East Providence City

Providence County, Rhode Island

East Providence City Hall is located at 145 Yaunton Avenue, East Providence, RI 02914.
Phone: 401‑435‑7500.

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Photo: Nathaniel Daggett House, circa 1700, located at 74 Roger Williams Avenue, East Providence. Listedt on the National Register in 1980. Photo by wikipedia Username: Kenneth C. Zirkel, [cc‑3.0], own work, 2013, via Wikimedia Commons, accessed September, 2022.

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The city of East Providence [1], part of the heavily urbanized Providence metropolitan region, covers an area of 13.7 square mikes in northeastern Rhode Island. It is bounded by the city of Pawtucket on the north, the Seekonk River on the northwest, the Providence River on the southwest, the Town of Barrington on the southeast and the town of Seekonk, Massachusetts on the east. A portion of the Seekonk boundary is formed by the Runnins River, a tributary of the Barrington River, while at the northeast corner of the city, the Ten Mile River is dammed to form Central Pond and the James V. Turner Reservoir. Below Turner Reservoir, the Ten Mile River turns east and flows into Omega Pond, a body of water created in the late nineteenth century by Seekonk Cove, an inlet of the Seekonk River. KVatchemoket Cove and Bullock's Cove, located respectively in the central and southern sections of the city, are major inlets on the Providence River coast, the latter defined by a long, narrow peninsula called Bullock's Neck.

Neighborhoods

Beginnings [2]

East Providence became an independent township in 1862. It had previously been part of three separate townships and of two states, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Roger Williams came to what is now East Providence in the spring of 1636, after a bitter winter journey from Salem, Massachusetts. At the request of Plymouth Colony, which then claimed the land to the east bank of the Seekonk, he moved to Providence in June of the same year. While East Providence was claimed by Massachusetts, it was called Seekonk, the name of the present Massachusetts town just to the east. After Williams' departure, John Hazell came to Seekonk in 1642, and a year later the Reverend Samuel Newman and a group of 58 followers with their families moved here, calling their settlement Rehoboth, meaning "the Lord has opened a way for us." Other settlers were Thomas Willett, Philip Walker and John Brown. Mr. Newman immediately organized a Congregational church society in his settlement. Agriculture was the earliest means of livelihood.

1. Robert O. Jones, Jr., Historic Preservation Planner, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, Historic Resources of East Providence Rhode Island, 1989, National Register nomination document, Washington, D.C., accessed September, 2022.
2. Federal Writers' Project, Works Progress Administration, Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1937.

Nearby Towns: Barrington Town • Central Falls City • Cranston City • Pawtucket City • Seekonk Town • Warren Town •