$9M in federal funds slated for upgrades to Old Slater Mill and Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Approximately $9 million in federal funding may soon be coming to Rhode Island to upgrade Old Slater Mill, America’s first successful water-powered cotton spinning mill, and other key Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park sites.

The funding is included in the Fiscal Year 2025 National Park Service Budget Justifications and Performance Information as is mandatory via the Great American Outdoors Act passed four years ago. Congress approves the list of sites to receive funding each year.

If approved, the National Park Service could begin using the $9 million for preliminary work with construction projects anticipated in 2026.

Rhode Island’s U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, helped pass the Great American Outdoors Act which makes capital improvements throughout the national parks system. In a statement from his office, Reed said the funds for the Pawtucket national historical park will soon be put to work preserving the historic Old Slater Mill and the Wilkinson Mill waterwheel.  

Slated for repairs are the foundations, exterior envelopes, raceways and river retaining walls, the Wilkinson waterpower system and wheel exhibit. Funding would also provide code-compliant accessibility upgrades to the site.

“These upgrades will enhance the experience for visitors, giving them a better sense of the sights, sounds, and unique characteristics of these historic mills that helped power the American Industrial Revolution and change the course of U.S. history,” Reed said.

Reed is a former chairman of the Subcommittee on Interior & Environment who wrote the 2014 law folded into the National Defense Authorization Act, directing the National Park Service to establish the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park, including requiring the acquisition of Slater Mill.  

Reed highlighted the park’s infrastructure needs during a visit by U.S. Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland last July.

Completed in 1793, on the banks of the Blackstone River, by immigrant Samuel Slater and entrepreneur Moses Brown, Slater Mill is the first successful water-powered spinning mill in the United States and is credited with helping set America’s Industrial Revolution in motion.  The other historic buildings within the unit include Sylvanus Brown House, built in 1758, which tells the story of a millworker’s life at home, and Wilkinson Mill, which was added in 1810 and drove production of machine tools.

The Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund provides up to $1.3 billion per year for the National Park Service to make significant enhancements in national park units across the country.