Personally Pawtucket Tour Historical Society and the Preservation Society of Pawtucket

This tour begins in Hodgson Park, next to the Slater Mill Historic Site.

The Blackstone River The Blackstone River is 45 miles long and runs from Worcester, MA through Pawtucket on its way to the Narragansett Bay. For the Wampanoag and Narragansett Indians in this area, the river served as a boundary between their tribal lands. This particular location on the river was a good fishing spot and a place where the river could be crossed more easily. Pawtucket gets its name from the Algonquian word for “river fall,” and what we now call Pawtucket Falls became the source of power and industry for the iron and textile factories that were built on the river’s edge. As tribal lands turned into colonial settlements, the Blackstone River continued to serve as a boundary between Rhode Island and .

Joseph Jenks and his forge Joseph Jenks, Jr. (1632-1717) is considered to be the founder of Pawtucket. In 1671, he left Saugus, MA, came here, and built a house on the west side of the river. The area was the northern boundary of Roger Williams' settlement of Providence. At that time, William Bucklin owned the land on the Massachusetts (east) side of the river. Joseph built a dam over the top edge of the falls and his iron forging shop on the river banks, just below the falls. There was an abundant supply of timber and iron ore nearby and Joseph did well. He later built a sawmill, a carpentry shop, an iron furnace, and a foundry. However, only four years after he’d arrived, King Philip’s War began and everything that Joseph had built was set on fire and destroyed. Samuel Slater and his textile mill Samuel Slater (1768-1835) is often called the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution." American industrialists, such as Moses Brown, had been struggling in the 18th century to build a consistently working spinning machine. Moses, with his son-in-law William Almy and his cousin Smith Brown, had started a mill in Pawtucket. They wanted to manufacture cloth for sale, using water-powered spinning wheels, jennies, and frames. They acquired a 32-spindle frame "after the Arkwright pattern," but could not operate it. The Arkwright design was named for its inventor Richard Arkwright who was English, and the English prevented the mill designs from being taken out of their country. Twenty-one year-old Samuel Slater was working with the Arkwright mill design in England, but recognized that if he wanted to become a superstar in the textile industry, he would have to emigrate to America. In 1790 he wrote to Moses Brown offering his services, and Moses accepted. Samuel signed a contract to replicate the British designs. The deal provided Slater with the funds to build the water frames and necessary machinery, with a half share in the profits. In 1793, Slater and Brown opened their first factory in Pawtucket.

Early Pawtucket History Pawtucket had good access to land and water transportation routes, which were necessary for bringing in raw materials and distributing finished goods. Providence harbor had not been blocked during the Revolutionary War, and that allowed the wealthy merchant class to continue making profits. This attracted financiers looking for investment opportunities. By 1817 Pawtucket had thirteen textile mills, and several machine shops. An 1829 collapse in the cotton goods market devastated Pawtucket's manufacturing businesses; recovery was slow, but eventually was boosted by the arrival of the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1847. The Civil War kicked Pawtucket's manufacturing economy into high gear again. The town experienced a boom period until the early 20th century, but stiff competition from Southern cotton mills diminished Pawtucket's dominance of the industry. By 1910, strifes with workers over low wages and poor working conditions, combined with increasing production costs, caused many of Pawtucket’s textile mills to falter after World War I. The decline was exacerbated by the Great Depression.

The Main Street Bridge was built in 1858 as the last ​ ​ in a series of five bridges that span the Blackstone River at this location; the first was built in 1713. It is the earliest surviving highway bridge in Rhode Island. It was widened twice in the 20th century and now carries a modern deck and road bed, hiding the original stone structure beneath. The bridge arches are footed by the outcropping of rocks that form the natural waterfall underneath. The Main Street Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was in 1989 dedicated as the Sri Chinmoy Peace Bridge by Pawtucket Mayor Brian Sarault. Sri Chinmoy was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher who dedicated his life to the service of humanity and was known for holding public events on peace and world harmony.

