Waves of Immigration
After 1880, a significant wave of immigration from Southern Europe arrived in Providence aboard Fabre Line ships from Naples. The Italian immigrants found work in the mills and jewelry factories of the bustling “Beehive of Industry.” As the century turned, global migrations surged, with various nationalities enriching the city’s diverse culture, including Germans, Swedes, Portuguese, Poles, and French Canadians, as well as Jews fleeing the pogroms in Russia and Armenians escaping massacres. Many of these immigrants settled on the West Side of the city.