Oakland Beach is a neighborhood located in the South Central area of Warwick, Rhode Island, on Greenwich Bay, a tributary of Narragansett Bay. This densely populated community of small cottages was developed after World War I as a summer colony, largely for nearby Providence's middle-class Irish, Greek and Italian communities. Oakland Beach reached its heyday in the 1930s when it boasted a bathing beach, boat docks and restaurants, as well as a Ferris wheel, and rail service to Providence and other nearby summer colonies.