Discover 20 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Pawtucket (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket Looff Carousel, and Jenks Park & Cogswell Tower. Also, be sure to include Pawtucket Falls in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Pawtucket (Rhode Island).
Table of Contents
McCoy Stadium
Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. McCoy Stadium is a former baseball stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. From 1970 through 2020, it served as home field of the Pawtucket Red Sox, a Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Completed in 1942, the stadium first hosted an affiliated minor league team in 1946, the Pawtucket Slaters, a Boston Braves farm team. In 1981, the stadium hosted the longest professional baseball game in history, as the PawSox defeated the Rochester Red Wings in 33 innings by a score of 3–2.[1]
Address: Ben Mondor Way, 02860 Pawtucket
Pawtucket Looff Carousel
Amusement park ride in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Looff Carousel in Pawtucket, Rhode Island is a historic carousel which was built in 1895 by Charles I. D. Looff. The carousel was originally located in a carnival called Lee Funland in upstate, New York. The carousel was relocated to its present location at Slater Park in 1910 where it continues to operate.[2]
Jenks Park & Cogswell Tower
Jenks Park is a city park of Central Falls, Rhode Island. The city's only large park, its development began in 1890 on land donated by Alvin Jenks. Its centerpiece is Cogswell Tower, designed by Pawtucket architect Albert H. Humes and built in 1904. A gift of Caroline Cogswell, the tower stands 18 feet square and 70 feet tall. It has been the symbol of the City of Central Falls since its construction. The tower is supported by a brick barrel vault resting atop the historic Dexter's Ledge, from which, during King Philip's War in 1676, Native American scouts saw the approach of Captain Michael Pierce, and a company of Plymouth soldiers from the heights. Pierce's forces were ambushed and nearly annihilated by the Native Americans in "Pierce's Fight" at a site along the Blackstone River on March 26, 1676, where Pierce Park now stands.
The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.[3]
Address: 580 Broad Street, Pawtucket
Pawtucket Falls
Waterfall in Rhode Island. Pawtucket Falls is a waterfall on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The falls are located a half mile upstream from where the Blackstone flows into the Seekonk River. The falls provided power for Samuel Slater’s cotton spinning mill, which was built in 1793 and is said to have been responsible for starting the Industrial Revolution in America.[4]
Slater Park
Park in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Slater Park is the oldest and largest public park in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The park is named after Samuel Slater, a famous American industrialist who constructed America's first water-powered textile mill in Pawtucket. The park lies on the banks of the beautiful Ten Mile River and features the 1685 Daggett House, the oldest house in Pawtucket. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It also features an original Looff Carousel.[5]
Address: 401 Newport Ave., 02861 Pawtucket
Slater Mill Historic Site
History museum in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Slater Mill is a historic textile mill complex on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England. It is the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in North America to utilize the Arkwright system of cotton spinning as developed by Richard Arkwright.
Samuel Slater, the mill's founder, apprenticed as a young man in Belper, England, with industrialist Jedediah Strutt. Shortly after immigrating to the United States, Slater was hired by Moses Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, to produce a working set of machines necessary to spin cotton yarn using water power. Construction of the machines was completed in 1793, as well as a dam, waterway, waterwheel, and mill. Manufacturing was based on Richard Arkwright's cotton spinning system, which included carding, drawing, and spinning machines. Slater initially hired children and families to work in his mill, establishing a pattern that was replicated throughout the Blackstone Valley and known as the "Rhode Island System". It was later eclipsed by Francis Cabot Lowell's Waltham System.
Slater Mill was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark on November 13, 1966, the first property to be listed on the register. In December 2014, the mill was added to the newly formed Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park.[6]
Address: 67 Roosevelt Ave, 02860 Pawtucket
Pawtucket Congregational Church
Church building in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Pawtucket Congregational Church is an historic church building at 40 and 56 Walcott Street, at the junction of Broadway and Walcott St. in the Quality Hill neighborhood of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.[7]
Central Falls
City in Rhode Island. 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, 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.
In May 2010, Central Falls went into receivership, then filed for bankruptcy August 1, 2011.[8]
Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park
National park. 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.
The park's establishment was included as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 19, 2014.
