PROVIDENCE.
Origin of the City.--Roger Williams.--Geographical Location and
Importance.--Topography of Providence.--The Cove.--Railroad
Connections.--Brown University.--Patriotism of Rhode Island.--
Soldiers' Monument.--The Roger Williams Park.--Narragansett
Bay.--Suburban Villages.--Points of Interest.--Butter
Exchange.--Lamplighting on a New Plan.--Jewelry Manufactories.
In the year 1630, Roger Williams, a clergyman, persecuted and banished
from Massachusetts on account of his peculiar religious views, came to
Rhode Island and laid the foundation of a city, naming it Providence, in
gratitude for his deliverance from persecution. This renowned pioneer
not only laid the corner stone of a great and growing city, but
ineffaceably stamped his character upon all her institutions, public and
private.
Providence is the second city of New England in respect to wealth and
population. It is pleasantly located at the head of Narragansett Bay,
thirty-five miles from the ocean. Its commercial advantages are
unsurpassed, and as a manufacturing town it ranks among the first in the
Atlantic States. The city is divided into two unequal portions by a
narrow arm of the Bay, which terminates near the geographical centre of
the town, in a beautiful elliptical sheet of water, about one mile in
circumference, called the cove, or basin. This basin is inclosed by a
handsome granite wall, capped by a substantial and ornamental iron
fence, and is surrounded by a green about eighty feet in width, filled
with a variety of beautiful and thrifty shade trees.
The eastern portion of the city rises from the water, in some places
gradually, in others quite abruptly, to the height of more than two
hundred feet. This elevated land is occupied by elegant private mansions
surrounded with numerous shade trees and ornamental gardens, making one
of the most delightful and desirable places for residence to be found in
any city.
The western portion of the city rises very gradually until it reaches an
elevation of about seventy-five feet, when it spreads out into a level
plain, extending a considerable distance to the southwest. The northern
portion, recently annexed to the city, is more sparsely populated, and
portions of it are quite rural in appearance and abounding in hills,
numerous springs and small streams of water.
Providence is about forty-three miles from Boston, the same distance
from Worcester, ninety miles from Hartford, fifty miles from Stonington,
and twenty miles from Fall River, with each of which places it is
connected by numerous daily trains. It also has railroad connections
with New Bedford and southern Massachusetts, with Fitchburg, and thence
with Vermont and New Hampshire. There is now in process of construction
another route to Northern Connecticut, Springfield and the west. It is
also closely connected with Newport, and other places on Narragansett
Bay, by steamboats.
[Illustration: VIEW OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, FROM PROSPECT
TERRACE.]
Brown University is one of the distinguishing features of Providence,
and, as an institution of learning, stands in the front rank of American
colleges. Founded more than one hundred years since, this college has
come down from the past, hand in hand with Yale and Harvard. Among the
renowned graduates of Brown University may be mentioned Charles Sumner,
the great statesman, the devoted patriot, the champion of the negro,
whose fame and good works will live while freedom is the heritage of the
American people.
President Wayland, of this institution, was the originator of the public
Library System of New England--a system whose wonderful power for good
is markedly on the increase.
During the war no State of the whole sisterhood evinced more patriotism
than little Rhode Island, and Providence was largely represented in the
Union army. A Soldiers' Monument stands in the triangular space near the
Boston and Providence Railroad Depot, inscribed with the names of Rhode
Island soldiers who were killed in battle. The Monument is surmounted by
a statue in bronze of the Goddess of Liberty, and in niches of the
granite pillar below this figure each arm of the service is represented
by soldiers in bronze. The work is finely executed, and it is one of the
first objects which attracts the attention of the stranger. The
Artilleryman stands behind his cannon in grim silence; representatives
of the infantry, the cavalry and the marine arms of the service are his
coadjutors, and the entire group is sternly suggestive of war's sad
havoc.
About a mile and a half from the heart of the city, along a beautiful
McAdamized road leading to Pawtuxet, is situated the Roger Williams
Park, a tract of land containing about thirteen hundred acres, which was
bequeathed to the city by a descendant of Roger Williams, in
consideration of five hundred dollars, to be raised by the Providence
people, for the erection of a monument to the city's illustrious
founder. The sum to be appropriated for that purpose was equivalent to
twenty-six hundred dollars at the present time.
The embryo park is yet a wilderness, unreclaimed, and primeval
forest-trees fill the wide enclosure. The ground is undulating with hill
and dale, and pleasant driveways under the dark pines and hemlocks are
already laid out.
The memory of Roger Williams is held in great veneration by the citizens
of Providence, and he is ranked with William Penn in the category of
noble pioneers. Plenty of eulogistic essays and poems have been written
concerning him, and his great love of liberty, exemplified in his life,
is a matter of history. The following fragment of verse, by Francis
Whipple, one of Rhode Island's poets, places the memory of the two
heroes side by side:--
"When warlike fame, as morning mist shall fly,
And blood-stained glory as a meteor die,
When all the dross is known and cast away,
And the pure gold alone allowed to stay,
Two names will stand, the pride of virtuous men,
Our Roger Williams and good William Penn."
Many of the suburbs of Providence are of some note as places of summer
resort. The coast scenery along Narragansett Bay is full of charming
water-pictures, and numerous rocky islands may be seen, on which are
erected little white cottages, for summer occupation. The islands are
sometimes connected with the shore by foot-bridges, but often the only
means of communication with land is by boat.
Nayatt Point, six miles distant from Providence by rail, is, as its name
implies, a jutting point of land, reaching out into the bay, where
beautiful drives along the beach and through the neighboring groves,
added to the salt sea air, are the chief summer attractions. Rocky
Point, directly opposite Nayatt, is famous for its clam bakes, and on
moonlight nights in summer, excursion parties from Nayatt, Barrington or
Warren, glide over the smooth waters of the bay to this lovely spot. The
red glow of Rocky Point Light can be seen through the night, for miles
and miles along the coast and down the bay.
Westminster street is the principal avenue of Providence, and is
handsomely built up with substantial and elegant business blocks. A very
large hostelry, to be called the Narragansett Hotel, is in process of
erection at the corner of Dorrance and Broad streets. Just back of this
building, the new Providence Opera House, a structure of recent date,
furnished with all the modern appliances for the stage, opens its doors
to lovers of the histrionic art. The What-Cheer building, the Arcade,
and the Butler Exchange are all well known business centres. The last
named place owes its existence to a clause in a Scotchman's will. A
large inheritance was left to a gentleman in Providence, with a
stipulation that a certain amount of its yearly income should be used in
the erection of public buildings in the city. The Butler Exchange is one
of the children of this proviso.
A recent improvement in Providence is that of lighting the city lamps by
means of electricity. Only one person is required to light the streets
of the entire city. A single turn of the screw which commands the
network of wires leading to the lamp posts, sets every gas jet, far and
near, aflame, in one instantaneous blaze. It is a marvelous advance on
the old way of doing things, and will greatly lessen the expenditures of
the city.
Providence is justly celebrated for its manufacture of jewelry. The
largest establishments of the kind in New England are in operation here,
and the work turned out is of the most skillful pattern. A visit to the
lapidary establishments is full of interest. A shining array of precious
stones, from the white brilliance of the diamond, to the mottled moss
agate, greets the bewildered gaze, and skillful workmen are deftly
transforming them into the beautiful gems which shine in the jeweler's
window.