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Providence - Part 1
Written by: Janet Pope
Photography by: Donald
Small State, Big Heart
All I knew about Providence, Rhode Island, was that my niece was there attending college at Johnson and Wales University. I was excited to discover a new place just about four hours drive from New York City.
Providence: Day One
Our tour group met at Bella Vista, a restaurant on the edge of the Providence River for a late luncheon. While sitting on the outdoor patio, we caught our first glimpse of Waterplace Park. Built in 1994, it is a four-acre park in the heart of the city with one acre of waterways, so the view is delightful. Due to economic growth over the years, the rivers of the city were virtually buried beneath endless bridges and streets. However, Providence is now a growing, vibrant city with Venice-like canals that flow where trains once chugged and the asphalt ran. The town was originally laid out in a linear fashion along one river where three rivers ran together: the Moshassuck, the Woonasquatucket and the Providence. Providence, a city of many cultural and historic arts, has totally reinvented itself many times since its birth in 1636, and Waterplace Park is one of its recent additions. Besides being a wonderful recreational area and focal point for the city, it is also home to "Waterfire," a series of public concerts highlighted with barn fires on the river. It occurs about twelve times a year during the warmer weather and is an occurrence unique to Providence.
Barbara Baines joined us from the Rhode Island Historical Society and was a wealth of information. After lunch we took a stroll down the riverfront, as she filled us in on the city’s revitalization and history. Providence, we learned first hand, is a walking city: 18.5 square miles and easily accessible. There are lots of trees within the city making for a beautiful environment. The recently built mall is called Providence Place and includes an IMAX theater, Nordstrom, Borders, the Cheesecake Factory and the famous Filene’s. Providence is also built on seven hills and is home to many colleges. Besides Johnson and Wales University, there are the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, so the streets and the atmosphere are lively and busy, with a lot of young people milling about.
Our walking tour went past the Roger Williams National Memorial, the smallest one in the national park system, which is dedicated to the founder of Rhode Island. Williams wanted a new land where there was religious freedom for all. He came here and parceled out plots of land around the waterfront. Roger Williams believed in the ideal of separation of church and state, and is considered one of the eight great leaders of the reformation. Along our way down Benefit Street, we also saw the great architecture of the First Baptist church of America, which was built in 1774 and is large enough to hold 1,200 people.
Dinner was at Café Nuovo on the Waterpark’s edge. Tonight was a Waterfire event and so the streets were especially crowded, as were the restaurants. Waterfire begins at dusk and at 6:00 p.m. there was an exciting sense of anticipation in the air. Reservations on the nights of Waterfire are, of course, at a premium among the restaurants along the river walk and are often booked months in advance.
Café Nuovo boasts a contemporary cuisine. I chose the veal scaloppini with a Madeira and Portobello mushroom sauce and sautéed spinach, and my husband Donald had the Hudson Valley duck with sautéed Swiss chard and butternut squash. Dinner was delicious, so our compliments to Chef Timothy Kelley. The restaurant was packed with people both inside and in the outdoor dining area. Large wall paintings and an open kitchen were the focal points of the room, as well as the view of the river.
After dinner we ventured out into the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds waiting for Waterfire to begin. Imagine a winding, narrow river, bordered on both sides by walkways, in the middle of a city with many tall building and convention halls. Dotted through the center of the river (2/3 of a mile long) are over 100 raised metal baskets filled with burning wood. Music is being played through 60 speakers (put in using two miles of audio cable) and visitors walk the streets or ride slowly in boats or gondolas. Chandeliers are even hung under overpasses and streetlights are covered, to add to the special atmosphere. There are people everywhere sitting on benches, picnicking on blankets or strolling leisurely around. There was something quite mesmerizing about the water, the fire's glow, the smell of the smoke, and the ethereal tone of music being played.
Barnaby Evans, a photographer from Brown University, is the originator of this concept, who oversees all of this as an ongoing project. It might sound like a simple concept—water, fire and music—but it is a huge undertaking. Mr. Evans solicits corporate sponsorships and volunteers to create the Waterfire events. Over 400 volunteers are dressed in black and ceremonially light and refill the baskets of wood until midnight. Each Waterfire has a unique musical program, setting a slightly different tone for each one. It is a simple concept, and yet so unique and beautiful that it draws thousands of people. For about six months out of the year Waterfire occurs about every two weeks and attracts about 50,000 people. With all those people, it is difficult to get a gondola or riverboat reservation, but we were fortunate enough to have front row seats to Waterfire from a pontoon boat, giving us a great up-close view of not only the bonfires, but the workers gathering up fresh wood under the tunnels and the crowds waving at us from the shoreline along the route.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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