Lou Costa Collection on Fox Point

Louis Costa (1937-2021), also known as Lou or Lulu, was born in Providence, RI in 1937. He was one of five children born to Antonio and Maria de Lourdes (Raposo-Silva) Costa. Growing up as an Azorean American in the Fox Point neighborhood, he frequented the local Boys’ Club and as an adult remained very engaged with the Boys’ Club Alumni Association as well as the Portuguese American Social Club. In July of 1968, he married Judith Soares, also of Fox Point. Together they raised seven children: Louis, Jason, Jennifer, Aaron, Michael, Timothy, and Jessica. Mr. Costa had a distinguished and extensive military career in the Navy and was inducted into the Holland Club for submarine veterans in 2005. His military service was followed by years as an electrician and an air conditioning/refrigeration technician.

In the early 2000s, along with his life-long friend Johnny Costa (no relation), Mr. Costa began compiling materials for what would become the Lou Costa Collection on Fox Point. Inspired by his deep love for the neighborhood, and the community therein, he spent nearly two decades gathering, organizing, and documenting items related to Fox Point and the families who have lived and worked there. Louis Costa died in February of 2021 at the age of 84 surrounded by his family.

The Fox Point neighborhood is geographically situated on the southernmost tip of Providence’s East Side, at the intersection of the Providence and Seekonk Rivers. As such, it has historically been an important hub for maritime commerce. Due in part to its location, Fox Point was part of Providence’s earliest settled area; in fact, Roger Williams landed at the present day intersection of Gano and Williams Streets. The city’s first wharf was built at the end of what is now Transit Street in about 1680. In the 1790s, harbor development intensified and Fox Point became the city’s transportation center. The neighborhood’s identity as an immigrant and ethnic enclave began in 1813 with the establishment of Rhode Island’s first Catholic church. Following the erection of the church, Fox Point’s Irish community grew rapidly and soon the waterfront section came to be known as “Corky Hill.” A second Catholic church, St. Joseph's, was established in 1853, and by 1865 half or more of the neighborhood was foreign-born.

A second wave of immigration began in the 1870s with the arrival of Portuguese, Azorean, and Cape Verdean communities. Many Portuguese families attended St. Joseph’s church until the formation of the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary church in 1885. This church still sits at the southern end of South Main Street alongside Interstate 195. In addition, the Sheldon Street Congregational Church, also founded in the late 19th century as a Protestant affiliated church and one of Providence’s oldest Black churches, served the Cape Verdean community and remains prominent today. Fox Point’s Cape Verdean community is one of the oldest and largest in the United States, along with that of New Bedford, MA. Cape Verdean Americans maintain the distinction of being one of the only groups from the African continent who came to the US by choice rather than through bondage, having first arrived in the Americas through participation in whaling and other maritime industries. In 1922, the US enacted immigration laws restricting peoples of color, greatly impacting Cape Verdean immigration.

Fox Point was among the worst hit areas during the Hurricane of 1938. By the 1940s, much of the waterfront area was deemed abandoned and so was transformed into India Point Park. Construction began on Interstate 195 in 1956, forever altering the character and community of Fox Point. The Providence Redevelopment Agency, working from a mandate provided for by the federal Housing Act of 1949 and the RI state Redevelopment Act of 1956, documented the area as part of the East Side Renewal Project in the early 1960s, culminating in the Official Redevelopment Plan of 1966. This urban renewal era project resulted in the destruction or removal of many homes and businesses in the area, and many Portuguese and Cape Verdean families were forced to move to the city of East Providence as well as to New Bedford, MA. This, coupled with the aggressive purchasing of property by Brown University, led to a steep decline in Fox Point’s Portuguese, Azorean, and Cape Verdean communities during the mid to late 20th century. The Fox Point Boys and Girls Club, Holy Rosary Church, and Sheldon Street Church remain important neighborhood institutions, and Fox Point’s diasporic communities continue to gather together in honor of their historic ties to the area.