Pawtucket

All About the Arts 2005 // RI National Register Properties

Pawtucket, known as the "place by the waterfall" is a tremendously creative and historic city where over two hundred years ago, cotton was thread by machine rather than manually for the first time in America. This triggered the start of the American Industrial Revolution with Samuel Slater leading the way. The wooden 1793 Slater Mill, the granite stone 1810 Wilkonson mill and the 1758 Sylvanus Brown House all offer significant history that draws people from all over the world. The RI Tourist Council's Visitor's Center, working in Partnership with the Heritage Corridor, is across the street offering plenty of activities and sites to visit and enjoy.

Currently, the city has created a 307 acre Arts and Entertainment Zone which exempts taxes on eligible one-of-a-kind works of art or prints. Artists known all over the world live and create their art or craft in Pawtucket. Sculptor Ben Tre, city artist Gretchen Dow Simpson known for her numerous New Yorker covers, glass artist Steve Weinberg and world renown restaurant interior designer Morris Nathanson and many others offer such delight and talent to a historically inspired city.  For most of every September, an Arts Festival offers a diverse range of music, the arts and Chinese Dragon Boat Races. Hopping on the trolley to visit all the galleries is a treasure in itself!  

Just observing the city is a step back in time with the history so visual in its architecture and layout along the River. Take a tour with the 49 passenger riverboat, Explorer, or enjoy some of the city's many other water opportunities, including the new boat dock or saltwater fishing  near the Division Street bridge. Enjoy the Riverfront Concert Series, which offers fine music treats every Sunday in the summer with Blues, Swing, Dixieland, jazz or more at the Veterans Memorial Amphitheatre near City  Hall. The Stone Soup Coffee House holds more intimate musical performances almost every Saturday night at this "quaint old coffee bistro".  Plays,  comedies or dramas, are consistently offered by City Nights Theatre or the Community Players of Pawtucket sometimes using the Veterans Memorial Park covered amphitheatre overlooking the Blackstone River. And the progressive city is transforming  the 100 + year Armory to transform into the Arts Exchange for a theatre with studio, rehearsal and office space for non-profit organizations. 

Pawtucket: Historic Home reflecting Colonial Heritage

Inside Slater Memorial Park, located off Armistice Boulevard, Pawtucket RI is the 1685 built Daggett House, the oldest home in the city. The home is operated by the Pawtucket Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution as a memorial to their ancestors and patriots of 1776.

The home features an impressive collection of Revolutionary artifacts and memorabilia. Original owners of the home proudly served our nation in the Revolutionary War.

Included are Furnishings with unusual period antiques, including Colonial pewter used in Revolutionary War and china owned by General. and Mrs. Nathaniel Greene (the second in command to General George Washington) and the Daggett Family. Outstanding needlework and furniture.

For more information on the home and dates of public tours contact 401-722-6931 or 401-724-5748

City Hall

Sports and active fun can be found at one of the 72 home games of the Pawtucket Red Sox game enjoying old fashioned fun or scouting out. Pawtucket also has created an interconnected  series of walking tours with its Path to Health guide (see below). But the sites to see will keep you busy or tennis, basketball. the bike path, lawn bowling, fishing and picnic sites are all available at Slater Memorial Park. The oldest standing carousel in the nation, the  Charles Louff Carousel, is a delight to view as are the special exhibits featured by the Rhode Island Water Color Society.  Perhaps the 1685 Daggett House filled with its rare antiques with pewter and needlework complete sets the ultimate stage for the past. The Revolutionary War china and specialties were owned by the family of General Nathan Greene. And downtown, the Dennis Lynch Ice Arena offers a regulation sized indoor rink. 

