Pawtucket Rhode Island History & Facts

Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. 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; to its east-northeast, the city borders the Massachusetts municipalities of Seekonk and Attleboro.

Pawtucket was an early and important center of textile manufacturing; the city is home to Slater Mill, a historic textile mill recognized for helping to found the Industrial Revolution in the United States.

The name "Pawtucket" comes from the Algonquian word for "river fall." The Pawtucket region was said to have been one of the most populous places in New England prior to the arrival of European settlers. Native Americans would gather here to catch the salmon and smaller fish that gathered at the falls. The first European settler here was Joseph Jenks, who came to the region from Lynn, Massachusetts. He purchased about 60 acres near Pawtucket Falls in 1671, then established a sawmill and forge. These, along with the entire town, were later destroyed during King Philip's War.

Other settlers followed Jenks, and by 1775 the area was home to manufacturers of muskets, linseed oil, potash, and ships. Also around this time Oziel Wilkinson and his family set up an iron forge that made anchors, nails, screws, farm implements, and even cannons.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.0 square miles (23 km2), of which, 8.7 square miles (23 km2) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) of it (2.89%) is water. Pawtucket lies within three drainage basins. These include the Blackstone River (including the Seekonk River), the Moshassuck River and the Ten Mile River.

As of the census of 2010, there were 71,141 people, 32,055 households, and 18,508 families residing in the city. Pawtucket was the fourth most populous of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns. The population density was 8,351.2 inhabitants per square mile (3,224.4/km2). There were 32,055 housing units at an average density of 3,642.2 per square mile (1,406.3/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 50.4% Non-Hispanic white, 18.9% Non-Hispanic African American, 0.60% Native American, 1.6% Non-Hispanic Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, mixed race 3.9%, 4.7% other. About 25% of residents are Latino.

The City of Pawtucket has been supportive of the arts community since 1975. On September 2, 1977, The Beach Boys performed a concert at Narragansett Park attended by 40,000 people, the largest concert audience in Rhode Island history. In 2017, music historians Al Gomes and Connie Watrous of Big Noise were successful in getting the street where the concert stage stood (the corner of 455 Narragansett Park Drive) officially renamed as "Beach Boys Way".

Famous Peoples From Pawtucket Rhode Island

Galway Kinnell

Galway Mills Kinnell (February 1, 1927 – October 28, 2014) was an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1982 collection, Selected Poems and split the National Book Award for Poetry with Charles Wright. From 1989 to 1993, he was poet laureate for the state of Vermont.

An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are "St. Francis and the Sow", "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps", and "Wait".

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Kinnell said that as a youth he was turned on to poetry by Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, drawn to both the musical appeal of their poetry and the idea that they led solitary lives. The allure of the language spoke to what he describes as the homogeneous feel of his hometown, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He has also described himself as an introvert during his childhood.

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