Slater Mill Historic Site: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park

Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation

Located on the banks of the lower Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Slater Mill Historic Site is a component of the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, a park unit established in December 2014. The park preserves, protects, and interprets the nationally significant resources that exemplified the industrial heritage of the Blackstone River Valley. The 4.23-acre property includes two historic mills and a cottage, a partially reconstructed raceway and tailrace, old stone and concrete river walls, remnant foundations, and a footbridge. These features are set amongst tree-shaded lawns and paved walkways that provide passive recreational space and offer views of the fast-flowing Blackstone River and roaring Pawtucket Falls. Slater Mill Historic Site is a designated National Historic Landmark, and recognized as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. The core of the site preserves three historic buildings: Samuel Slater’s 1793 mill, Oziel and David Wilkinson’s 1810-1811 mill, and Sylvanus Brown’s 1758 cottage (moved to the site in the 1972). The Old Slater Mill was modeled after English cotton spinning mills and is the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in North America. The Wilkinson Mill played a critical role in the history of textile technology, in steam power generation, and in the development of the machine tool industry. The Brown House is where Brown’s pattern-making and carpentry skills helped him produce mechanized textile machinery with Samuel Slater between 1789 and 1791. The Old Slater Mill Association (OSMA) acquired the Old Slater Mill property in 1923 with the intent of transforming the mill into a museum to commemorate Samuel Slater’s role in opening the country’s first water-powered textile mill. Although funding shortages delayed the museum’s opening until 1955, the OSMA restored the mill and two other buildings, and with the City of Pawtucket, created public open space on the adjacent lots for passive recreation and special events. The OSMA owned the site until March 2021, when the property was acquired by the National Park Service. SIGNIFICANCE SUMMARY The Slater Mill Historic Site is nationally significant under National Register Criterion A in the areas of Industry and Invention. The site’s primary significance is its association with the English immigrant Samuel Slater, who perfected America’s first successful water-powered spinning machinery in 1790 and, together with the Providence merchants William Almy and Smith Brown, built this country’s first successful cotton mill in 1793 on the Blackstone River’s Pawtucket Falls. This partnership, and the machine-building skills of local craftsmen who had earlier erected forges and mills for lumber and grain at the falls, launched the American textile industry. In addition to the Old Slater Mill (1793), Wilkinson Mill (1810), and Sylvanus Brown House (1758, moved to present location in 1972), the site also possesses significance for extant landscape features associated with the Old Slater Mill and Wilkinson Mill, and the other mills and factories at the site, including a raceway, stone tailrace and arch, stone and concrete river walls/foundation walls, foundation remnants, and a footbridge. The site’s period of significance is 1793-1925. The period begins when Old Slater Mill and the raceway was completed and operational, and ends when the Old Slater Mill Association (OSMA) completed the Colonial Revival restoration effort at the mill and cleared the remaining buildings and structures on the Slater Lot (core area of the site).

Slater Mill Historic Site: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park

Series