Providence, like many cities on the eastern coast, boasts over 200 years of history leading back to the origins of the Industrial Revolution.  Here’s a look at the industrial history of the “Renaissance City.”

Pre-industrial period

In its early days, Providence was a city blessed with a natural harbor which was ideal for shipping and arable land which was ideal for agriculture.  Before the arrival of the Revolutionary War, the city had progressed from a farming community to a shipping community, taking advantage of its location by the water to establish itself as a flourishing trade center.  

In the late 18th century, Nehemiah Dodge discovered a method for making gold plate, and in doing so, became one of the founders of the jewelry industry which would flourish later on in Providence’s history.  Surrounding Dodge’s discovery was a city readying itself for industrial progress.  Associations of like-minded industrialists formed, such as the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers (PAMM), and the ever-famous Slater Mill was established 10 years before the turn of the century.  In many ways, it was the symbol of the birth of the American Industrial Revolution.

Downtown Providence at the time of the American Civil War.Photo Courtesy of the Rhode Island Historical Society: RHi X3 1692,

The early decades of the 19th century saw the rise of textile manufacturing (with the help of Moses Brown and Samuel Slater’s entrepreneurial advances in manufacturing technology and production) as well as steam engine technology.  In addition to textiles, other industries in base-metals, steam power, jewelry and silverware began to develop.  Parallel with these growths in industry was a dramatic growth in the population of Providence, from 17,000 in 1930 to 40,000 in 1848, thanks in part to immigration.

The Civil War, which began in 1860, spurred manufacturers to expand production and diversify into new industries such as weapons manufacturing, however it did not boast well for the jewelry industry.  The jewelry industry’s character as a market providing luxury goods meant that in times of economic recession, it often faced lower demand and hard times. 

Despite such vulnerability in the face of war and the Panic of 1873, the jewelry industry grew from 45 shops employing approximately 700 workers to over 200 firms with almost 7000 workers in 1890.  In part thanks to Nehemiah Dodge’s gold plating discovery, additional discoveries about how to make lower-grade (cheaper) jewelry, and a network of committed and invested jewelers, the jewelry industry in Providence grew to no small thing. 

“The growing importance of the industry was emphasized
by the development of a Jewelry District. The increase in both the size and the number of companies caused overcrowding in the former district along NorthMain Street which had been composed of numerous small shops.  The late nineteenth-century jewelry district bounded by Pine, Chestnut, Clifford, and Eddy Streets was characterized by multi-storied brick factories housing numerous companies. Renting a shop in these large factory buildings proved beneficial to small or moderately sized companies; for larger companies the construction of a factory was an excellent investment. Of the numerous manufacturing buildings constructed in the Jewelry District in the late nineteenth 18 century, only the Champlin-Hedison Building (116 Richmond Street), the Remington Building (91 Friendship Street), and the Jesse Metcalf Building (158 Pine Street) survive.”

(Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. Providence Industrial Sites. Statewide Historical Preservation Report P-P-6, July 1981.)

 

 “There were no regulations for environmental contamination and chemicals at the peak of the jewelry manufacturing industry in Providence. Previously, people would dump their used chemicals and contaminants in the river through urban runoff, pipes and outfalls. I was told that you could tell which fabric color of the day a factory was using by looking at the color of the river.”

- Ken Ornstein.

Immigrants flowing in from Italy, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, Portugal, Sweden, and Eastern European countries found work in the city’s jewelry manufacturing factories.  The industry produced a variety of costume and jewelry-related items, including shirt studs, chains, buttons, pins, earrings, necklaces, and, later on, cigarette lighters.  In the late 1900s, the district was “…characterized by multi-storied brick factories housing numerous companies” (Historical Preservation Commission Report P-P-6, p.18).  Of those factories, only a few survive on Richmond, Friendship, and Pine Streets.  The building on 70 Ship Street, currently a Brown University facility, used to be the Spiedel Manufacturing Company, which among other things, produced metal watchbands. With their brick walls, arch windows and flat roofs, these buildings which once produced jewelry now serve as reminders of the area’s industrial history and opportunities for exciting redevelopment.

Post-Industrial Providence and the Arrival of the Highways

“The city was seamless...before the interstates were constructed.” This picture from the 1920s views the Jewelry District from the East Side of the Providence River, looking towards the West. It shows South Street power plant on the waterfront, which is now an empty lot next to Dynamo House.  Small residential areas with tenements and boarding houses can be seen between factories, such as adjacent to Spidel Manufacturing (which is now a property belonging to Brown University on 70 Ship Street). The white line running perpendicular to the Providence River shows the route of the current I-195 highway; the line running parallel is the site of the current I-95. You can see the properties that existed before they were acquired by the DOT by eminent domain and demolished.

Photograph and Caption Courtesy of Ken Ornstein

 

The early 20th century saw the decline of the once flourishing textile industry, the woes of the Great Depression, and the horrors of the New England Hurricane of 1938 combining to push Providence into a period of economic downturn and population loss. 

Total businesses fell to 197 by 1951, reflecting the closure of many service industries as people left the heavily-industrialized area. The end of the industry boom was evident by 1968, when only 149 businesses were left in the Jewelry District (Hewer 1997).

Suburbanization, in many ways the great enemy of urban vitality, grew with rapidity following World War II.  Coming with it was the rapid construction of highways funded by the federal government and distributed throughout the American landscape.  As early as 1947, plans were underway for a $52 million freeway passing through the northern section of the district.  With the passage of the 1956 Federal Highway Act, the plans went into effect and I-195, an interstate highway crossing the Providence River from west to east, was built, cutting off the Jewelry District from Downtown Providence (Conley 1982).  The area overtaken by the highway was approximately 24 acres, and required the destruction of old jewelry manufacturing buildings as well as residential buildings.  Both I-95 and I-195 figuratively and literally led people out of Providence and into sprawling suburbia, away from the organized crime and corruption that was rampant in the postwar city.

“Complete blocks of houses were razed to create parking lots, while the older industrial area to the north, the original jewelry district, largely disappeared with the construction of Route 195 and the subsequent completion of a court complex on Friendship Street.”

-Jewelry District Association website

 

"In the 1970s, the state of Rhode Island created rehabilitation codes for mills and buildings; at the same time, the EPA and the Bay Commission enforced regulations on chemical and contaminated discharges into waterways. In many cases, old buildings that were residue of the jewelry industry, such as multi-story mills from the turn of the century to the 30s, became obsolete.

"Infrastructure improvements were costly, so many small factories closed. Factories with strong business moved to greenfields to start from scratch to avoid costs.

"Eventually, local manufactures were wiped out because manufacturing and selling costume jewelry was cheaper abroad. Many of the companies in the District became off-shore sellers, marketers and managers

The small patches of residences became parking lots; in the old photos you can see the district has very few lots.”

- Ken Ornstein

Jewelry District in the foreground, looking towards the East Side, photograph courtesy of Ken Orenstein

In the left upper corner, note the ferry boats; ferries ran between Providence and Narragansett. The Fall River line ran overnight boats to New York City. The middle section of the photo also shows small residential homes. As seen in Figure 2, both sides of the Providence River bordering the Jewelry District,  were "working waterfronts," with docks and warehouses where boats or "collier boats" (coal barges) accessed the city.