Walk across Roosevelt Avenue to the Main Street entrance to the Visitor’s Center.

Visitor’s Center/Peerless Building, 175 Main Street ​ ​ At this site stood the home of Judge William Jenks (ca. 1675-1765), son of Joseph Jenks, Jr. William’s house was demolished around 1830 when Main Street Square began to change from a residential area to a commercial district. By the early 1970s this was a vacant lot, until a Peerless department store was constructed in 1973. Peerless closed its stores in Pawtucket (and in downtown Providence) in the 1980s and this building was purchased by the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, who, along with the City of Pawtucket agreed on a plan to renovate it as office space and a visitor center for the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. In 1995, the completed building was renamed the “Benjamin C. Chester Building,” in honor of the long-serving chairman of the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, and in 1998, the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center officially opened. This building is home to the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.

Downtown Pawtucket The Downtown Pawtucket Historic District is approximately 14 acres. It is a compact and densely developed area with curving street patterns that were laid out well before the automobile era. Most of the buildings remaining today were built between 1871 and 1930; they are nearly all commercial buildings. Pawtucket prospered as an industrial city between the Civil War and World War I, when a true urban downtown was developed, filled with banks, insurance companies, department stores, retail and service shops, professional offices, media and communications companies, recreational facilities, and civic buildings.

Beginning in 1965, as part of the Slater Urban Renewal Project, many of the existing buildings adjacent to the Blackstone River were demolished and either replaced with new large-scale commercial and multi-family residential development, or were paved over for parking lots. The 1974 "Pawtucket '76" plan aimed to celebrate the Bicentennial by extending redevelopment efforts west of the Slater Urban Renewal project area. The city government committed $1 million to clear even more properties for new construction. After the late 1970s, the focus of downtown revitalization efforts began to move away from urban renewal and toward historic preservation.

Turn right onto High Street and walk to the triangle just before the Burns Library Annex. The First Baptist Church marker is near the ground on the left side of the street.

First Baptist Church marker (corner of Summer and High Streets) ​ ​ ​

Dr. David Benedict was born in Norwalk, CT. When he was ​ fourteen he apprenticed as a shoemaker and at twenty-one went to New York for one year to practice that trade. Wanting a classical education, he enrolled at a school in Mount Pleasant, New York and after two years, came to Rhode Island to complete his studies at Brown University. In that same year (1804) he received a license to preach in the Stratfield Church, near Bridgeport, CT. During his two years at Brown he was the assistant pastor for the First Baptist Church in Pawtucket. He was formally ordained as a Baptist minister in 1805, and graduated from Brown in 1806. At that time, Pawtucket’s Baptist church offered him the pastorate, which he accepted and held for twenty-five years, until 1828 when the Anti-Masonic movement was formed. Anti-Masons were opponents of Freemasonry, believing it was a corrupt and elitist secret society that was ruling the country in defiance of republican principles. Many people thought the Masonic organization and its members, especially those involved in government, were corrupt. Dr. Benedict was a mason and perhaps thought it best to remove himself from a position of authority. He was a prolific author and in 1860 published his “Fifty Years Among the Baptists,” and thereafter spent his time writing about the history of Pawtucket. Benedict served as a trustee of Brown University for fifty-eight years and was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Shurtleff College in 1851. Dr. Benedict is buried in the Mineral Spring Cemetery.

Old Post Office, 1 Summer Street ​ ​ This building was designed by the architects of the U.S. Treasury to serve as Pawtucket’s post office. At the time of its completion in 1897, the building was seen as an affirmation of prosperity and progress, and was looked upon as a symbol of the city’s growing importance. Pawtucket was proud of its position as an industrial center and was eager to erect structures physically expressive of the city’s prosperity. Thomas McCoy was an active city official (and became Mayor in 1937) who took advantage of President Roosevelt’s federal funding programs and in 1933 began construction of the new post office building on Montgomery Street, and the new city hall building on Roosevelt Avenue (the former city hall was here on High Street). The old post office was acquired by the city and used as the Municipal Welfare Building until 1967. In 1981, the building was renovated, connected to the library next door, and dedicated as the Gerald S. Burns Annex. The building is the only remaining example of the Beaux Arts architectural style in Pawtucket.

