Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul

The cornerstone went down in 1878, the consecration came in 1889, and the cathedral that rose between those years still anchors Cathedral Square in downtown Providence. Designed by Patrick Keely, it stands as the mother church of the Diocese of Providence — the institutional answer to a Catholic population that had grown to 200,000 by 1872, driven by waves of Irish, Italian, French Canadian, and Portuguese immigration into a historically Protestant city. The two towers reach 156 feet. The bells inside represent the Four Evangelists.