OUR HISTORY
Our History:
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence is the oldest continually operating Boys and Girls Club in the country. For nearly 140 years, we have been America’s leader in providing children living in difficult circumstances with the opportunity to receive quality services in safe and fun environments.
In 1868, a small group of people in Providence gathered to form the Union for Christian Work (U.C.W.). The mission was “to furnish such occupation, amusement and surroundings as will weaken the power of temptation, and arouse the higher nature of all who come within its influence.”
One year later, the U.C.W. reported “large numbers of youth, of both sexes, have from week to week, been brought into contact with mature and wise men and women, whom they could not have met socially by any other means heretofore existing. We dwell upon this because such social freedom has been considered impossible, and because the goal of such an influence in a city where so many, through well housed and sheltered, are without real homes, cannot be overestimated.”
In 1899, the decision was made to transfer the program to a new organization to be named the Providence Boys Club. A 
Board of Governors was established, a Superintendent was hired, and funds were obtained to provide separate quarters.
The first facility was located in the Grosvenor Building at the corner of Eddy and Weybosset Streets. In 1909 a move was made to 33 Canal Street. For reasons not specified in reports, Canal Street proved to be less than satisfactory. On October 21, 1915, at the Turks Head Club, the President advised the corporation “it would be necessary either to abandon this work or seek a new home.” They voted to continue the work, raise $40,000 and to buy property up to $25,000.
Fox Point Clubhouse:
Ten minutes later a special meeting, the Board of Directors voted the Building Committee be authorized to secure an option on the Talma Theatre, 226 South Main Street. On December 1, 1915, the Building Committee purchased the Talma Theatre for $18,000. Sometime between August and December 1916, the Providence Boys Club began operations in their first owned facility.
A driving force in all the Club’s early actions was Percy L. Smith who served as “Superintendent” (i.e. Executive Director) from 1899 to 1922. Immediately after the first purchase of property in 1916, he advocated expansion of the services into Olneyville, South Providence and the North End.
In early 1923, a new board President was elected. He was Philip B. Simonds, Sr., and he would serve in the office for over 32 years. Simonds letter stating the terms of his service, stated, in part “I feel we here have not fully realized our responsibilities and how much a good active Club or Clubs would mean to the underprivileged boys of our city.”
Olneyville Clubhouse:
With Philip Simonds leading the way, and with a large assist from the Atlantic Mills, the land to build the Olneyville Clubhouse was secured by March, 1924. By October of that year, a committee of One Hundred raised $159,657 from an estimated 5,000 donors. One year later, on November 1, 1925, the Olneyville Clubhouse opened at a cost of $100,000. The balance of the funds was used to put an addition on the South Main Street Clubhouse.
Wanskuck Clubhouse:
In 1927, a representative of the National Boys Club Federation completed a survey of the northern part of the city to determine the best location for the next clubhouse. With the report in hand, Phil Simonds visited Stephen O. Metcalf to ask for a gift to get the project started. Mr. Metcalf indicated that his brother, Senator Jessie H. Metcalf, was there on a visit from Washington. “If you will wait a bit, I’ll speak to him.” He returned in a few minutes saying, “We’ll do it.” “How much will you help us?” asked Simonds. Metcalf replied, “We’ll build it.” They donated the land and all of the money for the building. On December 29, 1928, the Wanskuck Clubhouse opened for service.
South Side Clubhouse:
In 1929, the National Boys Club organization was called upon to survey the South Providence district and the Federal Hill District. Each of them was scheduled for development, but it would be forty years before a South Providence Club would open its doors. It fell victim to two of the major convulsions of the 20th century; the Great Depression and World War II. The Clubhouse finally opened in 1961 after a building campaign, led by Bayard Ewing, raised $572,022.
The South Side Club also housed the first full-time Girls Club within the then Providence Boys Club organization. It was 1969. The area had been designated a Model Cities neighborhood and the second floor of the clubhouse was rearranged to accommodate the then “South Providence Model Cities Girls Club.” Over the next several years, federal money diminished, then discontinued. At the same time, general community support grew through the United Way. The original name was dropped when the South Side Branch was named the South Side Boys and Girls Club in the mid 1970’s…twenty years before Boys and Girls Clubs became officially recognized.
