The American Industrial Revolution began at Slater Mill. Here, in 1793, Samuel Slater, with Providence investors and Pawtucket artisans, built the first water-powered, cotton spinning factory in the United States. Beginning with this wooden mill, industrial growth spread rapidly along the Blackstone River Valley, throughout southern New England, and across the nation. Landscapes, ways of life, and economies were forever transformed.
Slater Mill Historic Site preserves and interprets America's Industrial Heritage within three historic buildings on 5½ acres. Slater Mill houses historic textile machinery, an information desk, a theater, and a gift shop. Wilkinson Mill features an operating water wheel, a late 19th-century machine shop, and a gallery. Sylvanus Brown House, an artisan's home, represents life and work before and at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
[Stylized birds-eye view drawing of the site]
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