The commercial activities of Providence included private mercantile shops of Rice, Hargraves, and Theurer plus a ZCMI Co-op store (1869-1912). Many years after the Co-op structure burned, Watkins and Sons Printing established a business in a remodeled and expanded facility. Other enterprises included molasses mills, a sawmill, lime kilns, brickyards, blacksmith shops, and an early automobile service station. The sugar factory of David Eccles and Charles Nibley began refining sugar beets in Providence in 1901 and operated for twenty-five years. Millions of tons of limestone for this and other refineries in the Pacific Northwest were quarried from Providence Canyon. The Utah Idaho Central Railroad Company extended its electric interurban line from Logan and established a depot in Providence in 1912. The railroad hauled limestone, farm produce, and passengers throughout Cache Valley as well as to Corinne and Ogden and beyond via a connection with the Oregon Short Line Railroad company. Accompanying the UIC were electric lights, the telegraph, and the telephone. The last railroad train ran through town in 1947.

With the coming of statehood to Utah and with the population exceeding a thousand in the 1890s, Providence was organized as a town corporation. In 1897 Hopkin Mathews became town board president. Providence became a third-class city on 19 July 1929, with James Hansen elected mayor.