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The 78 properties on this tour were built from 1790. Click on a map marker to see the property name, then click the name to see more. Or, scroll down to see a gallery of all properties. Click any photo to learn more.

Prominent locations attract prominent people. As Providence’s manufacturing, mercantile, and financial-management elite became richer and richer in the nineteenth century, the crest of College Hill became increasingly desirable as a logical extension of the city’s pre-eminent and historic neighborhood of choice. Not only were there fine views to capture (and a number of early houses clearly were sited to do just that), but this elevated location had the great advantage of literally rising above the soot and smog of the factories that generated all this wealth.

This neighborhood has several distinct districts. Prospect Street introduces the large-scale, mid- to late nineteenth-century houses that first staked out this territory and their only slightly smaller successors. East of Prospect Hill, ample, middling, well-designed houses stretch for blocks in all directions, as far north as Olney Street and as far as east as Hope Street. Thayer Street is perhaps the most intriguing of the numerous early twentieth-century commercial strips that dot the neighborhoods of Providence. Farther east is movie-set perfection on three streets: Cooke, Hope, and Stimson Avenue. Finally, one block of Angell Street offers a turn-of-the-twentieth-century revivalist crescendo.

– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture

© 2025 Guide to Providence Architecture. All rights reserved. Design by J. Hogue at Highchair designhaus, with development & support by Kay Belardinelli.