2 Best Sights in East Side, Providence

The city's wealthiest lived along this Colonial thoroughfare during the 18th and early 19th centuries—and most of the original wood-frame structures have been beautifully restored as homes for today's families. Benefit Street passes by the campuses of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Of particular interest are the 1707 Stephen Hopkins House on the corner of Benefit Street and Hopkins Street, a former governor's home; the Providence Athenaeum at 251 Benefit St., a onetime haunt of Edgar Allan Poe; and the John Brown House museum on the Brown University campus.

This pocket park in College Hill offers one of the most scenic views of Downtown, particularly in the fall when the surrounding foliage plays spectacularly off the urban backdrop. Prospect Terrace's centerpiece is a statue of Roger Williams, Rhode Island's forward-thinking founder—who here seems to be groovin' to the 1980s song "Walk Like an Egyptian." In reality, however, he's buried under the statue.