Lower South Providence
Lower South Providence is located along the west side of the Providence River, south of Downtown Providence with Broad Street to the west, Public Street and Upper South Providence to the north, and Interstate 95 to the south. While many feel that "South Providence" is a cohesive whole made up of Upper and Lower South Providence, Lower South Providence is markedly different in that it does not have nearly as many institutional buildings and spaces as Upper South Providence. Lower South Providence also contains a large parcel of open land which will soon become home to the Mandela-Woods housing complex.
The area that includes Lower South Providence, which was part of Roger Williams' original purchase from the Narragansett Indians in 1636, was predominantly used as pasture land. In 1754, all of Lower South Providence was ceded to form part of the new town of Cranston and did not rejoin Providence until 1868.
The development and expansion of the first horse drawn street railway line in 1865 helped transform Lower South Providence from farmland to Providence's first major streetcar suburb. The path of the streetcar extended from Eddy Street to Public Street, west to Ocean Street, from Ocean, west along Thurbers Avenue to the car barn on Prairie Avenue. Consequently, Ocean Street became a major thoroughfare, lined with small single family cottages in the 1860s and early 1870s. By 1879, both Prairie Avenue and Broad Street were the sites of intensive development.
The effects of industrialization and immigration also contributed to a tremendous population increase. Between 1860 and 1880 the population of Providence doubled to 104,857. Lower South Providence became a vital community with rows of substantial new houses built closely together. By 1868, the Irish settlement, which had concentrated in Upper South Providence, had expanded into Lower South Providence. It's growing size was large enough that the native, agrarian Republican Party that dominated the political structure of Cranston, to which Lower South Providence belonged at the time, became concerned about the growing political power of the immigrants.
Since the Irish community overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party, the Cranston Republicans feared that the Irish might become strong enough to elect a Democrat as the town's only Senator to the Rhode Island legislature, as had already occurred in Providence. To avoid this, Cranston ceded the South Providence and Washington Park sections back to the city of Providence in 1868.
As the Irish community grew during the late 19th century, so did industry. Whereas Upper South Providence was attractive to industry because of the availability of large plats of undeveloped land easily accessible to downtown, Lower South Providence was important in that it was very close to Narragansett Bay and freight rail lines via the Port of Providence. Various metal products and jewelry factories such as the loft-type businesses on Thurbers Avenue sprung up in residential neighborhoods. Industrial expansion also encouraged class mixture since both working class clerks and factory owners lived near their jobs. This is reflected in South Providence's architectural heritage.
By the 1870s, South Providence had become a predominantly rental community of two family houses. Single family homes existed in fewer numbers and were usually more elaborate and pretentious than the earlier ones built during the 1860s. Lower South Providence was a growing community of middle class, single family home owners and working class tenants. In 1879, the first horse car line opened on Broad Street making the nearby land more valuable and expensive. This resulted in more construction in the 1870s and 1880s which was limited to middle and upper class single family housing. When the trolley line was electrified in 1892, it meant faster transportation, encouraging middle class homeowners to move and settle to newly developing areas south of Chester Avenue.
Along some of the newer roads, contractor and developers began to build rows of similar closely spaced one and a half story cottages, such as those on Reynolds and Potters Avenues, while other streets such as Lillian Avenue were lined with houses that were more individually designed. By 1900, streetcar lines made it easy to get downtown, industry provided jobs, and there was an adequate supply of affordable housing. By most definitions, Lower South Providence was a thriving community.
Immigration, industrialization, and speculative development culminated between 1900 and 1950. The Irish community remained dominant, but by the 1950s, many were entering the second and third generation and becoming more prosperous. A significant number of Irish were starting to move into the newer suburbs of Washington Park in Providence, Edgewood in Cranston, and the City of Warwick. After 1950, the rise in the popularity of the automobile further intensified suburbanization. At the same time across the city of Providence, street "improvements" and expansion resulted in the loss of many tree-lined streetscapes. More green space was lost as small yards and back lots were converted into driveways and garages. As car owning tenants started to look beyond South Providence, the area experienced a gradual decrease in its middle class and older population.
This outmigration, in turn, led to an increase in the supply of cheap, poorly maintained rental housing. Absentee landlords carved up single family homes into multifamily units and neglected the maintenance of their properties. Similar to what was going on in the rest of the poorer neighborhoods of Providence, Lower South Providence was subject to heavy speculative home purchases during the 1980s. These new landlords are carrying large debt loads and thus, must charge high rents in order to meet their obligations. Consequently, property values have fallen and building conditions have declined for the increasing number of poor tenants. The problem of property abandonment has left Lower South Providence with numerous vacant lots and buildings.
An indicator of the growing poor population in Lower South Providence was the construction of the Roger Williams Housing Project in 1943 on vacant land bounded by Thurbers, Prairie and Pavilion Avenues and Rugby Street. The project originally contained 744 low cost modern housing units with pleasantly landscaped grounds and the Roger Williams Middle School bordering it on the west. During its first 15 years, the project was considered a success. The housing project included a strong tenants association, who set up social services and helped maintain the grounds.
By the 1960s and 1970s, maintenance funds were cut at the federal level at a time when the 20 year old project began to need major renovation. Gradually, the Roger Williams Housing Project became blighted and units were vandalized and boarded up. By 1970, all but one of the buildings had been abandoned, and in 1975, the one occupied building was renovated. In 1991, all but two of the buildings were demolished in preparation for the first phase of Mandela-Woods, a 136 unit townhouse style apartment complex being constructed for low- and moderate-income families.
In addition, the spread of industrial and commercial enterprises into residential areas contributed to the physical deterioration of Lower South Providence. The construction of Interstate 95 not only required the demolition of several buildings, but it also physically separated Lower South Providence from the rest of the city and consequently destroyed its historical relationships with downtown and the waterfront.
This isolation accelerated the deterioration of the neighborhood. Lower South Providence became the refuge for poor minorities displaced from other areas of the city by redevelopment projects such as those at Mashapaug Pond, West River, College Hill and Lippitt Hill. In addition, the containment of the growing visible blight in a concentrated area where it was considered unable to spread to other parts of the city made South Providence's problems less urgent to the rest of the city.
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