Ashton Historic District (Cumberland, Rhode Island)

Last updated

Ashton Historic District
Ashton Mill Village.jpg
USA Rhode Island location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Cumberland, Rhode Island
Area61 acres (25 ha)
NRHP reference No. 84000367 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 1, 1984

The Ashton Historic District is a historic district in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The district consists of a mill and an adjacent mill village that was built for the workers of the mill. It lies between Mendon Road, Scott Road, Angell Road, Store Hill Road, Front Street and Middle Street. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1984.

In 1867, in a program of further expansion, the Lonsdale Company erected a large, three and-one-half-story, mansard-roof brick mill at Ashton on the east side of the Blackstone River north of Lonsdale. It was later enlarged to four full stories with a flat roof. [2]

A compact group of associated brick row houses and other buildings, including a handsome mansard-roofed office, also were built. This mill played a major role in 19th-century textile technology and was the site of the first large-scale test of the high-speed Sawyer spindle, one of the earliest of its type developed in the United States. The mill houses here are noteworthy for their simple form and dense arrangement.

In 1922, it's textile mills were temporarily shutdown by the New England Textile Strike over an attempted wage cut and hours increase. [3] [4]

The village is tucked into a narrow, low flood plain site at the bottom of a bluff carrying Mendon Road (Rhode Island Route 122) in this section.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Falls, Rhode Island</span> City in Rhode Island, United States

Central Falls is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,583 at the 2020 census. With an area of only 1.29 square miles (3.3 km2), it is the smallest and most densely populated city in the smallest state, and the 27th most densely populated incorporated place in the United States. It is also one of only four incorporated places in New England that have a higher population density than the city of Boston. The city takes its name from a waterfall on the Blackstone River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland, Rhode Island</span> Town in Rhode Island, United States

Cumberland is the northeasternmost town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, first settled in 1635 and incorporated in 1746. The population was 36,405 at the 2020 census, making it the seventh-largest municipality and the largest town in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pawtucket, Rhode Island</span> City in Rhode Island

Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls and Lincoln to the north, and North Providence to the west. The city also borders the Massachusetts municipalities of Seekonk and Attleboro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Attleboro, Massachusetts</span> District of Attleboro, Massachusetts

South Attleboro is a neighborhood of Attleboro, a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is perhaps best known for the South Attleboro station on the Attleboro/Stoughton Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail. U.S. 1 and Route 1A pass through the area, which lies just north of the Rhode Island state line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone Canal</span> United States historic place

The Blackstone Canal was a waterway linking Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island through the Blackstone Valley via a series of locks and canals during the early 19th century. Construction was started in 1825, and the canal opened three years later. Following the opening of the Boston and Providence Railroad in 1835, the canal struggled for business. It was ultimately replaced by the Providence and Worcester Railroad, which completed a parallel line using much of the canal right-of-way in 1847, the canal shut down in 1848. Several segments of the canal are preserved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amoskeag Manufacturing Company</span>

The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was a textile manufacturer which founded Manchester, New Hampshire, United States. From modest beginnings it grew throughout the 19th century into the largest cotton textile plant in the world. At its peak, Amoskeag had 17,000 employees and around 30 buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Point, Rhode Island</span>

River Point in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, is a community made up of mill houses and three mills - the Valley Queen Mill, the Royal Mill and the Cotton Shed. Built in 1834 by the Greene Company, the Valley Queen Mill is the oldest of the three buildings. It originally operated as a cotton factory, producing coarse cotton cloths under the Greene Company name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forestdale, Rhode Island</span> United States historic place

Forestdale is a village and historic district in North Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, one-half mile from Slatersville, Rhode Island. The historic district runs east and west along Main Street and north on Maple Avenue. School Street is the primary road through the village, and the one-room schoolhouse for which the street is named still stands. The Branch River runs through the valley adjacent to the School Street. The Village Haven Restaurant and local VFW chapter are also located in the village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonsdale, Rhode Island</span> United States historic place

Lonsdale is a village and historic district in Lincoln and Cumberland, Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, near Rhode Island Route 146 and Route 95. The village was originally part of the town of Smithfield until Lincoln was created in the 1870s, and was originally centered on the Lincoln side of the Blackstone River. William Blaxton settled in the area in 1635. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Lonsdale was home to several manufacturers including the Lonsdale Company's Bleachery, and the Ann & Hope mill was also located in the village in Cumberland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saylesville, Rhode Island</span> United States historic district

Saylesville is a village and historic district in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkeley Mill Village</span> United States historic place

Berkeley Mill Village is a historic district encompassing the mill village of Berkeley in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The village is roughly bounded by Martin Street and Mendon Road on the north and east, railroad tracks to the west, and St. Joseph Cemetery to the south. The village, including a mill complex and mill employee housing, was built in 1872 by the Lonsdale Company. Most of the residential structures built are two-story brick duplexes, although Mendon Street is lined with a number of fine Queen Anne Victorian houses. A c. 1892 Stick-style church building, stands on Mendon Street at the northern end of the district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Ashton Historic District</span> Historic district in Rhode Island, United States

