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Providence is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and one of the first cities established in the United States, located in Providence County. It is the estimated third-largest city in the New England region. It has an estimated population of 172,459 as of 2007—yet it anchors the 36th-largest metropolitan population in the country due to its reaching into southern Massachusetts, with an estimated MSA population of 1,600,856, exceeding that of Rhode Island by about 60%. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River and the head of Narragansett Bay. Its small area is crisscrossed by erratic streets and contains a rapidly changing demographic. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony who named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence", which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers to settle. Providence was one of the first cities in the country to industrialize and became noted for its jewelry and silverware industry.
Rhode Island has the second lowest number of counties of any U.S. state; only Delaware has fewer, with three counties. Rhode Island does not have any local government at the county level; instead, local government is provided by the eight cities and thirty-one towns. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was established in the 17th century and was the first of the thirteen original American colonies to declare independence from British rule in 1776, signaling the start of the American Revolution. The counties were all established before the Declaration of Independence. The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) is used by the United States government to uniquely identify states and counties. Rhode Island's code is 44, which would be written as 44XXX when combined with any county code.
Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island who is widely considered to be one of America's foremost portraitists. His best known work is the unfinished portrait of George Washington which is sometimes referred to as The Athenaeum; it was begun in 1796 and left incomplete at the time of Stuart's death in 1828. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century. Throughout his career, Gilbert Stuart produced portraits of more than 1,000 people, including the first six Presidents of the United States. His work can be found today at art museums throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Frick Collection in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Gilbert Stuart was born in Saunderstown, Rhode Island on December 3, 1755 and baptized at Old Narragansett Church.
The First Baptist Church in America is the oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States, founded by Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island in 1638. Williams held religious services in his home after founding Providence Plantation in 1636 before he converted his congregation into a Baptist church. For the next sixty years, the congregation met outside in nice weather or in congregants' homes. Baptists in Rhode Island through most of the 17th century declined to erect meetinghouses because they felt that buildings reflected vanity. Eventually, however, they came to see the utility of some gathering place, and they erected severely plain-style meetinghouses like the Quakers. The present church building was erected in 1774–75 and held its first meetings in May 1775. When it was built, it represented a dramatic departure from the traditional Baptist meetinghouse style. It was the first Baptist meetinghouse to have a steeple and bell, making it more like Anglican and Congregational church buildings. It is located at 75 North Main Street in Providence's College Hill neighborhood and is a National Historic Landmark.
The state of Rhode Island remained loyal to the Union during the American Civil War, as did all of the other New England states. Rhode Island furnished 25,236 fighting men to the Union Army, of whom 1,685 died. The state used its industrial capacity to supply the Union Army with the materials that it needed to win the war, along with the other northern states. Rhode Island's continued growth and modernization led to the creation of an urban mass transit system, and improved health and sanitation programs. During the Civil War, Fort Adams near Newport was used temporarily as the United States Naval Academy. In May 1861, the Academy was moved to Newport from Annapolis, Maryland due to concerns about the political sympathies of the Marylanders, many of whom were suspected of being supporters of the Confederate States of America. In September, the Academy moved to the Atlantic House hotel in Newport and remained there for the rest of the war. In 1862, Fort Adams became the headquarters and recruit depot for the 15th U.S. Infantry Regiment.
Portal:Rhode Island/Selected article/8 The Station nightclub fire began at 11:07 PM EST on February 20, 2003 at The Station, a glam metal- and rock n roll-themed nightclub located in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States. It is considered to be the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in United States history, killing 100 people, four of whom died at local hospitals. Pyrotechnic sparks were set off by the tour manager of the evening's headlining band Great White, which ignited flammable sound insulation foam in the walls and ceilings around the stage and created a flash fire that engulfed the club in 5 1/2 minutes. In addition to those who died, 230 people were injured and 132 escaped uninjured. Video footage of the fire depicts the rapidity of its initial growth and the ensuing pandemonium, as the front entrance is blocked by stampeding patrons frantically attempting to exit the building. Several bystanders tried desperately to help people escape the building by whatever means possible.
H. P. Lovecraft (August 20, 1890–March 15, 1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island where he spent most of his life. Among his most celebrated tales are "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth," both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor. He subsisted in progressively straitened circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time that he died at age 46. According to Joyce Carol Oates, Lovecraft exerted "an incalculable influence on succeeding generations of writers of horror fiction." Stephen King called him "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale," and lists him as having the largest influence in his fiction writing.