North Providence Clubhouse
In 1965, twenty-one men established the North Providence Boys Club Association, and initiated a weekly bus service to the Wanskuck Clubhouse. They later asked for the establishment of the North Providence Branch of the Providence Boys Clubs.
Operating from a former pharmacy in the Centerdale section of town, activities jammed the facility. Within three years, volunteers organized a building fund campaign. Raymond Gregson of Worcester Textile donated the land. The campaign raised $321,000. Contractors pledged labor and materials. The building opened on December 15, 1976.
Relocation and Expansion:
The Fox Point Clubhouse on South Main Street continued in service until 1974. For a short period, awaiting completion of the new building, the Club provided limited services from a store front on Ives Street, one block north from the present building. Then on January 27, 1975, the newly constructed Fox Point Clubhouse opened.
In August, 1979, the board voted to build a new gymnasium addition and make renovations to the 55 year old Olneyville Clubhouse. As part of this one million dollar project, the organization was able to purchase a strip of land with 40’ frontage on Plainfield Street for $3,000 from the City of Providence. This property abutted the new gymnasium addition which opened in April, 1982.
In 1987, the Board of Governors approved a recommendation to raise funds for a new gymnasium addition to the Wanskuck Clubhouse. A community wide campaign was conducted to raise $1.6 million for the 9,000 square foot addition, along with renovations to the ground floor and first floor of the original building. Modernization itself was needed, and the inclusion of girls as well as boys increased the need for the new construction. The addition opened in November, 1990.
Camp Davis
In pre colonial times the land area we know as Camp Davis was occupied by the Narragansett Indian Tribe. In colonial times, as settlers moved in, land came into the “private owner” concept and after much machination the Narragansetts were given a parcel of land known as the Narragansett Indian Reservation. It was an area encompassing some 2000 acres in Southwestern Rhode Island.
Though the Tribe functioned with a relatively loose governmental structure, it did have “Sachems” (chiefs or kings) and they did have authority. In the passage of time and with the desire to live comfortably, Sachems began to sell land that was part of the reservation. By the early part of the 19 th century, virtually all of the reservation land was in private ownership in various parcel sizes of 5 to 200 acres.
In 1960, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Providence began seeking a site to develop a summer camp for city children. The Board president at the time, George Davis, knew of land owned by Harold Tanner, a partner in his law firm, who was considering donation of the land to a charitable organization. Following several visits with Mr. Tanner, a donation of 170 acres was made to the Boys & Girls Clubs in December, 1962. In the spring of 1963, a bulldozer cut a road across this donated land from the access road (where the Camp Davis entrance sign is located) to the waterfront (where the Redgate Lodge is located). During that summer the Redgate Lodge, craft shelter, washhouse and infirmary were constructed. In the beginning, Camp Davis operated as a day camp, adding resident camp in 1967. Between 1967 and 1970, the dining hall, Villages 1 & 2, the camp office, a specialist cottage and the maintenance buildings were constructed. Kimball Lodge and Village 3 were constructed in the early 1970s.
In the early 1970s, 87 acres of land south of the original parcel were donated by A. C. Beal, a retired contractor. In 1975 an additional 170 acres was donated by the group known as Quakcompaug Lodge. This parcel ran south of the A. C. Beals property across the southern end of Schoolhouse Pond and included most of the shoreline on the western side of Schoolhouse Pond.
In the late 1970s, work commenced on the development of a fullsize soccer-athletic field. This project required two years for completion because of problems with boulders and contour issues.
In 1975, the Boys & Girls Clubs was one of several land owners in the area named in litigation brought by the Narragansett Indians. This is an involved story which had a 12th hour settlement before going into Federal Court. The settlement included the deeding of all of the land described above, with the exception of 106 acres, to the Narragansett tribe of Indians in exchange for financial compensation. In effect, the Boys & Girls Clubs sold the land to the Tribe at fair market value, the United States Government paying the bill. The proceeds from this settlement have helped to maintain Camp Davis since that time and will function as a permanent fund for the future.
Since 1868, more than 100,000 men and women have benefitted from membership in the Boys & Girls Clubs of Providence, many of whom have gone on to leadership positions in the public and private sector. Each year, over 4,000 children and youth look to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence for a safe place to grow and learn how to become responsible and productive members of society.