Waterplace Park

Stroll cobblestone riverwalks and Venice-style footbridges downtown, the setting for WaterFire bonfires.

Memorial Blvd, along the Woonasquatucket River downtown · Providence, RI

About Waterplace Park

Waterplace Park opened in 1994 on the Woonasquatucket River in downtown Providence, on the site of the old Great Salt Cove. You walk cobblestone paths along the Riverwalk, much of it below street level, and cross Venice-style pedestrian bridges over the water. The park is the home of WaterFire, when bonfires are lit on the river and set to classical and world music. It grew out of the river relocation project that reshaped downtown in the 1980s and 1990s.

#riverwalk
#urban park
#waterfire
#downtown providence

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What's around here?

The closest stops to Waterplace Park, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

Museums
History Buff
RISD Museum
Under $25
An art and design museum in Providence with more than 100,000 objects spanning ancient to contemporary work.
Transit: reachable by public transit
Steps awaySwitch it up: Museums
Museums
The Museum at the John Brown House
Under $25
Rhode Island Historical Society museum in a historic Providence mansion, telling regional and global stories up to 1860.
Transit: reachable by public transit
0.2 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums
Museums
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Check prices
Brown University's teaching and research museum focused on anthropology and material culture.
0.3 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums
Sightseeing
Slavery Memorial (Brown University)
Check prices
Outdoor sculpture by Martin Puryear on Brown's Front Green that addresses the university's 18th-century ties to slavery.
Transit: reachable by public transit
0.3 mi awayMore like this
Sightseeing
Local Gem
Providence, Rhode Island
No admission fee
Rhode Island's compact capital, nicknamed the Creative Capital for its arts scene, riverfront, and dining.
Transit: reachable by public transit
0.3 mi awayMore like this
Sightseeing
History Buff
Benefit Street
No admission fee
Walk a street of restored Colonial and Victorian houses, churches and museums on Providence's College Hill.
Transit: reachable by public transit
0.5 mi awayMore like this