Benefit Street, Providence, RI is located just off of I-195 in the historic eastern section of this city, less than 30 minutes from the beaches and surf of Newport. Just to its west is the downtown area. Visitors to Providence seeking a quieter atmosphere may choose to stay at the Bed & Breakfast located on this historic street with cobblestone sidewalks.
This 1.2 mile long thoroughfare, sometimes called the Mile of History, is lined with Victorian and Colonial era homes and buildings.
Number 21 Benefit Street is where a newcomer or neighborhood visitor can arrive in order to pick up a street map from the Rhode Island Historical Society marked with historic locations found here. In the warmer months the Society offers guided tours of the street. Their tours start from the John Brown House Museum, which dates from 1786.
Other attractions on the Street include the Old State House which housed the colonial Assembly and later the early State Legislature.
The fourth oldest library in the US, the Athenaeum is also found here. Across from the this library sit the 5 buildings of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the oldest of which dates back to the late 19th Century. The museum itself is the most comprehensive art museum in the state and in southern New England as a whole.
The middle third of Benefit Street, Providence, RI is where most of the historic homes and buildings are located. Many of these buildings have plaques explaining their history thanks to the work of the Historical Society. The old Baptist Meting House and a Unitarian Church dating from the early 19th Century can also be visited here.
One of the Georgian style architectural homes, the Nightingale-Brown House, is currently occupied by the Center for the Study of American Civilization, an off campus facility of nearby Brown University. The main campus is just a few blocks from this street.
The southern end of the street has several galleries and restaurants nearby. Benefit Street, Providence, RI is the site of many locations referred to by H.P. Lovecraft, the Providence born author. A Lovecraft walking tour of 3 miles covers a section of this street and roughly a third of the stops on that tour are found here.
Approximately three fourths of the residents on Benefit and surrounding blocks are white. Home values are far above the average for the state. Wages and salaries earned by full time residents on and around this historic street are nearly twice as much as the state average declared income level.
Over 52% of local residents are women, with men making up a minority in the neighborhood where this street is found.
The Educational levels of adults residing on Benefit Street and the surrounding blocks are far above those in Rhode Island as a whole.
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