Blackstone Valley Byway starting at Providence

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Providence

   Providence is the sort of city that rewards an early start and a loose plan. Roger Williams founded it in 1636 after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the idea he built it on, freedom of conscience, shaped the whole of Rhode Island. The city grew rich on shipping, jewelry and machine tools, and the result is a compact downtown of brick mills, church spires and one of the biggest marble domes in the country on the State House, which you can see from the highway as you approach.

   Read the complete Providence write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Providence sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Pawtucket.

2. 2. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Pawtucket comes up 16 km in. Next is Woonsocket.

3. 3. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   31 km in you reach Woonsocket. Next is Uxbridge.

4. 4. Uxbridge

   Uxbridge is a Massachusetts mill town that made its place in the history of American industry. It sits in the Blackstone Valley, on the upper reaches of the Blackstone River, in the south-central part of the state close to the Rhode Island border. The river fell steeply enough to drive water wheels, and in the early nineteenth century that was all it took: textile mills went up along its banks, a canal was dug to carry goods to Providence, and the valley became one of the first industrial landscapes in the country. Today the whole area is protected as the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, which tells the story of those early years with surviving mill buildings, locks and villages.

   Read the complete Uxbridge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Uxbridge, late in the day. Next is Worcester.

5. 5. Worcester

   Worcester is the city people drive around on the way to somewhere else, which is a pity, because it has more going on than its reputation suggests. It is the second-largest city in New England, a hilly place of triple-decker houses, brick factories and church towers, and the old industrial heart of central Massachusetts. Its nickname is the Heart of the Commonwealth, and the pronunciation, Wuss-ter, trips up every newcomer.

   Read the complete Worcester write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Worcester sits at 77 km, late in the day.

Recorded source links

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