During the 19th century, the area now called North Smithfield bustled with industrial activity. Although the mills powered by the area’s rivers have closed long ago, the story of the town’s history remains very much open. In an effort to catalog the historical sites in North Smithfield and the surrounding area, city planners and a consultant plan to embark on a comprehensive study paid for by the R.I. Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission.
North Smithfield Town Planner Bob Ericson recently took some time to talk about the project.
PBN: Can you tell us how you became involved with the project to map historic sites in Providence County?
ERICSON: Last year, the town managed a $32,000 grant funded the R.I. Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission and the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. We hired an excellent consultant to work with citizens to identify the most important heritage landscapes and to recommend the most effective ways of preserving them. The study covered North Smithfield, Lincoln, Smithfield, Glocester and Burrillville as separate towns and as a region. Everyone appreciated the quality of that work.
RIHPHC Deputy Director Rick Greenwood notified us of the present grant opportunity. We appreciated the countywide scope, and we had special status as a town with an experienced Historic District Commission and three historic districts, so we gladly applied.
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PBN: How does this project connect to efforts to designate a National Park in the town?
ERICSON: The National Park will probably focus on the early 19th-century mills and village. That was the nationally significant period of technical, economic and social innovation. Slatersville was America’s first mill village by design. The church provided general education as well as religious education.
The place names of Native Americans and European settlers of the 1636-1730 were, by and large, the place names known and used in the early 19th century. Change came at a much slower place in the 18th century than it does today. This project will be valuable for interpretation of how the area developed before construction of the Slatersville mills.
PBN: What is the role of the $10,000 grant the town received from R.I. Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission for the project?
ERICSON: The project will fund a consultant to research historical records and provide place names in spatially accurate locations on a geographic information system (GIS). We will have the first century of European settlement mapped in a digital graphics system that was prohibitively expensive 20 years ago. We will be able to use it as an overlay on other GIS maps.
PBN: Preserving history then must be really important to the town. How come?
ERICSON: Every town needs its own sense of place, and history has defined many of those distinctive places. If people understand how a town developed over time, they appreciate places and structures that might otherwise puzzle them. We have award-winning apartments in the old Slatersville mill buildings, and the developer has interpreted the past with pictures in hallways and public spaces. Historic assets include both information and physical artifacts.
Effective management of historic assets can stimulate economic development. Grow Smart RI has noted how historic mill conversions have attracted innovative businesses. We have an economic-development motive in these projects.
PBN: Can you expand on the economic-development piece?
ERICSON: National Park status will bring more people to specialized retail in Slatersville. A green community with a sense of history can attract more 55-plus residential development, and that can provide a significant net benefit to a town’s financial well-being. Innovative businesses increasingly look for places that management and technical professionals want to live.
