Central Falls Walking Tour Central Falls Takes Its Name from a Waterfall

Central Falls Walking Tour Preservation Society of Pawtucket Central Falls takes its name from a waterfall on the Blackstone River where in the mid-eighteenth century Benjamin Smith built a trench to divert water power to his snuff mill, and where in 1811 Captain Stephen Jenks built a trip-hammer and blacksmith shop and was contracted to produce muskets for the United States government. It was Stephen who would choose the name Central Falls for the town. Central Falls, like Pawtucket, was originally part of the town of Providence. Between 1675 and 1725, many people in Providence moved into the wilderness north and west of the city. People migrated so rapidly that in 1730 the "outlands " were divided into the three townships of Smithfield, Scituate and Glocester. Smithfield was at first an agricultural territory, but as cotton production expanded, several factories were built there. The Blackstone River was the area’s eastern boundary. The Providence and Worcester railroad, completed in 1847, followed the course of the Blackstone, and accelerated the growth of these manufacturing villages. In that same year, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed an act to establish the Central Falls Fire District within the town of Smithfield. In 1871, Smithfield was divided further and the town of Lincoln was established. Lincoln included the district of Central Falls, which by then was a center of production and commerce, similar to the village of Pawtucket, and different from the rest of Lincoln. Permission was given to the district to tax citizens for services such as street lights, a police force, water supply, and a free library (the fire district had essentially become a municipal corporation). At the same time, the town of Lincoln was taxing citizens for schools, roads, services for the poor, and the expenses of town government. The burden of two sets of taxes and having two administrations was problematic. People in the rural districts of Lincoln objected to the large expenditures of money in Central Falls, which did not directly benefit everyone in the town. At the same time, the wealthy mill owners who dominated local politics became worried that the thousands of newly arrived immigrants would gain political strength. Incorporating Central Falls as a city was a way to prevent naturalized citizens from participating in local government, since the Rhode Island constitution at the time did not allow foreign-born citizens to vote in elections unless they owned at least $134 of taxable property. The City of Central Falls was created in February of 1895 and the government was organized with Charles P. Moies as its first mayor. The story of immigration in Central Falls, closely matches that of Pawtucket. In the early 19th century, immigrants were mostly skilled textile workers, particularly weavers, from England and Scotland. People from Ireland began to arrive in the 1820s; they were laborers who worked on projects such as digging the Blackstone Canal and laying tracks for the railroad lines. Later immigrants from Ireland more often worked in the cotton mills. In the second half of the 19th century, factories were converting to steam power and were able to move away from the overcrowded shoreline of the river. The Civil War boosted manufacturing and there was a great demand for products, but a shortage of workers. Mill owners then began to recruit French speaking people from Canada to work in the factories. In the early years of the 1900s, Syrian and Lebanese immigrants settled along Washington Street and established St. Ephraim’s Church. Beginning in 1917, Portuguese speaking peoples arrived and established a community near Valley Falls. By the early twentieth century, New England factories were having a hard time competing with the rapid industrialization of the Southern states. Despite the boom during World War I, the Great Depression of 1929 further weakened the economy; factories closed and workers moved to other jobs. The remaining workforce grew older, younger generations moved away to the suburbs, and by the 1970s, Central Falls had a shortage of skilled laborers. Then, Spanish speaking people from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and The Dominican Republic arrived and kept the mills going. Most of the buildings in Central Falls are from the mid-late 19th century, ninety percent of the houses pre-date 1939. There are no civic or church buildings from before the Civil War. As the population increased, so did the demand for housing lots. Land values increased and owners subdivided their lots to build houses on any available space, including, in many cases, behind other houses. Zoning laws were not in place until the 1960s, so the land patterns are erratic and houses were built with no particular stylistic treatments. Jenks Park, Broad Street Alvin Jenks, a machinist, donated four acres of land in 1890 to create