Mashapaug Pond
Providence's Mashapaug Pond has been forgotten and overlooked for decades, contaminated by industrial pollution and separated from the communities that surround it. Now, the pond comes alive as an imagined place, present in memories of former residents, in the bonds that tie together current neighbors, and in the visions of pond activists. Discover the pond’s engaging social history and understand the natural forces that have shaped the pond over the centuries. Learn about current efforts to ensure that Mashapaug Pond is preserved as an urban oasis.
Where Did West Elmwood Go?
Staring at the endless concrete in the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park, it seems impossible that this was once a vibrant neighborhood. Laughing children ran across neighbors’ yards, caught up in games of hide and seek. The smell of coffee, oranges, and kerosene filled the air. Fruit trees…
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“Rhode Island Knows Now - THE NARRAGANSETT STILL EXISTS!”
Native peoples had already lived on the land near Mashapaug Pond for many centuries when Roger Williams arrived in Providence in 1636. The pond’s very name comes from two Algonquin words: ‘massa’ and ‘pug’, meaning ‘large standing water’. In Pre-Contact time the pond provided local Narragansett,…
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Industrial Legacies: Environment and Economics
In 1980, up to $1.5 million worth of silver flowed from Providence factories into the Narragansett Bay, giving new meaning to the phrase “a waste of money.” Much of this silver originated from the electroplating firms located in the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park on the north shore of…
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Geology and Topography of Mashapaug Pond
What did Mashapaug Pond look like five years ago? Fifty years ago? Five hundred years ago? Five hundred million years ago? How was that terrain different from today? The physical appearance of the pond today has slowly evolved through the dual processes of geologic change and human action.
565…
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Playing Around the Pond
On a frigid February in 1904, fifty riders and horses gathered at frozen Mashapaug Pond for an afternoon of racing on the ice. Beyond the pleasure of competition, the races gave local residents a chance to admire each other’s horses and to appreciate the conclusion of the ice harvesting season.…
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“Mashapaug Pond is Sick”: Polluting the Ecosystem
Mashapaug Pond is at the center of a complex freshwater ecosystem. Underneath the pond’s calm green surface is a strange world of toxic carp, three-eyed frogs, and rusting refuse. Many people think of cities and the wilderness as completely separate spaces, but Mashapaug Pond is the perfect example…
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Saving Murphy-Trainor Park
When Liz Camp, a resident of the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood, heard that developers wanted to build over two dozen townhouses on an open plot of land near Mashapaug Pond, she knew she had had to do something to halt the construction. After years of campaigning, when the governor’s office told…
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Spiritual Cleansing: Religion at Mashapaug Pond
In the summers, Providence residents waded into Mashapaug Pond to get clean – or, more precisely, for spiritual cleansing. "The choir would sing and the Word was preached before the candidate entered the water to have his sins washed away," recalled Ralph Simmons, a member of the Pond Street…
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Art, Performance, and Environmental Education Along Mashapaug’s Shore
The Urban Pond Procession’s (UPP) headquarters at Mashapaug Pond are nestled far away from the busy traffic of Reservoir Avenue and the clatter and commotion of shoppers at the nearby Ocean State Job Lot. To reach the Community Boating Center where many of the UPP events are held, one even has to…
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Old Traditions in a New Home: Immigration in Reservoir Triangle
In 1880, about 104,000 people lived in Providence. Thirty years later, the city’s population had more than doubled, reaching over 223,000 people. Most of this population increase was due to immigration; among those attracted to the city’s numerous manufacturing and industrial jobs were Irish,…
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Building a School, Building a Community
A school did not always stand on this ground. For nearly a century, the Gorham Manufacturing Company operated an extensive factory on the banks of Mashapaug Pond. Gorham left a complex legacy. While it brought thousands of well-paying jobs to the community, it also polluted the groundwater and…
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Gorham’s Toxic Legacy
Rhode Island has a long history of industrial manufacturing. Slater Mill, on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, is considered the “birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.” By the early 1800s, that fervor for manufacturing had spread, and companies, like the…
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Work, Welfare, and Resistance
Gorham Manufacturing Company
Imagine walking around this site in 1899, when the Gorham Manufacturing Company was the most famous producer of silver utensils, tea services and decorative items in the world. In the central building, you could find offices, a museum of silverwork, and a library. A stylish “casino” had a dining…
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Arepa to Zeppole
Mashapaug Pond Foodways
Walking down Resevoir Avenue today, the sweet fragrance of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits mixes with the aroma of traffic. Strolling through Reservoir Triangle and the surrounding neighborhoods, the scent of Cambodian and Spanish food wafts out of kitchen windows. Buckets filled with garden soil,…
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From Silver Spoons to Shell Casings
Gorham Manufacturing Company
In 1873, an economic depression gripped the country and threatened the future of the Gorham Manufacturing Company. The company’s skilled metalworkers and innovative designers had a reputation for creating quality goods, but none of these things mattered if people couldn’t afford to purchase the…
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