Weybossett St. Providence Store

Moving to Providence

This clip from the 1917 Westerly City Directory on page 166, really took my breathe away because I think it shows that my grandfather, Evans finally had enough business to separate himself from his father Charles and brother Dudley and start his own branch in Providence.

He may have begun by making an agency out of "Mrs. Young's Gift Shop" on Thayer St as early as 1908 as it says in the company pamphlet. (I don't know who Mrs. Young was but she was not the friend of my grandparents that I knew.)

My grandparents married in January of 1914 and lived with his parents in Westerly until at least January of 1916 when my mother, their first child was born. My uncle was born in June, 1917 in Providence. My grandfather's World War I draft card for June 1916 lists that he lives with wife and child at 112 Wentworth Ave. in Cranston on the Providence  line. This is as narrow a timeframe as I can get after years of work on this.

The lesson learned is that I didn't notice, that this page from 1915 listed BOTH business names. I printed it years ago but I was only focused on the "removed to Providence" and didn't notice the plant still in Westerly. 

I found an ad in the 1912 listing the business as 285 Weybosset St. which was the first location of the store in Providence.