Providence

Formed June 22, 1703 (2^nd county)

Providence County (660,739), Providence (190,932)                

The outstanding brick courthouse was constructed in 1928.  There was an 1875 version earlier.  The courthouse is at Main and Hopkins streets.  United States Highway 44 is Main Street.  The designers were Jackson, Robertson, and Adams.  There is a 1980 Family Courthouse augmenting the main courthouse.  Providence County was founded on June 22, 1703 as an original county (2^nd county.)  The county and its county seat are named for the biblical term.  Providence County is the birthplace of 39 Rhode Island governors, Nicholas Cooke, Arthur Fenner, Henry Smith, James Fenner, Nehemiah R. Knight, William Sprague III, Samuel W. King, Charles Jackson, Elisha Harris, Philip Allen, William W. Hoppin, Elisha Dyer, William Sprague IV, Henry Howard, Henry Lippitt, Alfred H. Littlefield, Augustus O. Bourn, Charles W. Lippitt, Elisha Dyer, Jr., Charles D. Kimball, James H. Higgins, William S. Flynn, Norman S. Case, Theodore F. Green, J. Howard McGrath, John O. Pastore, John S. McKiernan, Dennis J. Roberts, Christopher Del Sesto, John A. Notte, Jr., John L. H. Chafee, Frank R. Licht, J. Joseph Garrahy, Edward D. DiPrete, Bruce G. Sundlin, Lincoln C. Almond, Lincoln D. Chafee, Gina M. Ramando and Daniel J. McKee. 

Providence County has a sheriff but doesn’t have a unified government as each township governs.  Twenty-six Superior Court Judges and Fourteen District Court Judges serve the entire state.  Providence County is on the northern border with both Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Boston, Massachusetts is northeast and Hartford, Connecticut is west of the county.  The county center is 6.9 miles Northwest of Providence near Smithfield.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Massachusetts and Bristol and Kent counties and Connecticut.  The City of Providence dominates the southeast corner of the county.  Providence is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 28.9% of the county population.  The highest point in Rhode Island, Jerimoth Hill, is in the county.  The Rhode Island state capitol is located in this county.  The county is an overall rectangle with an added arm on the southeast. 

The area of the county is 409 square miles.  It is 1 out of 5 in the state.  It ranks 1 out of 5 in population in the state.  It has a density of 1615.5 persons per square mile making it 2 out of 5 in the state.  Providence County has 70.0% of its population in its incorporated areas since there are no incorporated cities.  Interstate Highway 95 travels through the county from Massachusetts, northeast, to Kent County, south.  Interstate Highway 195 originates as goes southeast into Massachusetts.  United States Highway 1 parallels Interstate Highway 95 from Massachusetts to Kent County.  United States Highway 6 enters from Massachusetts, east, and exits into Connecticut, west.  United States Highway 44 comes from Massachusetts, east, and terminates.  This county is in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River Metropolitan Statistical Area.