The Old Ashton Historic District is a historic district encompassing an early 18th-century industrial area along Lower River Road in Lincoln, Rhode Island. It includes the site of the first textile mill in Lincoln, which was established in 1810–15, and whose original mill building no longer survives. The proprietors of the mill built a series of modest worker houses on Lower River Road, which are now separated from the mill site by a section of the Blackstone Canal. The only structure near the mill site is the Kelly House, built in the 1820s by Wilbur Kelly, one of the mill owners. The area is now a stopping point in Blackstone River Bikeway State Park, with interpretive signs explaining the area's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Joseph's Church Complex (Cumberland, Rhode Island)</span> Historic church in Rhode Island, United States

St. Joseph Church is parish of the Roman Catholic Church in Cumberland, Rhode Island within the Diocese of Providence. It is known for its historic campus at 1303 Mendon Road, which includes a Gothic Revival style church along with two late 19th-century, clapboard-sheathed, wood-frame structures on the east side of Mendon Road. The church and its accompanying buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as St. Joseph's Church Complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hope Village Historic District</span> Historic district in Rhode Island, United States

The Hope Village Historic District is a historic rural mill settlement within Hope Village in Scituate, Rhode Island. Hope Village is located on a bend in the North Pawtuxet River in the southeastern corner of Scituate. Industrial activity has occurred in Hope Village since the mid-eighteenth century. Surviving industrial and residential buildings in the Historic District date back to the early 19th century. The village center sits at junction of Main Street and North Road. Hope Village radiates out from the center with houses on several smaller side streets in a compact configuration. Currently there is little commercial or industrial activity in Hope Village and none in the Historic District. The present stone mill building on the south side of Hope Village was built in 1844 by Brown & Ives of Providence, expanded in 1871 and modified in 1910. Approximately one quarter of the village's current housing stock was built as mill worker housing by various owners of Hope Mill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pontiac Mills</span> United States historic place

Pontiac Mills is a historic textile mill complex on Knight Street in the village of Pontiac, Rhode Island within the city of Warwick. The mills produced the original Fruit of the Loom brand of cloth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone Manufacturing Company Historic District</span> Historic district in Massachusetts, United States

The Blackstone Manufacturing Company Historic District encompasses the "New City" or "High Rocks" area of Blackstone, Massachusetts, an industrial village associated with the Blackstone Manufacturing Company, which began operations in 1809. It includes an area roughly surrounding Butler, Canal, Church, County, Ives, Main, Mendon, Old Mendon, and School Streets. The district includes a wide variety of worker housing, as well as a granite storehouse, the only surviving company structure. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quinnville, Rhode Island</span>

Quinnville is a village incorporated into the Town of Lincoln, Rhode Island. It is the smallest of the seven villages within Lincoln, bordered by the villages of Albion at the north, Limerock to the west, Lonsdale to the south, and by the Blackstone River to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arkwright, Rhode Island</span> Village in Rhode Island, United States

Arkwright is a village in the northeastern corner of Coventry, Rhode Island touching Cranston and Scituate, now connected by Route 115.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park</span> National Park Service unit in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, United States

Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park is a National Park Service unit in the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The park was created for the purpose of preserving, protecting, and interpreting the industrial heritage of the Blackstone River Valley and the urban, rural, and agricultural landscape of that region. The Blackstone River Valley was the site of some of the earliest successful textile mills in the United States, and these mills contributed significantly to the earliest American Industrial Revolution. The subsequent construction of the Blackstone Canal, a few years after the successful completion of the Erie Canal, helped to sustain the region's industrial strength.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1922 New England Textile Strike</span> Industry wide labor strike

The New England Textile Strike was a strike led by members of the United Textile Workers of America (UTW) principally in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Throughout the duration of the strike, an estimated 68,000-85,000 workers refused to work. Alongside the UTW, the IWW and ATW played major organizing roles within it, with the strike lasting for around 200 days at most mills.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Ashton Historic District" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  3. E. Tilden, Leonard (1923). "New England Textile Strike". Monthly Labor Review. 16 (5): 14 (pdf, pg. 3) via JSTOR.
  4. Foner, Philip Sheldon; Foner, Philip Sheldon (January 1, 1991). History of the labor movement in the United States. 9: The T.U.E.L. to the end of the Gompers era / by Philip S. Foner. New York: Intl Publ. pp. 19–31. ISBN   978-0-7178-0674-4.

41°56′15.43″N71°25′57.09″W / 41.9376194°N 71.4325250°W / 41.9376194; -71.4325250