Providence Neighborhood Profiles

Olneyville

Olneyville, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Providence, is located in the central western section of the city. The topography of Olneyville, typified by the spectacular view across the city from Bowdoin Street, is one of the most diverse and engaging of any neighborhood in Providence. Its boundaries are Atwells Avenue to the north, the AMTRAK railway line and Route 10 to the east, the Woonasquatucket River and Interstate 195 to the south, and Glenbridge Avenue to the west.

Olneyville is the core of a larger historically and geographically defined area called the Woonasquatucket River Valley. Olneyville Square, where Broadway, Westminster Street, Harris Avenue, Hartford Avenue, Plainfield Street, Manton Avenue, Valley Street, and Dike Street all meet, has long been the industrial, commercial, cultural, and transportation hub of the entire west side of Providence.

The Indian settlement known as Woonasquatucket, meaning "at the head of the tidewater," had long existed near Olneyville. This settlement, along with the rest of the valley, was also part of the Providence Colony that Roger Williams acquired from the sachems Canonicus and Miantonomi of the Narragansett Indians in 1636.

Settlement began around Olneyville Square in the early 1700s. In 1714, the Plainfield Road was constructed along the path of today's Weybosset, Westminster, and Plainfield Streets, which connected the old Indian village site at the bend in the Woonasquatucket River with the center of Providence. Trading soon followed along the river.

From as early as 1745, the Ruttenburg family had established a paper mill and a distillery just north of the intersection of Atwells Avenue and the Woonasquatucket River. Although the mill was a short-lived enterprise, the road that the Ruttenburgs built from their mill to their farm near Plainfield Road still exists today as Valley Street. Valley Street is important today in that it generally follows the course of the Woonasquatucket River and is used to travel between Orms Street in Smith Hill, past numerous transportation and manufacturing nodes, including the enormous Foundry complex on Promenade Street, all the way to Olneyville Square.

Christopher Olney settled what became Olneyville in 1785. He operated a grist mill and a paper mill on a wide part of the river known as Olney's Pond which exists north of where Kossuth Street now runs. Olney's prominence and active involvement in industry eventually gave Olneyville its name. By the end of the American Revolution, Olneyville was the location of a forge and foundry and various other minor industries.

Development in Olneyville intensified early in the 19th century. The Woonasquatucket River, a source of water power, made Olneyville attractive to industry, and numerous mill villages popped up along its banks. Throughout the 19th century, Olneyville remained a leading industrial center. Christopher Olney's 18th century paper mill continued to operate into the early 19th century, but by then the textile industry had become the dominant industry in Providence.

Improvements in roads and the establishment of public transportation also enhanced the popularity of Olneyville. During the 1830s the establishment of the railroad made the area in and around the Woonasquatucket River Valley and the area to the northeast of Olneyville more attractive as industrial sites. By 1847, there were major railroads entering Providence from the south which met at Benedict Pond and then paralleled Valley Street and the Woonasquatucket River to what was, at the time, the new central terminal on Exchange Place (now known as John F. Kennedy Plaza). This enabled direct access to the mills along the river for delivery and distribution, and consequently contributed to the rapid industrial growth there in the latter part of the 19th century.

By 1846, Providence Dyeing, Bleaching and Calendaring Company had opened a plant in Olneyville on Valley Street. The 1850s marked the beginning of one of the most important industrial facilities in Olneyville, the Atlantic Mills. The first building was constructed in 1851 by General C.T. James. This building was altered and enlarged several times, with the addition of two circular towers in front added in separate stages in the 1860s. In 1899, an impressive mill office and the round brick gasometer was added. The structure still stands today on Manton Avenue and is used by various neighborhood-based groups and artists.

In addition, the expansion of public transportation also had a significant influence on Olneyville's residential development, particularly in the area around Olneyville Square. By 1895, the original horse-drawn streetcars had been replaced by electric trolleys, and new lines were extended out along Atwells Avenue to Academy Avenue. The convenience of public transportation and the possible employment opportunities in the mills further increased residential development.

