Blackstone Valley and Scituate Reservoir

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Pawtucket

   Pawtucket is a mill city, and a particularly important one. In 1793, Samuel Slater, an English apprentice who had memorised the design of the new textile machinery in his home country, built the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill in America beside the falls of the Blackstone River here. The brick Slater Mill still stands beside the water, and is considered the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. The idea of using water, machines and a paid workforce spread rapidly down the valley and across New England, changing the way the country worked.

   Read the complete Pawtucket write-up.

2. 2. Woonsocket

   Woonsocket is the northern end of the Blackstone Valley in Rhode Island, right up against the Massachusetts line, and it has a character that sets it apart from every other New England mill town. In the late nineteenth century thousands of French-speaking families from Quebec came south to work in its textile mills, and by the early twentieth century Woonsocket was the most French city in the United States, with French-language newspapers, Catholic parishes, mutual aid societies and credit unions. The accent and surnames are still strong, and the city was nicknamed Little Quebec.

   Read the complete Woonsocket write-up.

3. 3. Chepachet

4. 4. Hope Valley

5. 5. Back to Pawtucket

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Pawtucket write-up.