Washington Park is a neighborhood in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. The neighborhood occupies the southeastern portion of the city along the

Providence River The Providence River is a tidal river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 8 miles (13 km). There are no dams along the river's length, although the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is located south of downtown to protect th ...

Geography

Washington Park is bounded to the north by Route 95 and continues south to the Cranston city line. On the west, it starts at the edge of

Roger Williams Park Roger Williams Park is an elaborately landscaped city park in Providence, Rhode Island and a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is named after Roger Williams, the founder of the city of Providence and the pr ...

and spreads east to the waterfront. Washington Park contains

Fields Point Fields Point (also known as Field's Point) is a historic park in the Washington Park, Providence, Rhode Island, Washington Park neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island jutting into Narragansett Bay right near the Providence River and Interstate 9 ...

, home to Save the Bay. It also includes the Port of Providence and the Harborside Campus of

Johnson & Wales University Johnson & Wales University (JWU) is a private university with its main campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded as a business school in 1914 by Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, JWU enrolled 7,357 students across its campuses in the fa ...

. Much of the area is residential along the side streets off Broad Street and Narragansett Boulevard.

History

Washington Park fire station, Providence

In the 1600s, most of the area was owned by

Roger Williams Roger Williams (21 September 1603between 27 January and 15 March 1683) was an English-born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations, which became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation ...

and later by his descendants. In the 1870s, Betsy Williams offered the farm to the city as a park. Washington Park gets its name from a horse racing track built by Edward Babcock and his son William in the mid-1800s (and stood until at least 1884), on farmland between the water and Broad Street. Houses started being built in the area in the late 1800s through the 1940s. After World War I and World War II, industrial development grew along the waterfront, which increased demand for housing. On May 14, 2021, eight people were shot and wounded and a ninth victim was wounded from glass shards in vicinity of the park. The shooting was believed by authorities to have stemmed from conflict between two rival groups. It was the largest number of victims of any shooting in Providence's history.

Geography

History

References

See also