Providence was born, thrived, and died with the Miami and Erie Canal. French trader Peter Manor platted the town in 1835, and it was swept by fire in 1846, ravaged by cholera in 1854, and finally unincorporated in 1928. Today, only the Irish builders' St. Patrick's Church, built in 1845 and the oldest in the Toledo Diocese, the cemetery, and Peter Manor's house, built in 1845, remain. The Providence Dam, built in 1838 to create a water supply for the canal's remaining 25 miles to Toledo, was rebuilt in 1908. Peter Manor's mill stands downstream one-half mile at Canal Lock #9, where it was built in 1822, rebuilt in 1846, and operates today as the Isaac Ludwig Historic Mill. This district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and the mill was listed in 1974.