Pawtucket, << paw TUHK iht or puh TUHK uht >> (pop. 75,604), is the fourth largest city in Rhode Island. Only Providence, Cranston, and Warwick have more people. Pawtucket’s name is an Algonquian word meaning falls at the mouth of a river. The city lies at the head of Narragansett Bay, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) northeast of Providence and about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Boston. Pawtucket spreads over nearly 9 square miles (23 square kilometers) on either side of the Blackstone River. It is part of the Providence-Warwick metropolitan area.
Samuel Slater, an English textile worker, set up the first cotton-spinning mill powered by water in the United States in Pawtucket in 1790. Today, textiles are just one of the city’s manufactured products. Pawtucket is the home of Hasbro, one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers. Machine shops produce insulated wire and many other metal items. Knitted and woven elastic are leading products of the textile industry. Other goods made in Pawtucket include jewelry and silverware.
The original village was founded in 1671 by Joseph Jenks, Jr., an ironworker. The part of the city that lies on the east bank of the Blackstone River belonged to Seekonk, Massachusetts, until 1862. The section on the west bank of the river was part of North Providence until 1874. The two villages became the town of Pawtucket. A city charter was granted in 1885. Pawtucket has a mayor-council government.
