Beyond Hartford: Providence

You probably don’t remember the Beyond Hartford series because the last one of these happened in 2013. Beyond Hartford provides some day trip options for people on a budget. We will be bringing back this series, sporadically. If you have suggestions for places to check out within 200 miles, send an email.

Elsewhere, I’ve written about how it may not be easy to get to Providence from Hartford, but once you’re there, it’s fairly accessible without a car. A trip automatically becomes more enjoyable when getting from place-to-place is not a pain in the ass. This fits the bill. It’s a place where you can do research and plan everything out, or just show up and wander, finding treasures without direction or intention.

Providence feels made for aimless meandering. Vinyl and typewriter-filled vintage shops, independent bookstores, and numerous coffee spots are not solely clustered around Thayer Street, the area catering to the college student demographic. That’s not a slam of Thayer Street. It serves a purpose, shows signs of being bike-friendly, and is steps away from Flatbread Company, a decent place to eat outside if you’re traveling with your dog. They have a CVS somewhat disguised by a mural, an army-navy store, and opportunities for people-watching. But you can walk for half an hour or more from that street and encounter plenty to look at, from architecture to gardens to art to plaques and memorials acknowledging the city’s history.

But if you want to do more than guess your way around, there are a few places to include on your list.

One of these is Benefit Street, a concentrated area of wood-frame houses from the 18th and 19th centuries. Guided walking tours are available for a fee, or you can purchase a walking tour booklet and take a self-guided tour, or, you can just walk around and look. I don’t know if this is truly one mile of old homes, but it’s much more than one or two blocks. It’s a lovely walk, likely to fill you with rage when you stop to think about how Hartford and so many other places have completely destroyed beautiful buildings, replacing them with either shoddy construction or the ever-present surface parking lot.

It’s not that Providence had always been running things dramatically differently from Connecticut’s capital city. If you grew up in this area, you know that it was kind of a mess thanks to the way suburbanization gutted cities. It took Buddy Cianci,

a controversial mayor, to reverse the downward spiral that downtown Providence had been in. Some leaders manage to get positive, lasting results, even if widely regarded as corrupt.

You can see this in Waterplace Park and River Walk any day. There’s not a lot of green in the park, but there’s water. This is also the site for WaterFire, which seems like a festival, but the organization describes itself as an “award-winning sculpture by

Barnaby Evans installed on the three rivers of downtown Providence, has been praised by Rhode Island residents and international visitors alike as a powerful work of art and a moving symbol of Providence’s renaissance. WaterFire’s over eighty sparkling bonfires, the fragrant scent of aromatic wood smoke, the flickering firelight on the arched bridges, the silhouettes of the firetenders passing by the flames, the torch-lit vessels traveling down the river, and the enchanting music from around the world engage all the senses and emotions of those who stroll the paths of Waterplace Park.” The WaterFire lightings reportedly attract one million visitors each year. The next full lighting is on May 27, 2017.

It’s hard to argue that Providence is on fire. Every Halloween, The Steel Yard, located in one of the city’s neighborhoods, hosts the Iron Pour. This theatrical display features molten iron. That alone would be enough, but The Steel Yard offers workforce training and classes in everything from blacksmithing to welding to knife making to ceramics. And that would be enough, but then they go ahead an have public projects that are functional: bike racks, trash bins, bollards, tree guards, benches, fences, and more.

There are the standard attractions — art museum, galleries, zoo, a giant mall — but what Providence excels in is putting a creative spin on basic concepts like a park or workforce training.