Continue walking on High Street, toward Exchange Street.

New England Telephone Building, 85 High Street ​ ​ By the late 1940s the Providence Telephone Company had grown into a regional entity and they constructed this new branch office in 1947. At the same time the company changed its name to Telephone & Telegraph Company. Over the main entryway, a bell was carved into the sandstone - a relic of the Bell Telephone Company that provided telephone services to much of the United States from 1877 to 1984. After the dissolution of the Bell System, New England Telephone merged with New York Telephone to form NYNEX. Bell Atlantic acquired NYNEX in 1997, and they bought GTE (General Telephone & Electronics Corporation) in 2000, and changed the company’s name to Verizon. Verizon New England still uses this building as one of its branch offices.

Providence Telephone/Salvation Army Building, 102 High Street This building was constructed in 1914 as the fourth Pawtucket home of the Providence Telephone Company (founded in 1879). The company used this building until 1948, by which time its new office building had been constructed across the street at 85 High Street. The building was vacant for most of the 1950s; the Salvation Army moved here in 1960.

Cape Verdean American Community Development, 120 High Street ​ The organization was incorporated in December 1993 with a mission to develop educational programs that celebrate the traditions of Cape Verdean culture and strengthen relationships with other groups in the community. They purchased this building in 1996, which now serves as a venue for public classes, forums, and events. The CACD has positioned itself to serve as a major cultural resource for anyone who is a member of the Cape Verdean community or who seeks to learn more about it.

Turn right on Exchange Street and walk until you have a good view of City Hall on the right.

Pawtucket City Hall, 137 Roosevelt Avenue ​ Pawtucket City Hall was completed in 1935 and is an outstanding example of the Art Deco architectural style. It was designed by architect John F. O’Malley. This prominent landmark is also significant as an early example of the consolidated city hall, housing all city department headquarters within a single building. This consolidation was a novel idea at the time and is perhaps symbolic of Mayor Thomas P. McCoy’s (served 1937-1945) firm grip on all aspects of the city’s government in the 1930s. The central tower of the building is 209 feet high and is capped with a tomahawk weathervane. The tower originally bore an elaborate cast-stone ornamentation of eagles leaning out on each corner, but these were allowed to deteriorate, and one eagle fell in 1974. In 2005, the City Hall tower was repaired and restored, but without the corner eagles. The facade of the main block displays twelve cast-stone bas-relief panels that depict people, buildings, scenes, and events from Pawtucket’s history. The panels depict: St. Mary’s Church, the Jencks forge, Pawtucket Falls, Slater Mill, Joseph Jencks’ House, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frederic Sayles (Pawtucket’s first mayor), Pidge Tavern, Town Hall, Main Street, the first railroad station, and the First Baptist Church. Memorials dedicated to the fallen Pawtucket policemen and firemen stand near the front of each respective department. Buried in front of the building is a time capsule, placed here in 1986 during Pawtucket’s Centennial Celebration. It will be opened in 2036, then re-sealed and rededicated for Pawtucket's Bicentennial in 2086.

John F. O'Malley was born in 1885. He presumably trained as an architect, but the details are not known. In ​ 1910 he opened an office at 75 Westminster Street in Providence. In 1919, he moved his office to Pawtucket's Fanning Building (84 Broad Street, demolished), which he had designed in 1914. From 1923 until 1931, he was associated with Frank E. Fitzsimmons as the O'Malley-Fitzsimmons Company, and then practiced alone until his death, around 1950. O’Malley was also an associate of Mayor Thomas P. McCoy, and was well-positioned to be hired for several civic building projects. His style was not limited to Art Deco; he also designed the Leroy Theater (1921, demolished), Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet (1915, in Cranston), the Elks Building on Exchange Street (1926), and many other buildings in the state. Cross Roosevelt Avenue; the Veteran’s Memorial and fields marker are on the corner.