But that's only the start! The Arboretum at Riverside offers mere scenic beauty or thorough studies of hundreds of shrubs, trees or birds. Or for great architectural sites, join the Preservation Society of Pawtucket's tour of Victorians, Greek Revivals or colonial mill houses. The Pawtucket Public Library's two historic buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.  The Deborah Cook Sayles Memorial Library 's doorway depicts a Greek Temple on the Acropolis at Athens. Their panels highlight scenes from the early major global civilizations. The Gerald S. Burns Building is also worth a visit. Also accepted on the National Register of Historic Places as the nation's first diner, the Modern  built in the 1930s. Pawtucket's also home to the Silver Top Diner, one of the oldest Kullman diners in New England. 

Annual Events

Fourth of July is a big event in Pawtucket each year with fireworks, several ethnic festivals (Colombian, Greek, Chinese, German, Portugese) and community theatre.  In March, a St. Patrick's Day Parade is a welcome event. 

The Rhode Island Chinese Dragonboat Race Taiwan Day Festival will enliven the city of Pawtucket on the first Saturday of September as races are generally scheduled all day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Opening Ceremonies will be held at 10 a.m.. This festive event is great fun for the entire family with plenty of food and crafts, dragonboat rides and boat tours for all to enjoy! Two other races include the Public Servant Challenge at 10:30 and the Breast Cancer Awareness Race at 1 p.m.. All are welcome to compete with a race registration fee of $450. per team, so sign up NOW and support this great new tradition!  Vie for the $3000. Grand Prize! Free to the Public! This, along with the month long Arts Festival is a real treat. The Greenway Challenge ends up in Pawtucket after a 26 mile three-legged race by running, canoe or kayak and bicycling towards the end of every September. 

Winter Wonderland  is a big feature offering a Victorian Village of 18 buildings surrounded by an abundance of Christmas trees through which to stroll and enjoy the holiday spirit. Pictures with Santa, riding the R&D Express train or a large hay wagon, is enhanced further by bell ringers, clowns, puppeteers, carolers and a variety of musicians. 

Pawtucket brings you back to the noble beginnings of the American Industrial Revolution while offering several exciting events, galleries, theatre or clubs and educational and scenic history. The mills, some abandoned, some renovated into splendid homes or businesses, are scattered along the River creating an awareness of the magnitude of industrialism gracing the River's shores. 

Historic Assets (Partial) 

SLATER MILL HISTORIC SITE 
67 Roosevelt Avenue, Pawtucket, RI 02862 401-725-8638  fax: 401-722-3040
Contact: Richard Danforth / Francine Murphy-Brillon Email address: info@slatermill.org
Website: http://www.slatermill.org

Experience what life was like for the workers and families who transformed America from a quiet farming nation to a world leader. 

SANDRA FEINSTEIN GAMM THEATRE 
172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket, RI 02860 401-723-4266  fax: 401-723-0440
Contact: Gail Hulbert Email address: gail@gammtheatre.org
Website: www.gammtheatre.org

Enjoy plays of substance and distinction, acted with excellence and offered to the public in an intimate setting that allows the audience to be immersed fully in the ambiance of the production and the interchange between the actors themselves, and between the actors and the audience. 

RI WATERCOLOR SOCIETY 
Slater Park (in the J.C. Potter Casino), Pawtucket, RI 02861 401-726-1876
Contact: Mary Lou Moore Email address: marylou.moore@cox.net
Website: www.riws.org

Visit one of the oldest in the United States. Housed in the historic boathouse in Slater Park, the interior includes a permanent gallery with paintings, prints and drawings by well known artists. 

BLACKSTONE VALLEY VISITOR CENTER 
175 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI 02862 401-724-2200  fax: 401-724-1342
Contact: Wendy Jenks Email address: info@tourblackstone.com
Website: www.tourblackstone.com/visitorcenter.htm

Video, art gallery, and more…

BAKER-HANLEY HOUSE, PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF PAWTUCKET 
67 Park Place, Pawtucket, RI 02860  401-725-9581  fax: 401-726-0973
Contact: Paul Mowrey Email address: pawtucket.preservation@verizon.net
Website: www.pawtucketpreservation.com

Located on Pawtucket's historic Wilkinson Park, the Baker -Hanley house is an 1823 Brick Federal style house. Possibly designed by John Holden Greene, a prominent local architect for Jonathan Baker a mason. A handsome Federal style porch, columns and railings are later additions. The house was partially remodeled in 1949. Now owned by the Preservation Society of Pawtucket and used for non-profit offices. The building is undergoing a complete renovation.

