AS MUCH FUN AS A SCHOOL FIELD TRIP: PROVIDENCE, RI
Story and photography
by Eric Anderson & Nancy Allen

You could forgive Providence, Rhode Island, if it went around like Rodney Dangerfield claiming it "don't get no respect." The state is not exactly well known to many of today's geographically-challenged Americans. The further west you go in the United States apparently the more you meet people who say, "Oh yeah. Rhode Island, that's an island off the shore of, duh, New York, isn't it?" In addition, not only is Providence the capital of the smallest state but,- Rhode Island is only 48 by 37 miles and- a city somewhat in the shadow of bouncy, big brother Boston and cute, perky kid sister Newport.



Tourists have to apply themselves to discover Providence. Not even history has been kind. For example, even though its act of rebellion against the British Crown and its heinous Stamp Act – the burning of the HMS Gaspee by local patriots in June 1772 – preceded the Boston Tea Party by 18 months, the Boston event is better known. Why? "Maybe the Boston Tea Party had better PR," suggests Kristen Adamo, Director of Communications, Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau . She's smiling because she knows what Providence has to offer today.

Civic pride is evident. This city, the custom jewelry capital of the USA, has more artists and degreed chefs per capita than any other US city. Its State House has the 4 th largest unsupported dome in the world (after the Taj Majal, St. Peters in the Vatican and Minnesota which snuck in its State Capitol to beat out R.I). It's a young town where everyone is a character. It's diverse. "There is no majority ethnic group here, " says Adamo, "except for Red Sox fans! In contrast to, say, Washington, DC where no one is from there, our city is where everyone knows everybody. A lot of locals have tried the outside world but return to work here."

Rhode Islanders are proud of their town. From the summer parade through the village of Pawtuxet where the Gaspee burned, ("The first overt act leading to the American Revolution," says Adamo,) the village paints the midline of its roads red, white and blue. And even when it's not a holiday, Old Glories seem to fly from every home. That is one of the beauties of Providence: you are in a city of 170,000 surrounded by the eight villages that comprise Warwick, yet you still have the feel and the fun of small town America.

The city' history is inspiring. Oxford minister and religious renegade Roger Williams, evicted from the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies for the heretical belief that freedom of worship should apply to all people, came to the east side of the Seekonk River in 1636. Others soon followed to the only one of the original thirteen states founded on tolerance. Williams laid out his future city with each family's division stretching laterally from the river bank: he didn't want homes to be clustered around and dominated by church or government. As his 14-foot granite statue surveys the panorama of his city from his national monument on Canal Street he must surely be smiling. His gaze is directed at the bronze figure atop the State House, "the Independent Man," sculptor George Brewster's 1899 rendering of what was so important to the founder of Rhode Island.

When the economy of Providence faltered in the 1980s the city had to change. With the help of a consortium of local businesses and the cooperation of the many local universities and colleges it emerged as an exciting, energized vacation destination. Subsequently the convention and visitors bureau for Providence Warwick altered its website's name to ProvidenceNightandDay.com suggesting it’s a 24 hour destination as different from the past as night and day.