Veteran’s Memorial Park and Fields Marker Veteran's Memorial Park is adjacent to the City Hall at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Exchange Street. As part of the city’s efforts to improve the waterfront along Roosevelt Avenue in the early 1990s, a monument dedicated to all Pawtucket veterans was constructed at the front corner of the park, and a 225-seat amphitheater-bandstand was added as a venue for concerts, celebrations and other special events.

The Society of Colonial Dames in Rhode Island placed a marker on the western bank of the Blackstone River to mark one of the original boundaries of Providence, according to the deed granted in 1636 to Roger Williams by Narragansett Chieftain Miantonomi.

Continue walking on Exchange Street Bridge, over the bridge.

Exchange Street Bridge It was intended that this bridge be a memorial to Pawtucket soldiers killed in World War I, but it was never officially dedicated as such because of the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. There were plans for a larger memorial, but those too were superseded by the construction of the new City Hall.

Stop on the bridge to view the Lebanon and Fuller mill buildings on the right, and the front of Tolman High School on the left.

Lebanon Mills, 10 Exchange Court ​ Business here began with the 1858 partnership of Alanson Thayer and Richard B. Gage running the Thayer & Gage textile mill. Gage retired in 1866, and in the following year Thayer’s son Edward joined the business, which was reorganized as the Lebanon Mills Company, a maker of cotton yarn and knitted fabrics. The building is now called the Riverfront Lofts, having been converted for residential use.

George H. Fuller & Son Company, 151 Exchange ​ Street The George H. Fuller & Son Company began operations in South Attleboro, MA in 1858. They made jewelry findings. In 1860 the business moved to the Payne & Taylor building (demolished) on East Avenue near downtown Pawtucket. In 1880 Fuller made his son, Charles H. Fuller, a partner in the business, and the company constructed its present building on Exchange Street. The building was designed with some level of involvement by the Providence architectural firm of Stone & Carpenter.

William E. Tolman High School, 150 ​ Exchange Street In 1925 preparations were being made to build a new high school and Pawtucket architects R.C.N. Monahan and Robert Meikle were hired to design it. The school was built to accommodate 1,200 students, and included state-of-the-art ventilation and electrical systems, an indoor pool and gymnasium, and a cafeteria with 300 seats. The 1,500-seat auditorium included a Wurlitzer organ, balcony, orchestra pit, and was decorated with a coffered ceiling, plaster relief carvings, and oval skylights. By 1936 school enrollment had reached 2,039, greatly exceeding the original projected capacity, and classes were split into two sessions per day. In 1940 the West High School (now Shea High School) was completed. In 1955 East High School was renamed William E. Tolman High School in honor of Pawtucket’s first high school principal.

Tolman High School is the sixth building to serve as a public high school for Pawtucket. The first was a building on Summit Street, whose first principal was William E. Tolman, an 1849 graduate of Brown University. The school opened with fifty students. In 1874, when Pawtucket’s present political boundaries were established (i.e. the two villages were combined), the school moved to the High Street Baptist Society’s building near the corner of High & Exchange streets until 1893. The Joseph Jenks Jr. High School on Broadway opened for classes in 1896; that building is now a residential complex.

Walk a little farther up Exchange Street toward the highway.

RI Cardboard Company, 161 Exchange Street ​ The Rhode Island Cardboard Company began in the early 1840s, when Elder Ray Potter, minister at the Free Will Baptist Church on Broadway, began experimenting with mechanized cardboard machines. Until then, all cardboard made in the United States was done so by hand. In 1844 Potter started a small business near East Avenue and successfully applied his process to the manufacture of men’s paper shirt collars, a lucrative business. In 1858, Potter’s son sold the business to Henry B. Dexter, and the concern was named the Rhode Island Card Board Company. In 1880 the company constructed this building on Exchange Street. The company officially incorporated in 1886, and made shirt collars, photographic materials, wedding stationery, and calendar and art printing stock. In 1889, the company was producing 8,000 pounds of cardboard products each day.