It is closely related to the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, which is not a unit of the National Park System, but the National Historical Park contains only a subset of the sites associated with that National Heritage Area. The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor continues to exist independently of the National Historical Park.[9]
Address: 175 Main St, 02860-4132 Pawtucket
Liberty Arming the Patriot
Liberty Arming the Patriot, sometimes called Freedom Arming the Patriot, is a bronze sculpture at Park Place in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, commemorating the participation of the city's citizens in the American Civil War. It was designed by William Granville Hastings and cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company in 1897. Unlike many Civil War memorials, Liberty Arming the Patriot is a dynamic composition, depicting a young farmer setting his plow aside, and reaching to take a sword from a classical female figure clad in breastplate and wielding a pike. The statue is 11 feet in height, and is mounted on a granite base 10 feet high and 22 feet wide. The sculpture was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.[10]
Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre
Theater. The Gamm Theatre is a non-profit theater in Warwick, Rhode Island.[11]
Address: Pawtucket, 1245 Jefferson Boulevard
Pawtucket City Hall
Building in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Pawtucket City Hall is located at 137 Roosevelt Avenue, just outside the central business district of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Art Deco-style building was designed by Providence architect John O'Malley and was built in 1933–1936, its cost subsidized by funds from the Works Progress Administration.[12]
Address: 137 Roosevelt Ave, Pawtucket
Division Street Bridge
Arch bridge in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Division Street Bridge is an historic roadway and sidewalk stone arch bridge in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, carrying Division Street over the Seekonk River. The structure was built in 1875–1877 at a cost of USD$95,000. It is a nine-span stone and brick bridge with a total length of about 450 feet, making it the "finest and longest" stone arch bridge in the state. It is said to be a symbolic icon of the unity of the two neighborhoods, which are divided by the river, coming together as the Town of Pawtucket. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Although it may be "functionally obsolete" relative to traffic patterns and in need of repairs, it is considered to be architecturally and historically significant.[13]
Central Falls Congregational Church
Church in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Central Falls Congregational Church is an historic church located in Central Falls, Rhode Island. This Shingle style wood-frame structure was built in 1883 to serve a local Congregationalist congregation which was established in 1820 and had outgrown its previous space. Among the members of this church was wadding mill industrialist and Lieutenant governor of Rhode Island Henry A. Stearns.
It used this building until 1973, when declining participation prompted its merger with other congregations, and the sale of this building to the nearby Roman Catholic Parish of St. Joseph for use as a parish center.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 1976.[14]
Main Street Bridge
Bridge. The Main Street Bridge is an historic bridge carrying Main Street over the Pawtucket Falls in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The oldest portion of this bridge consists of two flattened-arch spans, each about 40 feet in length, with a total bridge length of 110 feet. The bridge has been widened twice to accommodate increased traffic; the most recent widening was in the 1960s, when concrete abutments were added to the south, and the added section completed with I-beams. The bridge, built in 1858, is believed to be the oldest highway bridge in active use in the state.
The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[15]
Pawtucket Elks Lodge Building
Building in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Pawtucket Elks Lodge Building is an historic site at 27 Exchange Street in the historic central business district of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Mission/Spanish Revival building was designed by the O'Malley-Fitzsimmons Company and constructed in 1926. It is three stories in height, with its facade faced in buff brick, laid in Flemish bond, and trimmed in cast stone. Unusual for Elks lodges of the time, the building's first floor was devoted to commercial tenants, with the upper floors devoted to Elks facilities.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[16]
Address: 27 Exchange Street, Pawtucket
Collyer Monument
Sculpture by Charles Parker Dowler. Collyer Monument is an historic monument to firefighters in Mineral Spring Park, at the corner of Mineral Spring Avenue and Main Street, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The monument was built in 1890 by the sculptor Charles Parker Dowler to honor Samuel Smith Collyer, a fallen Pawtucket Fire Chief. The life-size bronze sculpture stands atop a pedestal of Westerly granite, which has a bronze plaque depicting the fatal accident while the reverse bears an inscription. The memorial represents a significant example of monumental work of the period and an early example of local civic pride. The monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[17]
Valley Falls Mill
Building in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The Valley Falls Mill is a historic textile mill complex on Broad Street in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The complex consists of the primary mill building, a large Italianate brick four-story building erected in 1849, several outbuildings. a dam across the Blackstone River, and a portion of the original canal system which provided water power to the mill. The outbuildings include the gatehouse controlling waterflow into the canals, a small stuccoed office building now serving as a retail establishment, and a brick bathhouse built c. 1870 that stands just south of the mill race. The complex originally had a second mill building and power canal; that building was destroyed by fire, and its canal was filled in. The main mill building was developed as housing in the late 1970s, including a sympathetic replacement for the second mill building.
The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.[18]
Address: 1363 Broad Street, Pawtucket
Holy Trinity Church
Church in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The Holy Trinity Church Complex is an historic church complex on 134 Fuller Avenue in Central Falls, Rhode Island.[19]
Saint Paul's Church
Episcopal church in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. St. Paul's Church is a historic Episcopal church at 50 Park Place in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It is a stone Gothic Revival structure, designed by Sanders & Thornton of Providence and built in 1901, for a congregation established in 1816. The property also includes a Guild Hall, built in the Tudor Revival style in 1915, and a 1963 brick office wing. A Revere bell hangs in the church belfry.
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[20]
Address: 50 Park Pl, 02860-4010 Pawtucket