Downtown Providence

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Downtown Providence, Rhode Island, became an important business center in New England beginning in 1866 due to an increase in immigration, urbanization, municipal planning, public and private investments, and new technologies. The business buildings of the past, some of them gone, still coexist with the modern structures of today in the 21st century. Louis Azar II chronicles the history of the commercial downtown with historic postcards and present-day photographs from his collection along with images from the Providence Public Library and research from the Rhode Island Historical Society.