Pawtucket Armory, 172 Exchange Street ​ During the Revolutionary War, men were obligated to furnish their own weapons and defend their communities. When the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788, the federal government had authority to raise and maintain an army, and states were given responsibility for organizing and training militias. After the War of 1812, the U.S. government mostly ignored the militias, and by 1840 many states had stopped mustering their enrolled men. However, groups interested in military drill and camaraderie formed their own volunteer companies. The Pawtucket Light Guard was organized in 1857. During the Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy relied on the militias to fill the armies, but the devastation of the war greatly diminished interest thereafter.

After the Civil War, local industries expanded and the city was bulging at the seams from the influx of workers. With so much labor available, mill owners were not obliged to make workers comfortable or pay them fair wages. The Panic of 1873 exacerbated poor worker conditions, and labor unions, most in their infant stages, were powerless to fight wage cuts and worker strikes were usually unsuccessful. By the mid-1880s state militias served a new purpose - keeping peace and order in the city. This function inspired the “castle” or fortress style of armory buildings, from which militias were called upon to maintain law and order.

Construction of the Pawtucket Armory began in 1894 and the building was completed the following year. It was the first of the large armories constructed in Rhode Island and the first of several armories designed by the Providence architectural firm of William R. Walker & Son. William Russell Walker (1830-1905) served as a lieutenant colonel in the Pawtucket Light Guard with the Union Army in the Civil War, and eventually reached the rank of major general in the state militia. More than 1,000 people attended a grand ball to commemorate the opening of the Pawtucket Armory.

John W. Little Company, 190 Exchange Street ​ The printing firm of John W. Little & Company was established by John W. Little in 1883. They specialized in local mill printing, gummed labels, sample cards, tag making, and printing for the city. Little was also a prominent public servant. In 1913 President Taft made him the Pawtucket Postmaster, and he served as superintendent of schools, and head of the Pawtucket Chamber of Commerce. John W. Little died in 1922 and his company was subsequently turned over to his sons. The company’s local business suffered during the exodus of textile mills in the 1920s and 1930s and during World War 2. Little’s sons pursued more lucrative national textile accounts, and in the 1950s the company began to specialize in printing cardboard backs for the new plastic blister packaging. The business remained in the Little family’s hands until 1987. This building is now home to a luthier shop.

Nickerson-Charland, 189 Exchange Street ​ The Nickerson-Charland Building, built in 1874, was constructed as part of a property development venture of Providence County Sheriff Elias Nickerson, who was also a real estate dealer. In 1873 Nickerson purchased four lots at the corner of Broadway and Exchange Street within the Alanson Thayer Plat. By 1914 Joseph Charland and Company, a tin, sheet iron and copper works, was operating out of this building. By 1935 the business included oil burners, and in 1955 the company was engaged in sheet metal work. Walk across the highway bridge to Hiker Park.

Interstate 95 The concept of a high-speed, multi-lane highway skirting Downtown Pawtucket's central business district was the subject of fierce debate. The business community strongly resisted the plan, fearing the highway would interfere with commercial and manufacturing activity, displace residents, and reduce the amount of taxable property, further damaging the city's fragile economy. These outcomes came to be viewed as the necessary price to pay in order to attract new business investments. In 1954, Mayor Lawrence A. McCarthy convinced the Pawtucket City Council to approve the plan for a new elevated bridge over Division Street. The Mayor declared: “We are going from an old-fashioned New England city into a modern, up-to-date community, accessible and convenient for business and industry.” Over 1,000 residents were displaced, and over 300 buildings demolished to route I-95 through the city.

