• 1900
  Providence, home to manufacturing giants such as Gorham, Brown & Sharpe and Nicholson File Co., is considered the richest city in America.
  
  East Providence also experiences a boom in industry and construction. In Riverside, George B. Boyden's Crescent Park amusement arcade, with its carousel and roller coaster, flourishes, attracting thousands.
  
  
• 1901
  The sewage treatment plant at Fields Point in Providence opens as a state-of-the-art facility.
  
  
• 1904
  In East Providence, George Boyden starts construction for a much more ambitious amusement park than Crescent Park.Called Vanity Fair, it fronts on a lagoon and terminates in a spectacular shoot-the-shoot. The design was inspired by the 1902 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N. Y.
  
  
• 1910
  East Providence becomes the center of a flourishing Rhode Island oyster industry. The Sealshipt Oyster System's plant on Water Street processed over one million gallons of oysters annually.
  
  
• 1911
  The Fabre line starts service to Pier One at the Port of Providence, bringing thousands of immigrants to Rhode Island from Italy, Portugal, the Azores, Greece and Turkey before it shuts down operations in 1934.
  
  
• 1913
  A Water Supply Board is formed in Providence to find an alternative source for drinking water for the city, which has drawn its water from the Pawtuxet River.
  
  
• 1917
  Narragansett Park in East Providence is used to train troops during World War I. A rifle range was set up at the park. An ammunition factory at Clyde Mill in Phillipsdale produces munitions for the war effort.
  
  
• 1921
  A huge explosion rips through Watchemoket in East Providence, shattering windows and damaging several buildings.
  
  
• 1925
  The dance hall at Hunts Mills in East Providence burns to the ground.
  
  
• 1928
  The American Woolen Company abandons two woolen mills in Providence, dramatizing the deteriorating condition of Rhode Island's textile economy.
  
  
• 1929
  Parts of Watchemoket in East Providence are demolished to make way for a new Washington Bridge. But the arrival of the Great Depression brings a drastic decline in building activity everywhere.
  
  Through 1931, unemployment runs as high as 40 percent in major Providence industries.
  
  
• 1936
  The state marks the tercentenary of Roger Williams' settlement of Providence.
  
  
• 1938
  The hurricane that wasn't supposed to reach New England demolishes the East Providence shoreline and hits Providence with 100 mph winds that uproot utility lines and with torrential rains that put downtown under 10 feet of water.
  
  
• 1943
  Blackouts and air raid drills occurred during the war years. A big fire destroys several buildings in Riverside.
  
  
• 1944
  The Walsh-Kaiser Shipyard at Fields Point employs 22,000 people at the height of production during World War II.
  
  
• 1947
  In East Providence, a huge fire rips through Bird & Son's plant in Phillipsdale. One firefighter died.
  
  
• 1950
  Providence shows its first decline in population as the city and the state begin a transition from manufacturing to a service economy. East Providence enjoys the start of a post-war building boom.
  
  
• 1952
  East Providence High School is built on Pawtucket Avenue.
  
  
• 1954
  Hurricane Carol puts downtown Providence under water for the second time in 16 years, prompting the Army Corps of Engineers to recommend construction of the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier.
  
  
• 1956
  The first chunk of Interstate 195 opens in Providence. In the coming decade it will divide East Providence in two. Meanwhile, concern about the dilapidated condition of historic homes in Providence spawns the Providence Preservation Society.
  
  
• 1958
  East Providence, once famous for having the largest town meeting in the country, becomes a city.
  
  
• 1963
  Exchange Place in Providence is renamed Kennedy Plaza after the slain President: John F. Kennedy spoke from the steps of City Hall on the last day of his campaign in 1960.
  
  
• 1966
  The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is finished.
  
  
• 1967
  Providence deploys a total of 175 police officers to disperse a rock-throwing mob at the Willard Avenue Shopping Center in the worst of three years of sporadic rioting in black neighborhoods that marked disenchantment with the nonviolent tactics of the civil rights movement.
  
  
• 1969
  The Alhambra Ballroom at Crescent Park in Riverside burns to the ground.
  
  The first gas explosion in East Providence occurs on Vincent Avenue.
  
  
• 1975
  Vincent A. "Buddy'' Cianci Jr. is inaugurated as the first Italo-American Mayor of Providence, edging out longtime incumbent Joe Doorley by 709 votes at a time when the city was down at its heels. Shepard's department store had closed its doors the year before and the Biltmore went bankrupt almost as Cianci was taking the oath of office.
  
  
• 1978
  A blizzard paralyzes the city for nearly a week, even forcing the closing of Route 95. A shelter for stranded motorists opens in the Civic Center.
  
  
• 1980s
  Industrial base decline hits East Providence.
  
  
• 1984
  Cianci is forced from office as a result of a felony conviction for using a fireplace log, an ashtray and a lit cigarette to assault his estranged wife's lover.
  
  
• 1985
  Rhode Island's very first First Night is held in downtown Providence on New Year's Eve, drawing thousands to an alcohol-free festival of the arts.
  
  
• 1990
  Cianci makes a comeback at the polls in Providence, going on to become the longest-serving mayor in the city's history as he presides over a downtown renaissance.
  
  
• 1991
  The Greater Providence Deposit & Trust closes, one of many victims of the banking crisis that crippled the state's economy for years.
  
  In East Providence, the early years of the decade see numerous plant closings and foreclosures. The decade also ushers in the city's decline as a regional petroleum storage center as oil companies dismantle tank farms along the waterfront.
  
  
• 1996
  East Providence designates enterprise zones to encourage the redevelopment of former industrial sites. Companies willing to locate within the zones became eligible for tax incentives from the state.
  
  
• 1999
  The Providence Place Mall opens on Francis Street capping a decade of redevelopment that has transformed the heart of the capital city.
  
  

A yearlong Providence Journal series about life in Rhode Island.
Produced in cooperation with the Rhode Island Historical Society.