median. The incidence of poverty in Mount Pleasant increased slightly in all categories over the past decade, although poverty rates remained well below the citywide figures. In 1990, less than 10 percent of all persons were poor, about 7 percent of families were living below poverty, 16 percent of children were poor, and about 12 percent of the elderly had income below the poverty level.

Housing tenure in Mount Pleasant remained fairly stable over the past decade, although the proportion of owner-occupied housing units declined slightly, dropping from 60.6 percent in 1980 to 57.5 percent in 1990. More than four out of ten housing units in Mount Pleasant are single-family, detached units, and about two-thirds of all housing units were constructed more than 40 years ago. The median value of owner-occupied housing units in Mount Pleasant was $110,000, about 1 percent below the citywide median. The median rent in Mount Pleasant was 8 percent higher than the citywide median rent.

Mount Pleasant is one of the city's most stable neighborhoods. According to the 1990 census, less than half of all Mount Pleasant residents moved into their present housing unit within the past five years; nearly four out of ten residents had lived in their present unit for more than a decade, and almost one out of five had lived in his or her current home for more than 20 years.