MERRY COMEBACK: The Crescent Park carousel, long a fixture in East Providence, was brought back to life in 1984 after years of neglect.
12.19.99
New Englanders don't often think of the British as a distinct ethnic group. But they were, and they had their own village -- Greystone , in North Providence.
In 1904 a British woolen manufacturer imported skilled woolen workers from Lancaster and Yorkshire to run his mill on the Woonasquatucket. They played soccer and cricket, planted English gardens, and ate fish and chips.
For most of the century the mill, under various owners, made top-of-the-line woolens before folding for good earlier this year.
The 1920s were boom years in Rhode Island. The textile and jewelry industries were humming and downtown Providence was a stunner. When the Industrial Trust Building opened in 1928, it was New England's tallest. Its resemblance to Los Angeles City Hall, where the Superman television show was filmed, fueled the legend that the caped crusader once flew over Providence.
Bristol's Herreshoff family was a cornerstone of Rhode Island's boat-building industry. Several generations of the family worked in the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company , which built sleek and fast America's Cup sailing vessels between 1883 and 1934, then churned out military vessels, including PT, mine-sweeping, and air-sea rescue boats, during World War II.
The ornate carousel at Crescent Park, in East Providence, was designed in 1885 by Charles Looff , a Danish immigrant who lived in Riverside and died in 1918. Looff's son, Charles Jr., purchased the park in 1920 and the Looff family ran it until 1966. The carousel's elaborate painted ponies were neglected for many years but brought back to life in July 1984; that year, 64,000 rode the carousel.
Rhode Islanders performed like champions during World War II , which was good for the state economically, as it was for other industrial districts hard-hit by the Great Depression. Idled mills sprang back to life, producing uniforms and blankets for the troops.
Skilled machinists who had been out of work for months or even years were suddenly working again, three shifts a day, seven days a week. Buses ran around the clock; Providence was hopping 24 hours a day.
Towns and cities around Narragansett Bay became major military installations: Newport. Quonset Point. Davisville. Charlestown. Portsmouth. Hundreds of thousands -- including future U.S. Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Bush -- learned to fly, to sail, to build bridges here.
Jewelry makers forsook ornaments for officers' insignia; rubber factories in Woonsocket, shuttered before the war, swung back into action to help build inflatable tanks and armaments to fool the Germans into thinking the D-Day landing would take place at Calais.
About 92,000 Rhode Islanders -- 13 percent of the population -- either were drafted or signed up for service. More than 2,500 were killed and thousands wounded; almost everyone else worked on the home front.
Trinity Square Repertory Company brought quality regional theater to Providence, opening in 1963 with a performance of Brendan Behan's The Hostage. Trinity Rep moved in 1973 to its current location at the Lederer Theater on Washington Street.
After the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet left in 1973 and the America's Cup races went to Australia in 1983, many in Newport's business community predicted doom. But Newport, home of the Gilded Age rich, expanded its tourist business to fill the gap. Now, Newport has tourist-fetching events for every season, from the venerable Jazz Festival in July to December's Christmas in Newport. After the Navy left, Newport had the state's highest unemployment rate. Today, a labor shortage is the biggest economic problem in a city where the restored mansions draw nearly 1 million visitors annually.
New Englanders don't often think of the British as a distinct ethnic group. But they were, and they had their own village -- Greystone , in North Providence.
In 1904 a British woolen manufacturer imported skilled woolen workers from Lancaster and Yorkshire to run his mill on the Woonasquatucket. They played soccer and cricket, planted English gardens, and ate fish and chips.
For most of the century the mill, under various owners, made top-of-the-line woolens before folding for good earlier this year.
The 1920s were boom years in Rhode Island. The textile and jewelry industries were humming and downtown Providence was a stunner. When the Industrial Trust Building opened in 1928, it was New England's tallest. Its resemblance to Los Angeles City Hall, where the Superman television show was filmed, fueled the legend that the caped crusader once flew over Providence.
Bristol's Herreshoff family was a cornerstone of Rhode Island's boat-building industry. Several generations of the family worked in the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company , which built sleek and fast America's Cup sailing vessels between 1883 and 1934, then churned out military vessels, including PT, mine-sweeping, and air-sea rescue boats, during World War II.
The ornate carousel at Crescent Park, in East Providence, was designed in 1885 by Charles Looff , a Danish immigrant who lived in Riverside and died in 1918. Looff's son, Charles Jr., purchased the park in 1920 and the Looff family ran it until 1966. The carousel's elaborate painted ponies were neglected for many years but brought back to life in July 1984; that year, 64,000 rode the carousel.
Rhode Islanders performed like champions during World War II , which was good for the state economically, as it was for other industrial districts hard-hit by the Great Depression. Idled mills sprang back to life, producing uniforms and blankets for the troops.
Skilled machinists who had been out of work for months or even years were suddenly working again, three shifts a day, seven days a week. Buses ran around the clock; Providence was hopping 24 hours a day.
Towns and cities around Narragansett Bay became major military installations: Newport. Quonset Point. Davisville. Charlestown. Portsmouth. Hundreds of thousands -- including future U.S. Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Bush -- learned to fly, to sail, to build bridges here.
Jewelry makers forsook ornaments for officers' insignia; rubber factories in Woonsocket, shuttered before the war, swung back into action to help build inflatable tanks and armaments to fool the Germans into thinking the D-Day landing would take place at Calais.
About 92,000 Rhode Islanders -- 13 percent of the population -- either were drafted or signed up for service. More than 2,500 were killed and thousands wounded; almost everyone else worked on the home front.
Trinity Square Repertory Company brought quality regional theater to Providence, opening in 1963 with a performance of Brendan Behan's The Hostage. Trinity Rep moved in 1973 to its current location at the Lederer Theater on Washington Street.
After the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet left in 1973 and the America's Cup races went to Australia in 1983, many in Newport's business community predicted doom. But Newport, home of the Gilded Age rich, expanded its tourist business to fill the gap. Now, Newport has tourist-fetching events for every season, from the venerable Jazz Festival in July to December's Christmas in Newport. After the Navy left, Newport had the state's highest unemployment rate. Today, a labor shortage is the biggest economic problem in a city where the restored mansions draw nearly 1 million visitors annually.
A
yearlong Providence Journal series about life in Rhode Island.
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in cooperation with the Rhode Island Historical Society.
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