Pawtuxet Village is a section of the New England cities of

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and W ...

and Cranston,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

. It is located at the point where the Pawtuxet River flows into the

Providence River The Providence River is a tidal river in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 8 miles (13 km). There are no dams along the river's length, although the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier is located south of downtown to protect t ...

and

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. ...

History

Pawtuxet means "Little Falls" in the Narragansett language, and this area was originally occupied by the Sononoce Pawtuxet tribe, part of the larger Narragansett Indian tribe. In 1638, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams purchased the property extending south from Providence to the Pawtuxet River. Shortly after, his followers William Arnold, William Harris, William Carpenter, and Zachariah Rhodes settled along the fertile meadows of the Pawtuxet. Meanwhile,

Samuel Gorton Samuel Gorton (1593–1677) was an early settler and civic leader of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and President of the towns of Providence and Warwick. He had strong religious beliefs which differed from Puritan theolo ...

purchased the land south of the Pawtuxet River and became the founder of Warwick. Early 18th century inhabitants took advantage of the power of the Pawtuxet River by constructing various mills, and took advantage of its excellent harbor by building one of America's premier shipping ports. The Pawtuxet Village Historic District boasts dozens of preserved Colonial structures among its scenic blend of homes and buildings. The mouth of the Pawtuxet River was a strategic location to settle, and gave boats a safe harbor and the village considerable importance in the triangular trade of the day, and shipyards for the coastal and

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

trade were located here. It was here in 1772 where Rhode Island patriots took the first organized military action towards independence by attacking and burning the hated British revenue schooner . This was America's "First Blow for Freedom", known as the

Gaspee Affair The ''Gaspee'' Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS ''Gaspee'' was a British customs schooner that enforced the Navigation Acts in and around Newport, Rhode Island, in 1772. It ran aground in shallow w ...

, and led directly to the establishment of permanent Committees of Correspondence, unifying the individual colonies, and starting the process of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

. The cities of Cranston and Warwick celebrate this historic role of Pawtuxet Village by hosting the annual Gaspee Days Parade each June. During the early 19th century, Christopher and William Rhodes formed the textile manufacturing firm which controlled the prosperity and swayed the destiny of Pawtuxet for more than half a century. It changed from a shipping port to a mill village with

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful go ...

s at either end of the Pawtuxet Falls. Pawtuxet shops and businesses of the 19th century may be seen on old advertising maps from about 1862 to 1870. In the late 19th century, the Rhodes family developed one of Rhode Island's top attractions called the Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet casino, dance hall, and canoe center. Trolley lines from Providence carried vast numbers to the Pawtuxet area for entertainment. In the 21st Century, Pawtuxet Village became known as a food destination, with eateries ranging from a tea room, Parisian cafe, Irish pub, Thai restaurant, creperie, ice cream, and more. The Friends of Pawtuxet Village host an annual ''Taste of Pawtuxet'' event to highlight local eateries.

Notable residents

* Elisha Hunt Rhodes (1842–1917), soldier of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers and diarist of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

References

External links

Pawtuxet Village

Gaspee Days Committee

Pawtuxet Village Association

Friends of Pawtuxet Village
{{authority control Cranston, Rhode Island Historic districts in Kent County, Rhode Island Historic districts in Providence County, Rhode Island Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island History of the textile industry National Register of Historic Places in Kent County, Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Providence County, Rhode Island Villages in Rhode Island Warwick, Rhode Island

History

Notable residents

See also

References

External links