DAGGETT HOUSE 
Slater Memorial park, Armistice Blvd., Pawtucket, RI 02861 401-722-6931
Contact: Joslin Brooks

Built in 1685 and filled with an eclectic collection of antiques, celebrating Pawtucket and U.S. History. 

DAGGETT FARM 
Slater Park, Pawtucket, RI 02861 401-728-7420  fax: 401-724-0425
Contact: Vic Ventura

SLATER PARK LOOFF CARROUSEL 
Slater Park, Pawtucket, RI 02861 401-728-7420  fax: 401-724-0425
Contact: Vic Ventura

Rides on the oldest and one of the few remaining Carousels in the country. This carousel features the largest collection of Looff's standing and leaping horses.

ST. PAUL’S CHURCH
50 Park Place, Pawtucket, RI 02860 401-728-4300  fax: 401-728-4318
Contact: Father William Locke Email address: stpaulsmychurch1@aol.com
Website: www.stpaulspawtucket.org

PAWTUCKET ARMORY ASSOCIATION 
172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket, RI 02860 401-721-0723
Contact: Steve Kumins Email address: exchange172@verizon.net steve@arts-exchange.org
Website: www.arts-exchange.org

A recently restored armory housing the arts school and the Pawtucket Arts Exchange. Aurea in concert. 

PAWTUCKET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST 
40 Walcott Street, Pawtucket, RI 02860 401-722-7934  fax: 401-722-6054
Contact: Rev. George Peters Email address: gpeters@mindsring.com

Come experience great architecture and music at this historic sanctuary. 

TO-KALON CLUB 
26 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI 02860 401-722-7934 401-722-1310  fax: 401-725-6670
Contact: Lisa Email address: manager@tokalonclub.com
Website: www.tokalonclub.com

Established as a private dining club in 1867. Get transported to an era where architectural details added charm and warmth!

        History

The Slater Mill was built along the Blackstone River in 1793 as a collaborative effort of Providence investors supporting the ideas and visions of Samuel Slater and other Pawtucket area artisans founding the first water powered cotton spinning factory in the United States. A bell tower sits atop the long rectangular wooden mill building calling children and adults from the farmlands to work along the banks of the Blackstone River. Several other buildings add to the quaint feel of history in vision - the attractive Sylvanus Brown house erected in 1758 but moved here by Pawtucket "Live Wires" who saved this history in the 1960s when Rte 95 became a priority. The red gambrel home typifies an artisan home before and during the Industrial age. Currently, artisans and mill workers are portrayed by expert interpreters filled with historical fact and lore demonstrating daily mill life. Beside the Brown house is a historically accurate garden with flowers, vegetables and fruits - including a loaded pear tree and flax for spinning demonstrations.

The stone Wilkinson Mill housed artisans creating critical tools and machines for the Blackstone Valley textile industry clustered in numerous mill villages along the Blackstone River and its tributaries. Machine tools and demonstrations are on display all while the rumbling vibrations of the water wheel captures the river's energy.

 The Dam at Slater Mill was built in 1792 by Oziel Wilkinson, who was a third landowner of the property and water rights along with Samuel Slater and Almy Brown. This dam was the first of scores along these waters so that mill owners could harness the water power for energy. The Slater Mill complex is open from Tuesday - Sunday from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.. Check their website, www.slatermill.org or call for further information on this educational and historical resource.    Pawtucket of Old

Corridor Information on Pawtucket  Walking Tour of Pawtucket