Valley Sites - Providence
Roger Williams National Memorial Visitor Center PROVIDENCE Providence is New England’s second largest city and the southern anchor of the Blackstone Valley. The merchants of Providence provided much of the funding to build the textile mills of the Blackstone Valley, and the ships to transport the finished cloth around the world. With the advent of steam power, Providence became a manufacturing center itself, especially in the machine and tool trades and in the jewelry industry. Providence is also the State Capital and education and cultural center of Rhode Island. Roger Williams National Memorial 282 North Main Street First Baptist Church in America 75 North Main Street State House 82 Smith Street Benefit Street Providence, RI 
John Brown House John Brown House 52 Power Street Waterplace Park and River Walk Providence, RI Rhode Island School of Design 224 Benefit Street 
University Hall, Brown University Brown University 164 Angell Street India Point Park This shoreline park is built over site of former Indiamen docks, where ships left Providence to trade the produce of the Blackstone Valley to China, India and the rest of the world. See the mouth of Blackstone River as it empties into the Providence River and on into Narragansett Bay. India Street Providence, RI |
Did You Know?
Children as young as age six were hired to work in the textile mills of the Blackstone River Valley. These adolescent workers were employed by the Lonsdale Company, c. 1912. Photos such as this helped lead to the passage of child labor laws.