Ocean State Libraries

"When a distressed urban neighborhood gentrifies all the ratios change: poor to rich; Black and Brown to white; unskilled to professional; vulnerable to secure. Vacant lots and toxic dumps become condos and parks. Upscale restaurants open and pawn shops close. But the low-income residents who held on when the neighborhood was at its worst, who worked so hard to make it better, are gradually driven out. For them the neighborhood has not been restored...

The Olneyville Free Library Association Records include correspondence, financial ledgers, membership and board meeting minutes, mortgage bonds, receipts, wills and legal papers. The materials span from the creation of the Olneyville Free Library Association to after the merger with the Providence Public Library. The Olneyville Free Library Association Records are organized into 5 series. Series 1- Legal Papers; Series 2 -Correspondence from 1904-...