Pawtucket, Woonsocket & Blackstone Valley

I-95 / I-295 / RI-146 Blackstone Valley / RI-114

The **Blackstone River Valley** is the historic birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution — Samuel Slater's 1793 cotton spinning mill in Pawtucket was the first successful water-powered textile mill in America, and the corridor rapidly became a dense string of mill villages. Anchored by **Pawtucket** (home of the Slater Mill Historic Site, the Pawtucket Red Sox formerly played at McCoy Stadium before relocating to Worcester as the WooSox in 2021) and **Woonsocket** (the last Blackstone Valley mill city, the 'Frenchtown' with a documented French-Canadian heritage). The region includes Central Falls (1.3 sq mi, the smallest and densest city in RI), Cumberland, Lincoln (home to Bryant University), Smithfield, North Smithfield, Burrillville, Glocester, Scituate RI (home of the Scituate Reservoir — RI's main drinking water source), Foster, and the northern Providence County rural towns.