This state had numerous clothing, dye, fabric and thread mills, 29 on Blackstone River alone, but spread across state in Ashaway, Centerville, Central Falls (11 closures in decade between 1997 and 2007), Cranston, Crompton, Cumberland, Lincoln, Olneyville, North Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, West Warwick, and Woonsocket. Many closed because of Civil War Reconstruction in the South, which relocated them below the Mason-Dixon Line nearer to fields where cotton was sourced. Brings into question, "Who won?" because it was a net loss for the North in jobs and lives. Another such exodus occurred during The Great Depression in the 1930's. Costume jewelry manufacturers once employed 16,000 residents, now only 7,000. Downtown retail stores fell to suburban malls. These migrations cost Rhode Island 500,000 jobs and decimated all of New England. More recently, mills nationwide were shipped to China or Mexico, where they promptly ran into counterproductive snafus. Ambitions will never be satisfied paying minimum to dedicated servants. The lure of slave labor seldom entails educated or qualified help. Meanwhile, existing buildings are left to rot or were refurbished as artist lofts or elderly tenements, though many are known fire traps or structurally unsound. Buildings may remain, but those who worked there tend to be forgotten.
Cannot enumerate every office for finance, law, or medicine that went under, just trying to identify instances where hundreds of jobs vanished. Small businesses surely come and go; only 5% last 5 years. Reasons vary, though most fit into categories of botching client fulfillments, consolidating after mergers, failing to compete, not adapting to change, offshoring for cheaper labor, or pissing off employees so badly they start unions and strike you into defeat. Sometimes business owners or principle shareholders figure they had enough, relocate to take deals that other states offer, sell out, or shut doors. High cost of electricity and gas puts a damper on local development. Rhode Island, with highest corporate tax rate in nation, ended its historic preservation tax credit, which deters from investing in piles of crumbling mud.
Seems Americans can no longer stomach the drudgery and stench of manufacture, but for someone such jobs remain sources of steady income by adding value, thereby growing through investing capital and time, whereas services don’t, so inevitably fizzle. However, many of their gains came from poor practices that merely transferred wealth by dumping wastes or raping environment, leaving costly aftermaths to taxpayers. Developers got a $200,000 government grant to clean up decades of dry cleaning chemicals before they raised historic Louttit Laundry altogether, which remains a vacant lot near Hoyle Square. In the long run, some factories, particularly refineries or utilities, aren’t worth having around no matter how many they employ.
Given voluminous cancer causing wastes industry spews, perhaps poverty appeals after all. Rhode Island harbors 2,488 (1,800 of them proven contaminated) former landfills, leaking underground storage tanks, toxic release sites, water dischargers, and whatnot including 200 EPA Superfund sites. One of the biggest harms is heavy metal sediments in Narragansett Bay, too difficult to remediate even though precious gold and silver constitute a high percentage. Heard of jewelry shops being profitably dismantled so floor boards could be cremated to recover a century worth of gold filings.
Several millionaires, formerly industrialists themselves, maneuvered most polluters out. The few who remained contributed heavily to politicians to avoid enforcement and legislation. With miles of shoreline, you’d think shipping and warehousing would be more popular, though a sustainable strategy is to fabricate where you sell. College dilettantes turn up their noses at smelly shoreline operations and try endlessly to eliminate them; they neither care nor realize that means no positions for graduates, no longer their problem once diplomas are dispensed. Rhode Island might be a great place for startups, but don’t even think about upscaling or regulators will arrive unannounced to drive you out or extract a pound of flesh.
