PSP planning Oak Hill historic walking tour
PAWTUCKET — The Preservation Society of Pawtucket is staging a free walking tour Saturday. The society asks that you RSVP by email to pawtucketpreservation@gmail.com.
Oak Hill Neighborhood Saturday, Oct. 14 10:30a.m. Meet at the corner of Ridge and East Avenue
The Oak Hill neighborhood takes its name from the many oak trees growing in the area. The Old Post Road, now East and Pawtucket Avenues, connected the mills in Pawtucket with the financial district of Providence. A local tavern, a garage and carriage stable, and several houses and businesses were built along this main road. Covering 170 acres, the neighborhood occupies portions of early farmlands that were eventually divided into five real estate plats: The German Cooperative Land Association Plat, Oak Hill Avenue Plat, Dryden Extension Plat, Sayles Heights Plat and Sayles Homestead Plat. These subdivisions were laid out between the 1870s and the 1940s; many of the lots were specifically designed to accommodate the increasing use of personal carriages and cars.
The neighborhood was home to the Sayles brothers and the McCoy brothers, and many other factory managers and civil servants. You will also find the city’s only Jewish synagogue, the Art Deco-style Shea High School and the bucolic Riverside Cemetery.
Fairlawn’s stories are most- ly linked to the Blackstone Canal and the Providence & Worcester Railroad, and how those modes of transportation changed Pawtucket’s landscape in the second half of the 19th century.
The Moshassuck River and the railroad tracks now separate Fairlawn from the rest of the city. The name Fairlawn originated with early English and Scottish textile workers who settled in the area and in 1889, when it was formally subdivided for house lots, the name was retained. This neighborhood developed as mills and factories were built in Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Lincoln. The streetcar line from Providence was extended into Fairlawn, and that made it possible for workers living here to commute to jobs elsewhere.