Although today it is one of the city's best-known neighborhoods, and a major tourist attraction, famous for its many popular restaurants, Federal Hill was used mainly for grazing cattle until the 1820s.

But beginning in the mid-1800s, as "Providence grew beyond the area of Colonial settlement," Federal Hill "became home for many of Providence's artisans and working class: carpenters, teamsters, shopkeepers, skilled workers, and laborers, some of whom worked in factories along the Woonasquatucket River," according to a history of the city by the state's historical commission.

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Source: http://www.providencejournal.com/