Without spending much time, here's a short list with intentions to supplement with future input:
A&P Supermarket, various locations
Adams Drug Stores, various locations
Alcoa, Cumberland
Allen Cotton Mill, Smithfield
Almacs Supermarket, various locations
Alrose Chemical, Cranston
American Ball Company, Providence
American/Bailey Wringer Company, Woonsocket
American Emery Wheel Works, Richmond Square, Providence
American Screw Company, Providence
American Ship Windlass Company, Providence
American Tourister (formerly Warren Manufacturing), Warren
Amperex Electronic Corporation, Slaterville, North Smithfield
Armington & Sims Steam Engines, Hoyle Square, Providence
Atlantic Mills, Olneyville, Providence
Atlantic Rayon (Thurston Saw), Providence
Atlantic Tubing & Rubber, Cranston
Ballou, Johnson & Nichols, Providence
Barstow Stove, Jewelry District, Providence
Bercen Chemical (moved to Livingston Parish, LA), Cranston and Providence
Blue Coal, Olneyville, Providence
Bulova Watch, Bucklin Park, Providence
Bourne Cotton Mill, Tiverton
Box and Lumber, Providence
Brownell & Field, Providence
Brown&Sharpe, Providence, then North Kingstown (11,000 employees at WWII peak)
Buttonwood Industrial, Miner Rubber, Bristol
Caldor Department Store, Warwick
Carpenter Mill, Providence
Casual Corners Stores, various locations
Ceco Radio Tubes, Providence
Cherry&Webb Department Store, Providence
Ciba Geigy, Cranston
C.J. Fox, Providence
Clark Cotton Mill, Shannock, Richmond
Colibri Jewelry and (cigarette) Lighters, Providence
Combination Ladder, Providence
Corliss Engine, Providence
Coro, Providence
Cranston General (Osteopath) Hospital, Cranston
Cranston Print Works at Randall Pond
Davol Rubber Works, Providence
David Square Mall, Providence
D.M. Watkins, Providence
Eaton Aerospace, Warwick
Elmwood Sensors (purchased by Honeywell, 1000 employees), Cranston
Federated Lithograph, South Providence
Filenes Department Store, Warwick Mall
First National Supermarket, various locations
Forestdale Cotton Mill, North Smithfield
G-Fox Stores, Warwick
General Electric Providence Base Works (light bulbs), Eagle Park
GE Monowatt, Cranston line, Providence
Gladdings Department Store, Providence
Gorham Silver, Columbus Square, Providence
Grandberg Brothers Wallpaper, Providence
Greystone Worsted Mill, North Providence
Grinnell General Fire Extinguisher, Providence
Hadley Watch Bracelet, Providence
Hall & Lyon Department Store, Providence
Hamilton & Hamilton Jewelry, Providence
Hamilton Woolen Mill, North Kingstown
Hanley Brewing Company & Hanley-Hoye Distributing, Providence
Hedison Manufacturing, Providence, then Lincoln
Hope Mill, Scituate
Ideal Jewelry, Cranston
Lying-In Hospital, Providence
Hotels such as Colonial Hilton, Cranston
IGT (Gtech), Coventry
James C. Goff Mortar and Plaster, Providence
J. B. Barnaby Clothiers, Providence
Jencks Paper Box, Providence
Jordan Marsh Department Store, Warwick Mall
Kendall Soap, Providence
Lafayette Woolen Mill, North Kingstown
Leesona (formerly Universal Winding Company; now based in North Carolina), Warwick
Leviton (fomer Elizabeth Mill), Hillsgrove, Warwick
Lipitt Mill, West Warwick
Louttit (What Cheer) Laundry, Providence
Lymansville Worsted Mill, North Providence
Midland Mall Stores, Warwick
Miller Box, Warwick
NABsys Genome, Providence
Narragansett Brewery, Cranston
Narragansett Grey Iron Foundry, Smithfield
National Rubber, Bristol
National Worsted Mill (now Rising Sun), Olneyville, Providence
Newport Steam Factory
Nicholson File, Providence
O'Bannon Imitation Leather Mill, Barrington
On Semiconductor (formerly Amperex in Cranston, then Cherry Semiconductor on South County Trail in East Greenwich)
Osram Sylvania, Central Falls
Outlet Department Store, Providence
Peace Dale Manufacturing, South Kingstown
Perry Mill, Newport
Philmont Worsted Mill, Woonsocket
Pontiac (Fruit of the Loom) Mills, Warwick
Providence Belting Company
Providence Brewing Company
Providence Machine, waterfront, Providence
Providence Tool
Half a thousand restaurants that closed., collectively
Rhode Island Lace Works, West Barrington
Rhode Island Locomotive Works, Providence
Rhode Island Malleable Iron Works, Hillsgrove, Warwick
Royal Mill, West Warwick
Sayles Bleacheries, Saylesville
Seaconnet Coal Company, Providence
Shepard Department Store, Providence
Silver Springs Bleaching and Dyeing, Providence
Slater Mill (Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution), Pawtucket
Slater Cotton Mill, Pawtucket
Stanley Bostitch, North Kingstown
Theodore W. Foster & Brother Company Silversmiths, Providence
Tilden Thurber Stores, downtown Providence and Midland Mall, Warwick 38 Studios, Providence
Transcom Electronics, Portsmouth
Union Wadding, Pawtucket
Uniroyal, Providence
US Mill Supply, Providence
Valley Worsted Mill, Eagle Square, Providence
Vandell Jewelry, Providence
Vesta Knitting Mills, Providence
Walsh-Kaiser Shipyard, Fields Point, Providence (14,000 WWII employees)
Wamponaug Mall Stores, East Providence
Waukesha Bearing, West Greenwich
WJ Braitsch & Company Canes, Providence
Woolworth's Department Stores, Cranston & Providence
Woonsocket (Alice Mills) Rubber Company
Woonsocket Machine & Press Company
Feel free to comment with other examples of factories and industries that slipped away.
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