Brown University is a privateuniversity located in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Ivy League. It was founded in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island; it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and seventh-oldest in the United States. Brown was the first college in the nation to accept students without regard for their religious affiliations. Academically, Brown consists of The College, Graduate School, and Alpert Medical School. The New Curriculum was instituted in 1969, eliminating distribution requirements and allowing any course to be taken on a satisfactory/no credit basis. In addition, there are no pluses or minuses in the letter grading system. The school has the oldest undergraduate engineering program in the Ivy League (1847). Pembroke College, Brown's women's college, merged with the university in 1971.
Westminster Arcade is a historic shopping center in Providence, Rhode Island built in 1828. It is notable as the first enclosed shopping mall in the United States and has been lauded as a fine example of commercial Greek Revival architecture. It served as a shopping center for many years before falling into decline in the late 20th century. It has since been closed for renovation and rehabilitation several times, and most recently reopened its doors in October 2013 as a residential and commercial mixed-use building. At the time of the Arcade's opening, there were few retail stores on the west side of the Providence River; most shopping was located on the east side or Cheapside district. It was slow to attract customers and was known as "Butler's Folly" for many years because of its distance from the retail districts. This changed when a fashionable hat shop opened next door which attracted wealthy female customers to the neighborhood. After that, Westminster Street and downtown developed into a major shopping area. The Arcade was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and is located at 130 Westminster Street and 65 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence.
Coffee milk is a drink similar to chocolate milk which uses coffee syrup instead of chocolate syrup. It is the official state drink of Rhode Island in the United States of America. Coffee milk was introduced to Rhode Island sometime in the early 1930s. It came about from diner and drugstore operators trying to attract new customers with creative drinks. One of these now-anonymous operators sweetened leftover coffee grounds with milk and sugar. This created a molasses-like extract that became popular. Coffee milk became a favorite among Rhode Islanders and created a demand for this coffee syrup. The demand was so great that it beat out Del's Lemonade in 1993 as the official drink of Rhode Island. In southeastern New England, it can be found in the dairy case of stores right next to other flavored milks such as chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla, and is often found on the beverage menus of diners throughout the state.
Roger Williams (c. 21 December 1603 – between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was a Puritan, an English Reformedtheologian, and later a Reformed Baptist. He was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the colony of Massachusetts because they thought that he was spreading "new and dangerous ideas" to his congregants. He eventually was forced to flee the Massachusetts colony under the threat of impending arrest and being shipped across the Atlantic to an English prison, walking more than 50 miles in deep snow. He purchased land from several Indian tribes and began the settlement of Providence Plantation in 1636 as a refuge offering freedom of conscience. Providence Plantation eventually merged with several other colonies to become the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and eventually the State of Rhode Island. Williams was also a student of Native American languages, an early advocate for fair dealings with American Indians, and one of the first abolitionists in North America, organizing the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the British American colonies. He is best remembered as the originator of the principle of separation of church and state.
Hurricane Carol was among the worst tropical cyclones to affect New England, United States. It developed from a tropical wave near the Bahamas on August 25, 1954, and gradually strengthened as it moved northwestward. On August 27, Carol intensified to reach winds of 105 mph (169 km/h), but weakened as its motion turned to a northwest drift. The hurricane made landfall on Long Island and Connecticut on August 30 near peak intensity, and quickly became extratropical over land. Carol was similar to the New England Hurricane of 1938; both struck New England as fast-moving hurricanes. The storm produced a record-high wind gust of 135 mph (215 km/h) at Block Island, and sustained winds peaked at 90 mph (145 km/h) in Warwick with gusts to 105 mph (170 km/h). Entire coastal communities were nearly destroyed, and the winds destroyed the roofs of hundreds of buildings, forcing many to evacuate to shelters.
Route 4 (also known as the Colonel Rodman Highway) is a numbered state highway located in Washington County and southern Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The route is a major north–south freeway in the southern Providence metropolitan area, directly linking Providence with eastern Washington County. Route 4 is used for access to the beaches of Narragansett and South Kingstown, and also serves as a major connection between Providence and Newport. The 9.8-mile (15.8 km) route begins as a two-lane divided highway at an intersection with U.S. Route 1 in the town of North Kingstown, becoming a limited-access freeway shortly after an intersection with Oak Hill Road. Route 4 has four numbered interchanges before terminating in Warwick, where the northbound lanes merge into Interstate 95. All but the southernmost 1.2 miles (1.9 km) of Route 4 is a freeway. The southern portion of the route has three at-grade intersections with three northbound and two southbound traffic signals.
Belcourt Castle is the former summer cottage of Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont located on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. Construction was begun in 1891 and completed in 1894, and it was intended to be used for six to eight weeks of the year. The mansion was designed in a multitude of European styles and periods, with heavy emphasis on French Renaissance and Gothic decor and further borrowings from German, English, and Italian design. In the Gilded Age, the castle was noted for its extensive stables and carriage areas, which were incorporated into the main structure located at 659 Bellevue Avenue. Belcourt was designed by Richard Morris Hunt for the heir of August Belmont, a Hessian Jew who came to the United States in 1837 as an agent for the Rothschilds and accumulated enormous personal wealth as a banker. When construction finished in 1894, the entire first floor was composed of carriage space and a multitude of stables for Belmont's prized horses.
