The New Student's Reference Work/Providence, R. I.

Prov′idence, R. I., a seaport and capital of Rhode Island. It is the second city of New England in wealth and population, and is an important center for manufacturing and shipping and for its railroad and financial interests. It is celebrated for its manufacture of jewelry and silverware. It also produces tools, stoves, engines, locomotives, cottons, woolens, corset-laces, shoe-laces, lampwicks etc., and has many bleaching-works. It is situated at the head of navigation on an arm of Narragansett Bay (called Providence River), 35 miles from the Atlantic and 44 from Boston. Among the many notable public buildings and institutions are a city-hall of granite, costing $1,000,000, with the state soldiers' monument facing it; the state-house, customhouse and postoffice; the Athenæum; the buildings of the Rhode Island Historical Society; the Arcade and Butler Exchange; a great number of churches, schools, libraries, hospitals and asylums, including a noble charity known as Dexter Asylum for the poor; the Quaker College; and Brown University (q. v.). Providence was settled in 1636 by Roger Williams. Population 224,326.