Though the area around it has changed over the years, Providence City Hall remains a constant in downtown Providence. Constructed in the 1870s, the cast iron and masonry structure witnessed the evolution of Exchange Place into Kennedy Plaza, two hurricanes, and multiple cycles of economic depression and growth. Initially, Providence’s municipal government was located in the crowded Market House, across the Providence river. Needing a bigger space, alderman were split on where to put a new city hall. Half of the council lived on the east side of the river, and half on the west, causing a thirty-year struggle over where to put the new government building. Eventually, the west side won and the cornerstone was laid on June 24, 1875. In the 1950s the city’s downtown master plan called for the demolition of City Hall, but it was saved and restored, reflecting the city’s pride in its historic roots.

Just outside of City Hall is a home for America’s oldest food cart: Haven Brothers Diner.  Despite the misleading name, no brothers were involved in the founding of the Haven Brothers. Indeed it was founded in 1893 by Anne Haven, an immigrant widow who used her husband’s life insurance policy to purchase the horse drawn wagon that became the legendary lunch cart. Assisted by her daughter, Catherine Gannon, the cart grew into a legendary Providence food establishment. The Haven family sold their food cart in 1953 to the Mollicone family; the cart is still open for business every day at 5:00pm. Truly a Rhode Island institution, it has only left once since opening for operation. In 2009, the cart traveled to visit Today Show hosts Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira in New York City. Both Lauer and Vieira frequented Haven Brothers while working for Channel 10 Providence.

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Boston wasn’t the only place to throw a tea party! Here, on March 2, 1775, Providence residents protesting the Tea Act threw 300 pounds of British East India Company tea into the Providence River. Finding inspiration in Rhode Island’s founder Roger Williams, residents sent their tea into the river and their spirit of protest across the Atlantic Ocean to King George. The Market House changed that day and hasn’t stopped. Following the event, the Market House quartered French soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and by the middle of the 19th century, it served as Providence’s City Hall before overcrowding necessitated a larger space in present day downtown.

As you stroll the streets of the East Side, pay attention to the street signs: many of the streets you pass bear witness to some of the significant people and structures that have come and gone, making and remaking the city. Power Street, for example, runs the property line of 17th-century original resident Nicholas Power. Meeting Street, once known as Gaol Lane, was the site of Providence’s early jail. And Transit and Planet Streets commemorate perhaps the first worldwide scientific collaboration: the 1769 observation of the transit of Venus, organized by Joseph Brown, one of the four prominent Brown brothers of Providence, and an early astronomer and architect.

Among these other scientific pursuits, Joseph Brown designed the Market House (1775), which he intended as a magnificent landmark to the wealth of the colonial city at the heart of the bustling waterfront. The ground-level arcades originally provided open stalls for fishmongers, butchers, and produce vendors, while the upper floor housed government functions. A Masonic Hall occupied the third floor, added in 1797. During the 19th century, Market House served as City Hall during a 30-year debate (1845-75) over the construction of a new City Hall. It has housed classrooms for RISD since the 1950s. Market Square, always a site for news, gossip, and shopping, was the site of a colonial tax protest against the British on March 2, 1775 when the people of Providence burned tea. On September 7, 1897, Emma Goldman, a noted anarchist and feminist, was arrested for unlawful “open air speaking” and charged with attracting a crowd in Market Square. Nowadays you are more likely to encounter a RISD student’s art installation.

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