Fairbanks (also known as Fairbanks Corner) is a village in the town of
Coventry, Rhode Island on Route 14, Plainfield Pike, right after the village of Rice City and near the Connecticut border.
In the 1783 Colonel John McGregor, a Revolutionary War veteran, opened a tavern on the Plainfield Pike in the area, and in 1831 the tavern became associated with the
Temperance Movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
until it burned in the late 1800s. In 1826 George Fairbank from
Sudbury, Massachusetts
Sudbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,934. The town, located in Greater Boston's MetroWest region, has a rich colonial history.
History
Incorporated in 1639, the bou ...
purchased a grist, card and fulling mill on the
Moosup River
The Moosup River is a river in the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Connecticut. It flows approximately .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 The river is named af ...
, which was owned by the Blanchard family. Fairbank then constructed a woolen mill on the spot, which eventually utilized wool from local sheep farmers and used local seamstresses. The village was eventually named after Fairbank. Fairbank's House still remains in the village as do the foundations of the McGregor Tavern and the Fairbank Mill along the banks of the Moosup River.
[Andrew D. Boisvert, "Coventry Roots: Fairbanks," ''Coventry Patch'', May 12, 2011, http://coventry.patch.com/articles/coventry-roots-fairbanks]
References
Villages in Kent County, Rhode Island
Coventry, Rhode Island
Census-designated places in Kent County, Rhode Island
Providence metropolitan area
Villages in Rhode Island
Census-designated places in Rhode Island
{{RhodeIsland-geo-stub