Hiker Park Sculptor Allen George Newman, created this statue called “The Hiker,” to honor the American soldiers who served during the Boxer Rebellion, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War. Copies of this statue were placed in 20 different American cities; Pawtucket’s was installed in Hiker Park (Grove Street Park) in 1922. Another sculptor named Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson designed a very similar statue, also named The Hiker, and commemorated the same conflicts as that of the Newman version. In 1921, Providence’s Gorham Manufacturing Company bought the rights to Kitson’s statue and made 50 copies, which were distributed around the country. The main difference between the two versions is how the soldier holds his rifle. The name “The Hiker” was given in honor of soldiers who “took long hikes in steaming jungles” during all three conflicts. The other object in Hiker Park is a German cannon, which for ten years was aimed directly at the soldier statue. In 1935, Park Superintendent Lawrence Corrente, who had been an aviation machine gunner in WW1, turned the canon around to face away from the statue.

Near the cannon, turn left on Grove Street and walk to the corner of Grove and Walcott. The Darling house will be on your left, the Ingraham house on your right.

Lucius Bowles Darling House, 124 Walcott Street ​ ​ Lucius Bowles Darling, Jr. (1860-1922) was the fifth son of Lucius Bowles Darling, Sr. (1837-1896). His uncles were Edwin Darling and Lyman Morse Darling, two of Pawtucket’s most successful and well-known businessmen. Lucius attended public school in Providence until age 15, then went to private school in Foxboro, MA, before returning to Classical School in Providence. Directly after graduating he joined his father’s firm and in 1881 became a partner in L.B. Darling & Company, which was later incorporated in 1884 as the L.B. Darling Fertilizer Company. The company’s offices and stock yards were on Mineral Spring Avenue, near the railroad line in what is now the Fairlawn neighborhood. When his father died, Lucius became President, managing the company with the help of his uncle Lyman. After his brother Ira died in 1891, Lucius was responsible for the Chicago branch of the business and spent nearly two years in Chicago organizing the company. Lucius also became a trustee of the Music Hall building, which his father had built on Main Street in downtown Pawtucket. Lucius moved into this house, designed by Pawtucket architect Albert Humes (whose own house is within eyesight, on Arlington Street), in 1882. After Lucius’ death, the house was occupied by his son Randolph, who was a World War I veteran, having served in France. Margaret Deery was a nurse caring for Randolph and she eventually married him. The Darling family is buried in Swan Point Cemetery in Providence.

William A. Ingraham House, 112 Walcott Street ​ ​ William Augustus Ingraham was the son of Elijah Ingraham who was a textile “giant,” along with the Walcotts, the Slaters, and Oliver Starkweather. William’s house was built in 1850 and in 1866 was purchased by Thomas Anthony Lee, who was the proprietor of the Lee Block on Main Street (demolished in 1970) in downtown.

Walk across Walcott Street.

Greek Orthodox Church, 97 Walcott Street ​ ​ The Greek community in Pawtucket was established around 1896 by a small group of young men who had emigrated from Greece. They rented halls and houses in the downtown area to hold liturgy services whenever a priest was available. By 1910, the community had grown to nearly 75 members and they needed their own building. In one year of campaigning they raised $750, and in 1911 purchased property on George Street. The parish council was formed in 1912 and the church was given a charter from the State of Rhode Island. In the Fall of that year, a ceremony was held for the laying of the building’s cornerstone and a year later the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the new church. In 1914, the church was given its official name, Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In 1966, Interstate 95 displaced many families and businesses; buildings were either demolished or had to be moved at the expense of their owners. The church was forced to leave George Street, so they moved up to Walcott Street and purchased the former mansion house of John Blake Read and Joseph Ott, and held services in the renovated carriage house. In May 1966, ground was broken for the construction of the current church building and in 1967 the parish moved into its new building. The Read-Ott House was renovated for offices and living quarters for the priest.

