Charles

Charles sits in the north of Providence, named for Charles Street, the spine that runs north–south through the neighborhood and meets Branch Avenue at Hopkins Square. Together with Wanskuck to the west, Charles makes up what Providence's planners and residents call the North End. Boundaries are unusually clean for a Providence neighborhood: Route 146 on the west, the Chad Brown housing complex on the south, the West River and I-95 on the east, and the North Providence line on the north.

The neighborhood's character was shaped by 19th-century industry along the West River — the Silver Spring Bleaching and Dyeing Company was an early anchor — followed by waves of Irish, English, German, Scottish, and Italian immigration that filled the area with one- and two-family homes by the end of the 1800s. North Providence had annexed the area in 1765 and returned it to Providence in 1874 as growth accelerated, and streetcar service in 1895 tied it more tightly to the rest of the city. Industrial decline in the late 20th century left a mixed-use fabric the city has partly re-marketed as an industrial park.

Today Charles has roughly 7,420 residents, a median age of 36, and a median household income of $52,295, with about 43% of occupied housing units owner-occupied. Green space is concentrated at Prete-Metcalf Field, Ascham Field, Hopkins Square, and the Canada Pond Management Area in the neighborhood's northwest corner. Politically, Charles makes up Ward 4 on the Providence City Council.