Brief History
Joseph Jenks an ironworker, who came to Rhode Island seeking a new location for his works, founded Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1671. He found a site to his liking on the west bank of the present Seekonk River at the falls where the Blackstone River reaches sea level, and there he constructed a forge and gristmill. This settlement, centered on the Falls, grew into Pawtucket Village and spanned both sides of the river, and the fast running Blackstone River provided the gradient for the establishment of water-powered industry.

Pawtucket achieved its greatest fame in 1793 as the site for the first successful commercial spinning of cotton by Samuel Slater who was employed at the Almy and Brown Mill. Other metal workers were attracted to Pawtucket notably David Wilkinson who established a machine shop to manufacture equipment needed in the growing textile business. Throughout the 19th century Pawtucket grew and in 1864 the present day boundaries were established, and in 1886 it was chartered as a City and elected its first Mayor, Frederick Sayles a prominent textile manufacturer.

By the late 19th century Pawtucket was probably at its height as a city of textiles and machinery and metal parts manufacturing. In the 20th century many of the industries moved south or became obsolete leaving a vast number of large industrial buildings. At the same time as the industrial base was changing, residential development expanded to the extent that there is very little vacant land left in the 8.7 sq. mile City. The legacy of industrial buildings, residential neighborhoods, parks, church and social clubs has remained a part of the City and one that the Preservation Society of Pawtucket seeks to educate people about and to work for the adaptive reuse of structures and neighborhood improvements.

Pawtucket Today

Pawtucket today has a population of 71,600 residents and nearly 16,000 residential structures in 158 defined neighborhoods. There were 1,200 structures surveedy in 1978
in creating the Pawtucket Historical and Architectural Report, and they are on file with the City Department of Planning and Redevelopment. One objective of the 1978 City survey was to identify the most important buildings from an architectural and historical perspective and that has been done and is on-going. Currently 290 structures have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The largest number is located in the Quality Hill Historic District and the South Street Historic District. Other National Register Districts are either open space areas, cemeteries, churches and industrial areas.

In order to provide some measure of protection to these areas the City adopted Historic District Zoning and appointed a Historic District Commission to oversee improvements in these areas. Today there are 220 residential structures in the local historic district, which operate as an overlay to the regular zoning of the area, either residential or industrial. Pawtucket has 15 identified neighborhoods and several of them have active Neighborhoods Watch organizations, and there is an Alliance of Neighborhoods.