Wanskuck Historic District

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Wanskuck Historic District
Wanskuck Mill Prov.jpg
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Location Providence, Rhode Island
Coordinates 41°51′20″N71°25′56″W / 41.85556°N 71.43222°W / 41.85556; -71.43222 Coordinates: 41°51′20″N71°25′56″W / 41.85556°N 71.43222°W / 41.85556; -71.43222
Area 119 acres (48 ha)
Built 1811
NRHP reference # 83003867 [1]
Added to NRHP December 1, 1983
Wanskuck Hall Wanskuck Hall.jpg
Wanskuck Hall

The Wanskuck Historic District is a historic district in the city of Providence, Rhode Island encompassing a mill village with more than two hundred years of history. As early as the mid-18th century, mills stood on the West River in northern Providence, a development which continued with the rise of industrialization in the 19th century. The mill village of Wanskuck is organized around three thoroughfares: Branch Street, Veazie Street, and Woodward Road, and is roughly bounded on the east by Louisquisset Pike (Rhode Island Route 146) and to the northwest by the city line with North Providence. The West River runs through the district, with its banks lined by two late-19th-century mill complexes. The village area includes a variety of examples of mill worker housing, from duplexes to rowhouses, as well as two church complexes and a community hall built in 1884 by the Wanskuck Company. [2]

Providence, Rhode Island Capital of Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.

West River (Rhode Island)

The West River is a river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 7.6 miles (12.2 km) and is the only named tributary of the Moshassuck River. It has a history of providing water to textile mills during the Industrial Revolution as evidenced by the 7 dams along the river's length.

Rhode Island Route 146 highway in Rhode Island

Route 146, also known as the Louisquisset Pike, the Eddie Dowling Highway, and the North Smithfield Expressway, is a 16.24-mile (26.14 km) long numbered state highway located in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The route is a major north–south freeway in the northern Providence metropolitan area, directly linking Providence with the cities of Woonsocket, Rhode Island and Worcester, Massachusetts. For most of its length, Route 146 is a freeway, although there are at-grade crossings and driveway access in the North Smithfield/Lincoln area. The southern terminus of the freeway is at Interstate 95 in downtown Providence, and the route's northern terminus is at the Rhode Island-Massachusetts state line in Millville, where it continues northward towards the Massachusetts Turnpike and the city of Worcester as Massachusetts Route 146.

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. [1]

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence, Rhode Island Wikimedia list article

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Greystone Historic District

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Heaton and Cowing Mill

The Heaton and Cowing Mill is a historic industrial facility at 1115 Douglas Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island. The small mill complex consists of three connected building sections; the oldest is a c. 1832 rubble-walled two story mill building constructed by David Heaton and Martin Cowing on the banks of the West River. The partners used the facility to manufacture and dye cotton cloth. The building is the remnant of a much larger Geneva Worsted Company works that Heaton and Cowing built on the site in the 1860s and 1870s. The building was used, with a major brick addition c. 1930, for textile production until the 1950s, until its last textile owner, the Wanskuck Mill, shut down. It served a variety of light industrial businesses, and in 1982 a concrete block building was added to its rear. Most of its original waterworks infrastructure has either been filled in, or was destroyed by flooding in 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Wanskuck Historic District" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved 2014-11-01.