Slatersville is a village on the Branch River in the town of

North Smithfield North Smithfield is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, settled as a farming community in 1666 and incorporated into its present form in 1871. North Smithfield includes the historic villages of Forestdale, Primrose, Waterfo ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It includes the Slatersville Historic District, a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The historic district has been included as part of the

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit in the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The park was created for the purpose of preserving, protecting, and interpreting the industrial heritage of the Blac ...

. The North Smithfield Public Library is located in Slatersville. Slatersville was associated with and named for

Samuel Slater Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...

and John Slater, members of the well-known

Slater family The Slater family is an American philanthropic, political, and manufacturing family from England, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut whose members include the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution," Samuel Slater, a prominent ...

. In the late nineteenth century, the

Woonsocket and Pascoag Railroad The Woonsocket and Pascoag Railroad was a historic railroad that operated between Woonsocket, Rhode Island and Pascoag, Rhode Island. Its remaining tracks from Woonsocket to Slatersville are now owned and operated by the Providence and Worcester ...

was built through the village, and the line was later acquired by the

Providence and Worcester Railroad The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence ...

and run as a

freight rail Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

line terminating in Slatersville near a steel distributor by the Slater Mill, rather than its former endpoint in Pascoag.

History

The region was originally settled in the 17th century by British colonists as a farming community. The village was founded in 1803 by entrepreneurs

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

and John Slater, in partnership with the Providence firm of Almy and Brown. The firm purchased the land and began construction of a

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

.Walter Nebiker, ''The History of North Smithfield'' (Somersworth, NH: New England History Press, 1976). By 1807, the village included the Slatersville Mill, "the largest and most modern industrial building" of its day, two houses for workers, the owner's house, and the company store. The first mill building was destroyed by fire in 1826 and was replaced by the large stone mill which stands on the site today. Behind the 1826 mills stands a stone mill of similar design built in 1843. The mills were powered by water from the large Slatersville reservoir. Slatersville's

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

was laid out in 1838 in a traditional

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

pattern. Many of the houses around the Green were built by the Slater company in 1810-20. They were substantially renovated earlier in the 20th century to make Slatersville look more like a traditional New England Village. At the head of the Green stands the Slatersville Congregational Church, a steepled Greek revival building, which houses the oldest continuously operated Sunday School in America. The Slater family owned the village until 1900 when it was sold to James R. Hooper, who used the mills to bleach and dye cloth. In 1915, Hooper sold the Slatersville village to

Henry P. Kendall Henry Plimpton Kendall (January 15, 1878 – November 3, 1959) was a New England entrepreneur, industrialist, and philanthropist from Walpole, Massachusetts. He is considered one of the pioneers of scientific management. Biography Early life ...

. Kendall took a personal interest in the village and initiated many of the improvements which give Slatersville its traditional New England character. Today, Slatersville is owned by private individuals and, in 1973, it became a National Historic District, bounded by Main, Green, Church, and School Sts. and Ridge Rd., with and 149 buildings.

Gallery

Image:Slatersville Common and Church.jpg , Slatersville Green and the Congregational Church Image:John Slater.JPG, John Slater and Ruth Slater co-founders of Slatersville Image:Slatersville_Grange.jpg,

Union Grange Hall Union Grange Hall is an historic wooden Grange hall located in the village of Slatersville in the town of North Smithfield, Rhode Island. A contributing property in the Slatersville Historic District Slatersville is a village on the Branch Rive ...

, built in 1897 as a chapel for the St. Luke's Episcopal Mission Image:Branch River Bridge.JPG, Stone Arch Bridge, built in 1857, over the Branch River near the Slatersville mills. It replaced a wooden bridge built around 1800. Image:Slater Mill North Smithfield RI.JPG, Slatersville Mill North Smithfield RI Image:Slatersville Common RI.jpg, Slatersville Common Image:Slatersville Common.JPG, Slatersville Common Image:Slatersville Common Rhode Island.JPG, Slatersville Common Image:Slatersville Mill Rhode Island.jpg, Slatersville Mill

References

External links

The Slatersville Mill Village
page on Samuel Slater website

* {{authority control Villages in Providence County, Rhode Island Historic districts in Providence County, Rhode Island History of the textile industry North Smithfield, Rhode Island Providence metropolitan area Villages in Rhode Island Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Providence County, Rhode Island Company towns in Rhode Island Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park sv:North Smithfield

History

Gallery

See also

Further reading

References

External links