John Blake Read/Joseph Ott House, 67 Walcott Street ​ ​ John Blake Read, a hardware merchant, built this house in 1842. John was born in 1801 in Freeport, ME and later served as a long-time commanding general of the Massachusetts militia. His father had been a prisoner on the Old Jersey prison ship during the American Revolutionary War. In 1862, the Read mansion was purchased by Joseph Ott, founder of Royal Weaving. Ott, born in Germany, came to America when he was 23 to escape military duty. He worked for the Slater Cotton Company and left there to begin manufacturing silk in Central Falls. He eventually moved his mill to the Darlington neighborhood where the building still stands across the street from the Oak Grove Cemetery entrance.

Continue walking to your right on Walcott. When you get to Summit Avenue, turn left and walk to the corner of Summit and Potter Streets.

Randall/Pearce House, 98 Summit Street ​ ​ Nehemiah Washington Randall partnered with John Francis Adams in 1862 to establish the firm of Adams and Randall, which was later (1869) merged into the Hope Thread Company, of which Nehemiah was the General Superintendent. He built this house in 1867 and another house at the corner of Spring and Denver Streets, where he lived until 1899. Mr. Randall sold this house in 1872 to Mrs. Hannah T. Cleveland, the widow of Dr. George Cleveland. Hannah married Ellis Pearce, of Pearce & Larkin, dealers of hay, grain, and groceries. Twenty years later they were divorced; Hannah resumed her first husband's name and lived out her days here. Turn and head back toward Walcott Street.

Albert A. Jenks House, 90 Summit Street ​ ​ This house was built in 1904; it is the largest on Summit Street and is in the Colonial Revival style. After Pawtucket’s Cotton Centenary Celebration (1890) and the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), there was a resurgence of interest in American heritage, which inspired this architectural style. Albert Alvin Jenks was the President of the Fales & Jenks Machinery Company, a textile machinery plant in Central Falls. Albert’s father, Alvin Fales Jenks was the donor and namesake of Jenks Park on Broad Street in Central Falls.

Cross Summit Avenue and walk through the park.

Everett P. Carpenter House, 72 Summit ​ ​ Street Everett Payson Carpenter was born in Pawtucket in 1834. As a teenager, Carpenter was learning the jewelry trade, but the chemicals burned his eyes. He eventually founded Carpenter & Company, Pawtucket’s largest house furnishing emporium in the late 19th century. He was also a director of the Pacific National Bank and a member of the First Baptist Church. This house was built in 1880.

Oliver Starkweather House, 60 Summit Street ​ ​ This elegant Federal-style mansion was built in 1800 by Oliver Starkweather, the first to build a house on the hill. Starkweather served a brief term as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. By 1800, he was one of Pawtucket’s wealthiest and most prominent citizens, having earned his fortune in yarn and cloth manufacturing. He was also a politician, serving as a Representative for Seekonk from 1812-1818, and was a member of the Bristol County State Senate. This house originally occupied a spacious Walcott Street lot. Walter H. Stearns purchased the house in 1901 and turned it 90 degrees to face Summit Street. It was moved a second time to escape demolition during the I-95 highway construction in the 1960s.

Turn left on Walcott and cross back over the highway. If you stop on the highway bridge the Pitcher-Goff House will be directly across Walcott Street. Pitcher-Goff House, 58 Walcott Street ​ The Pitcher-Goff House was built in 1840 for Ellis B. Pitcher, a cotton textile manufacturer. Pitcher was the son of Larned Pitcher, a pioneer machinist. Ellis formed a partnership with Alanson Thayer, and the company produced cotton goods in the Yellow Mill on the eastern bank of the Blackstone River, near the Falls. In 1844, he went into partnership with other investors and formed the Pawtucket Manufacturing Company.

In November of 1869, Ellis’ wife Julia (Walcott) died, and three weeks later their daughter Annie died. A month after that, Ellis learned that his son's thread manufacturing business - in which he had invested $30,000 - had failed. Ellis was distraught and shot himself in the head. In May 1870 the Pitcher heirs sold this house to Colonel Lyman Bullock Goff. The two families were related - Colonel Goff’s brother Darius L. had been married to Annie Pitcher.