During the 1880s and 1890s, the streets between Atwells and Manton Avenues were completely filled with two family houses. Many of the homes were originally built by mill owners who provided housing for their workers. As population increased and mill owners were no longer able to construct the housing, speculators stepped in. By 1900, Olneyville's physical appearance had been firmly established.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Olneyville retained much of its 19th century character as a working class neighborhood, dominated by the all-powerful textile industry. Olneyville became the home for many Polish and other Eastern European immigrants during the period just before World War II. In fact, one of the only Polish festivals still celebrated in Providence is held right on Atwells Avenue.

After World War II, however, the fortunes of Providence's textile giants declined precipitously. Industries moved out of the city for cities in the southern United States or shut down altogether. The effect of this demise on the Olneyville neighborhood was devastating. Thousands of jobs were lost and were never replaced. Some of these jobs have been recaptured in the costume jewelry industry but not enough to change the plight of the neighborhood.

As jobs declined, Olneyville became severely depopulated as more and more residents left the neighborhood to seek new employment. This flight was exacerbated by the construction of the Route 6 connector in the early 1950s. Built to alleviate the traffic snarls in Olneyville Square, the Route 6 connector had the effect of destroying a great deal of affordable, working-class housing.

Since the 1960s, the jewelry industry has replaced textiles in Olneyville. Numerous businesses in the Promenade Center provide hundreds of jobs to neighborhood residents. Despite the emergence of this new industry, however, Olneyville continued to lose population throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The 1980 Census showed that 16 percent of Olneyville's residents had left during the 1970s. It was not until the 1980s that the population of Olneyville began to stabilize again.

The population in Olneyville in 1990 was 5,910, a decline of about 9 percent from the 6,485 residents recorded in 1980. Olneyville has undergone significant demographic change over the past decade, during which the white population declined by almost 40 percent and the nonwhite population increased nearly four-fold. During this same period the number of foreign born persons doubled and the number of persons who speak English not well or not at all increased five-fold.

Overall, the 1990 census reported that about one-third of the Olneyville population was Hispanic (34.9%), 12.3 percent were African American, and 7.2 percent were Asian. More than one in four persons living in Olneyville in 1990 was foreign born (27.4%) and a similar proportion did not speak English well or at all. Less than half (42%) of all persons of age 25 or older had completed high school in 1990. Almost half (45%) of all employed residents in Olneyville in 1990 were employed in the manufacturing sector, the single largest source of jobs for Olneyville residents. The unemployment rate in Olneyville in 1990 was 11.3 percent, three percentage points higher than the citywide rate.

Median family income in 1989 in Olneyville was $16,857, 41 percent lower than the citywide median family income. The incidence of poverty in Olneyville was up sharply in 1990 from 1980 levels for all demographic groups. In 1990, almost four out of ten persons (37.4%) were poor, 35.5 percent of families were living in poverty, more than half (53.9%) of all children were poor, and the proportion of elderly living in poverty was 27.9%, which was twice the rate reported for elderly persons in 1980.

The composition of the housing stock in Olneyville continued to change over the past decade. In 1990 there were about 12 percent fewer housing units in Olneyville than there were in 1980, mostly due to the demolition of blighted buildings and to house fires. The proportion of owner-occupied units declined from 26.4 percent in 1980 to 19.3 percent in 1990 whereas the percentage of units that were renter-occupied increased from 73.6 percent to 80.7 percent. More than 7 out of 10 housing units in Olneyville in 1990 were located in buildings with three or more units; one out of three housing units was located in a building with five or more units. More than half of all housing units in Olneyville (55%) were built more than 40 years ago.

The median value of owner-occupied housing units in 1990 was $81,400, 27 percent lower than the citywide median. The median rent in Olneyville in 1990 was 14 percent lower than the citywide level. According to the 1990 census, six out of ten residents in Olneyville moved into their present housing unit within the past five years and more than one out of five residents had lived in their present home for more than 20 years.