Ninigret is a coastal lagoon in Charlestown, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, located at 41°22′45″N71°38′43″W / 41.3792677°N 71.6453401°W / 41.3792677; -71.6453401. It is the largest of nine such lagoons (often referred to as "salt ponds") in southern Rhode Island. It is utilized for recreational actives, as well as oyster and quahog harvesting. The pond is situated on low-lying ground and, as such, it is considered particularly vulnerable to storm surge flooding. It is connected to Green Hill Pond via a small channel. According to information compiled by the Rhode Island Sea Grant program, Ninigret Pond's watershed covers 7,645.65 acres (3,094.08 ha), of which 5,820.79 acres (2,355.59 ha) is occupied by water. The pond itself has a surface area of 1,580.38 acres (639.56 ha), while other, smaller bodies of water account for the other 244.48 acres (98.94 ha). Ninigret Pond has a salinity level of 24 parts per thousand and averages 4.3 ft (1.3 m) deep.
The Flying Horse Carousel is a historic carousel in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, the principal summer resort area of the town of Westerly. It is the oldest operating carousel in the United States in which the horses are suspended from chains, and one of two in the state designated as National Historic Landmarks. It is believed to have been built around 1876 by the Charles W. Dare Company of New York. The bodies of the horses are believed to have been carved from single blocks of wood, with the legs carved separately and attached. The horses still have their original agate eyes, while other trappings have been replaced. When the carousel rotates, centrifugal force drives the horses outward, giving rise to the name "flying horses." The carousel was originally part of a traveling carnival until 1879, when the carnival was forced to abandon it in Watch Hill. It was extensively damaged by the New England Hurricane of 1938 which devastated Watch Hill; however, its horses were recovered from the sand dunes and the carousel was restored to operation.
Anne Hutchinson, born Anne Marbury (1591–1643), was a Puritan woman, spiritual adviser, mother of 15, and important participant in the Antinomian Controversy that shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened to destroy the Puritans' religious experiment in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters. She and many of her supporters had encouragement from Providence founder Roger Williams and established the settlement of Portsmouth in what became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. After her husband's death, she moved to New Netherland near an ancient landmark called Split Rock in what later became The Bronx in New York City. Here all but one of the 16 members of her household were massacred by Siwanoy Indians, the only survivor being her nine-year old daughter Susanna, who was taken captive. Her well-publicized trials and the accusations against her make Hutchinson the most famous—or infamous—English woman in colonial American history.
Portal:Rhode Island/Selected article/23 Stephen Hopkins (1707–1785) was a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice on the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He began his public service at age 23 as a justice of the peace in the newly established town of Scituate, Rhode Island. He soon became a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, while also serving at times as the Speaker of the House of Deputies and President of the Scituate Town Council. In May 1747, Hopkins was appointed as a justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and he became the third Chief Justice of this body in 1751. In 1755, he was elected to his first term as governor of the colony and served a total of nine of the next 15 years in this capacity. Hopkins had become well known in the Thirteen Colonies when he published a pamphlet entitled "The Rights of Colonies Examined," which was critical of British Parliament and its taxation policies. Hopkins signed the Declaration of Independence in the summer of 1776, with palsy in his hands; he held his right hand with his left, saying, "my hand trembles, but my heart does not." He died in Providence in 1785 at age 78 and is buried in the North Burial Ground there. He has been called Rhode Island's greatest statesman.
Benedict Arnold (1615 – 1678) was president and then governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving for a total of 11 years in these roles. He learned the Indian languages at an early age and became one of the two leading interpreters in the Rhode Island colony, Roger Williams being the other. In 1651, he began his public service which lasted continuously until his death. He became a Commissioner and Assistant, and succeeded Roger Williams as President of the colony in 1657, serving for three years. In 1662, he was once again elected President; the Royal Charter of 1663 was delivered from England during the second year of this term, naming him as the first governor of the colony. Arnold was a bold and decisive leader; he was elected for two additional terms as governor, the last time following the devastation of King Philip's War. He died on 19 June 1678 while still in office and was buried in the Arnold Burying Ground, located on Pelham Street in Newport. In his will, he left his "stone built wind mill" to his wife, which still stands as an important Newport landmark. His many descendants include General Benedict Arnold, best known for his treason during the American Revolutionary War, and Senator Stephen Arnold Douglas, who debated Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and lost to him during the 1860 presidential election.