a park in Central Falls. The park features iron “umbrella” pavilions built by the Fales and Jenks machine factory, of which Alvin Jenks was a co-founder (with David Fales). Since 1890, the park has had improvements such as the construction of paths, a fountain, and an elevated observatory platform from which there is a magnificent view of the city. Jenks Park now often serves as a gathering place for public events. Cogswell Tower The centerpiece of Jenks Park is the Cogswell Tower, which stands seventy feet high and has a clock face on each side. The tower was built on Dexter’s Ledge, the highest point in the city, and is supported by a barrel vault. Caroline Cogswell was the wife of Providence dentist Henry Cogswell (the namesake of the Cogswell Fountain on the corner of Main and Roosevelt in downtown Pawtucket). This tower is a gift from her to the City of Central Falls. It was designed in 1904 by Pawtucket architect Albert Humes, who served as the mayor of Central Falls in 1903-4. Albert’s brother George was the contractor. Make your way back to Broad Street to see the City Hall building Central Falls, City Hall/Lincoln High School, 580 Broad Street This Queen Anne style structure was designed by Albert Humes and completed in 1888 as a high school in the town of Lincoln, for students in the district of Central Falls. It was the first school constructed solely for secondary education; earlier schools housed both elementary and secondary grades. When Central Falls was incorporated as a city, this building became the Central Falls High School. In 1927 it was converted to house municipal offices. With the fire station, police station, and the courthouse nearby, this section of Broad Street became the municipal core of the city Walk to the yellow brick Notre Dame church building next to the park. Notre Dame (Our Lady of the Sacred Heart), 668 Broad Street Large numbers of French speaking people from Canada, mostly Quebec and New Brunswick, settled in this area, raising the population from 1,500 to 9,000 in just fifteen years, between 1855 and 1870. Driven by depleted farmlands and poverty, the Canadiens sought prosperity in the expanding mill industries of New England. For the first time, Central Falls and towns throughout the Blackstone Valley had to accommodate people who did not speak English; French-speaking churches, newspapers, and schools were established. The original Notre Dame church, built in 1875, was the first to be constructed by a French-Canadian parish in Rhode Island. In the 1920s, the pastor of Notre Dame, Reverend Joseph Beland, was a leader of a movement which opposed the Irish Bishop of Providence whom they accused of trying to anglicize French-Canadian youth by ceasing to teach French, and not allowing students to speak it, in parochial schools. Since 1895 there has been at least one Catholic school in Central Falls. By 1908, there were three: St. Matthew's, Holy Trinity, and Notre Dame. In 1995, these three schools were combined to create St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Academy, which is in the St. Matthew's building on Dexter Street. The Notre Dame church is now the home of the non- denominational Universal Church. Cross Broad Street and walk down Sacred Heart Avenue. Continue walking to the Chocolateville Overlook park. Note that after you cross High Street, Sacred Heart Avenue is named Charles Street. Chocolate Mill Overlook Park, corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Charles Street It was near this site, in around 1750, that Benjamin Smith built his snuff mill and dug a trench so water from the river could power it. Most of the land in the vicinity originally belonged to members of the Jenks family, from whom Charles Keene bought ten acres in 1780. Charles engaged Sylvanus Brown of Pawtucket to build a dam across the river, erected a building, and began the manufacture of scythes and other tools. Sylvanus Brown would later help mechanical engineer Samuel Slater. Part of Keene’s building, which stood here on the southwest corner of Mill Street (now Roosevelt Avenue) and Charles Street, was subsequently occupied by a man named William Wheat who made chocolate. The mill was known as the Chocolate Mill until 1807 when it was converted again to a cotton spinning mill under the ownership of Elisha Waterman, Rufus Waterman, Benjamin Walcott, and Stephen Jenks. They named the new enterprise the Smithfield Manufacturing Company. During an 1824 mill dedication celebration, Captain Stephen Jenks announced that he thought the village should take the name of Central Falls (for the falls on the river). Cross the rotary to Roosevelt Avenue and walk toward Central Street. Mill district on Roosevelt Avenue The six mills from north to south along Roosevelt Avenue are the Kennedy-Stafford Mill Complex (1825/1860s), the Pawtucket Thread Company (1825), the Central Falls Woolen Mill (1870), the Bryan Marsh mill (c.

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