Lyman B. Goff was the son of Darius Goff, one of Pawtucket's most successful 19th century manufacturers. Lyman began his career as a clerk in the family firm. In 1872 he became a full partner with his father and brother Darius L., and the firm became known as D. Goff & Sons. In 1880, he assumed the position of treasurer of the Union Wadding Company, a firm started by his father, and said to have been the largest manufacturer of cotton batting in the world at that time. Upon the death of his father, Lyman B. was elected President of Union Wadding. He was a director of several Rhode Island banks, including the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company. He and his brother Darius L. organized the Pawtucket Electric Company.

Colonel Goff deeded the Walcott Street mansion to his daughter, Elizabeth Goff Wood in 1922. Nineteen years later, Mrs. Wood gave the property to the Pawtucket Congregational Society, specifying that the house be offered to the Red Cross, rent-free, for use as a chapter house. The Red Cross accepted the offer, and occupied the building for twenty-five years. The house was later the first home of the Rhode Island Children’s Museum.

Keep walking to your left on Walcott; you will see the Congregational Church at the corner of Walcott and Broadway.

Pawtucket Congregational Church, 40 Walcott Street ​ Early in Pawtucket’s history, the Baptists lived mainly on the west side of the river, and attended church services in Providence. The Congregationalists on the east side of the river attended services at the Newman Congregational Church three miles away in Rehoboth (now East Providence). The Congregationalists established their own Pawtucket Congregational Church on April 17, 1829, with nine members - eight women and one man. The first pastor was the Rev. Asa T. Hopkins. Their first church building was destroyed by fire in 1864.

This Italianate-style building was designed by architect John Stevens and constructed in 1868. By 1886 the congregation had 300 members, many of whom were wealthy mill owners, such as Darius Goff. John Francis Adams, mill owner, town councilman, and later mayor of Pawtucket, served the church for twenty years ​ as organist and music director. In 1936 a colonial revival parish house was added behind the church by local ​ architects Monahan & Meikle. Since 2012, the church has been known as The Temple of Restoration Pentecostal Church.

For information about neighborhoods adjacent to this tour, please read our walking tour booklets on Downtown, the Quality Hill neighborhood, and the Pleasant View neighborhood. These are on our website www.pawtucketpreservation.org. ​

______Sources: 1. An illustrated history of Pawtucket, Central Falls, and vicinity : a narrative of the growth and evolution of the community, by Grieve, Robert, Pawtucket Gazette and Chronicle, 1897 ​ 2. Findagrave.com 3. History of Providence County Rhode Island, Volume 1, edited by Richard M. Bayles, W.W. Preston & Co., New York, 1891 4. Wikipedia 5. “Pawtucket Past and Present,” Slater Trust Company, 1917 6. rihs.org 7. Exchange Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 2002 8. “Downtown Pawtucket Historic Walking Tour,” Pawtucket Foundation and Preservation Society of Pawtucket, 2013 9. Downtown Pawtucket Historic District, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form and Inventory, 2007 10. Rhode Island History, RIHS, Volume 33:2, May 1974 ​ 11. http://www.edc.uri.edu/restoration/html/intro/origin.htm 12. https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/11817604 13. http://ripr.org/post/pawtucket-opens-first-section-waterfront-bike-path#stream/0 14. Quality Hill Walking Tour booklet, Preservation Society of Pawtucket, 1992 15. "Illustrated History of Pawtucket, Central Falls and Vicinity," Henry R. Caufield, 1897 16. American Wool and Cotton Reporter, April 7, 1921 17. SAH Archipedia 18. National Park Service, Inventory Nomination form, Quality Hill Historic District 19. Henry B. Dexter Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society

This tour was developed and written by Barbara Zdravesky for the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Preservation Society of Pawtucket, 2018.