Dreams of turning the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor in Rhode Island and Massachusetts into a unit of the National Park Service (NPS) were dealt a blow recently, when the bill to establish the park (HR 3191) was removed from a massive appropriations bill by the House of Representatives.
In light of this setback, however, Blackstone River Valley NHC executive director Jan Reitsma remains optimistic. “We know the public and elected officials are completely behind (creating a park),” Reitsma told the Milford Daily News this week. Local officials had hoped that inclusion in the larger spending bill would put the valley on the fast track to becoming a national park, but the original legislation can still move forward, albeit more slowly.
Already part of NPS’s National Heritage Area system, Blackstone River Valley worked with the park service to complete a special resource study detailing the national significance of this historic area. The river played a significant role in development of the Rhode Island System of manufacturing, becoming “a paradigm for further American industrial development…the valley became a prototype for a sweeping social transformation that included a fundamental shift in the nature of work,” according to the study.
Specifically, Old Slater Mill National Historic Landmark District in Pawtucket, RI, preserves the roots of the American textile industry, where English inventor Samuel Slater perfected the water-powered technology that mechanized cotton yarn production. By the early 1800s, when President Thomas Jefferson established an embargo that blocked textile imports from Britain, 40 cotton mills were already at work within 30 miles of Providence. Mill villages sprang up as the industry grew, and soon southern New England became the nation’s textile production center.
In the special resource study, the National Park Service found Old Slater Mill and its related sites to be of national historical significance, and that these sites would benefit from NPS management.
NPS estimates put the price tag for construction of new facilities and rehabilitation of existing structures at $6.1 million. Once the park is open, the park service estimates a $3.5 million annual operating cost.
The House bill calls for the park to include Old Slater Mill, the historic districts of Slatersville, Ashton, Whitinsville, and Hopedale Village, the Blackstone River and its tributaries, and Blackstone Canal. Existing facilities including the current Blackstone Valley Visitor Center in Pawtucket, RI, the Captain Wilbur Kelly House, the Museum of Work and Culture, River Bend Farm, and the Worcester Blackstone Visitor Center could all become part of the national historical park.
The NPS would acquire the land for the park through donation, exchange, or a purchase with donated or appropriated funds, according to the bill—leaving the door open for potential federal funding as part of a matching fund arrangement.
The related Senate bill, S 1708, is still in committee as well.
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