The John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor is a region to be explored. The Corridor is not a National Park in the traditional sense. It’s a kind of virtual park – a park where people live, work and play – a living landscape where its long and nationally pivotal history is still visible through thousands of structures in distinctive landscapes and accessible through the living memory of its residents.
To understand the Blackstone Valley you must “read the landscape”. The history of the Valley is revealed through its buildings and landscapes that together tell the story of America’s transition from an agrarian society to one of industry. Throughout the region, one can see and experience how this area developed along the river valley and hilltops.
Did You Know?
Children as young as age six were hired to work in the textile mills of the Blackstone River Valley. These adolescent workers were employed by the Lonsdale Company, c. 1912. Photos such as this helped lead to the passage of child labor laws.