Blackstone, Providence, Rhode Island facts for kids
<mapframe latitude="41.84" longitude="-71.39" zoom="11" width="220" height="220" align="right"> { "type": "ExternalData", "service": "geoshape", "ids": "Q4923386", "properties": { "title": "Blackstone", "stroke": "#125123", "stroke-width": 1, "fill": "#2aaf4d" } } </mapframe> Blackstone is a neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. It's mostly a place where people live. You can find it in the northeast part of the city. It's bordered by Lloyd Avenue to the south and Hope Street to the west. Blackstone is one of six neighborhoods that make up the East Side of Providence.
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History of Blackstone
Blackstone was one of the last areas in Providence to be built up. This was because it was far away and had lots of marshy, wet land. This stopped big buildings from being built there until the late 1800s. The area really started to grow after Blackstone Boulevard was built in 1894. This road made it easier to reach Swan Point Cemetery.
Before the boulevard, the area was mostly marshland. The first road, Cat Swamp Lane, followed the higher ground. Several farms were here in the 1700s, and a few of those old farmhouses are still standing. In the late 1700s, some burial grounds were set up in this remote western part of the city. By the mid-1800s, several of these became part of what is now Swan Point Cemetery.
Building Blackstone Boulevard
By the 1870s, people could get to the cemetery by a public bus. This bus took a long, twisty road through different streets. In 1886, the people in charge of Swan Point Cemetery hired a landscape architect named Horace Cleveland. He was from Chicago and planned a better road to the cemetery from Providence. This new road, Blackstone Boulevard, opened in 1894.
Blackstone Boulevard helped the area grow a lot. It led to many single-family homes being built. These homes had a special look, different from other houses in the city. Between 1890 and 1923, the value of properties along the Boulevard tripled. The neighborhood became one of the most popular and fancy places in the city. In the early 1900s, the Boulevard was redesigned to create the Blackstone Boulevard Park.
In the 1900s, important buildings like Central Baptist Church, Temple Emanuel, and St. Sebastian's Roman Catholic Church were built here.
About the Blackstone Neighborhood
The Blackstone neighborhood is in the northeast part of the East Side of Providence. It sits between the eastern ridge of the Moshassuck River Valley and the western bank of the Seekonk River. Blackstone is mostly homes, with many single-family houses. It is one of the city's wealthier neighborhoods.
Places of Worship
Important religious buildings in the area include Temple Emanu-El, St. Sebastian's Roman Catholic Church, and the Community Church of Providence. The Community Church used to be called Central Baptist.
The Community Church started from the First Baptist Church in America. It was first known as the Second Baptist Church, then Pine Street Baptist. In 1917, it opened at Lloyd and Wayland Street as Central Baptist. In 2003, the church changed its name to Community Church of Providence.
From 1917 to 2018, the church had a large Tiffany stained glass window. This amazing artwork was a memorial to Frederick W. Hartwell and was made by Agnes F. Northrop. It was called "Light in Heaven and Earth." Many people thought it was "one of the largest and finest landscape windows ever produced by Tiffany Studios." In 2018, the church sold the window to the Art Institute of Chicago. There, it is being carefully fixed up and prepared to be shown in a special way as the Hartwell Memorial Window.
Brown University in Blackstone
Brown University built several buildings and sports areas in the Blackstone neighborhood. Ladd Observatory, a place to study stars, was built in 1891. It's on the edge of the neighborhood at Hope Street and Doyle Avenue. In the 1920s, Brown built several athletic facilities along Elmgrove Avenue. These included Brown Stadium (built in 1925) and Marvel Gymnasium (used from 1927 to 1989). Aldrich Field, another sports field, was used from 1925 to 1961. Aldrich Field was sold in 1961 and turned into a neighborhood with houses. Marvel Gym was closed in 1989 and torn down.
Hospitals in Blackstone
Butler Hospital, located near Blackstone Boulevard, is Rhode Island's only private hospital for mental health. It was founded in 1844. The hospital offers programs to help people with mental health and addiction challenges. The hospital was built in 1847 on the Richard Browne Farm. The building is a large Gothic structure with beautiful landscaping. It was built with the idea of helping patients by moving them away from busy city life to a calm, rural setting.
Parks in Blackstone
- Blackstone Boulevard Park is a green space between the two sides of Blackstone Boulevard. It has about 19.3 acres (78,000 m2) of parkland. There's also a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) path for jogging or walking.
- Lippitt Memorial Park is located where Hope Street and Blackstone Boulevard meet, close to the Pawtucket border.
- Blackstone Park Conservation District is a 45 acres (180,000 m2) woodland area along the river. It's an important place for birds and wildlife along the Seekonk River and Blackstone wildlife corridor.
Who Lives in Blackstone
According to the Providence Plan, a local group that works to make city life better, most residents in Blackstone are white. This percentage is higher than the average for the whole city.
Blackstone is one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Providence. Families here have a higher income than the city average. The neighborhood is home to many Jewish people. The Jewish Community Center of Rhode Island was started on Elmgrove Avenue in 1971. Later, it joined with other groups and became the Jewish Alliance of Rhode Island. The Providence Hebrew Day School and Temple Emmanuel are also in this area.
