Rhode Island Tercentenary Issue First Day Cover
300th Anniversary of the Settlement of Rhode Island
Issued on May 4, 1936 in Providence, RI - Scott #777

Unofficial Town Cancel - Central Falls Branch of Pawtucket
1st Rhode Island Tercentenary Commission Cachet - Planty 18c

The first Central Falls Post Office, (Central Falls Township, Providence County) opened on August 7, 1867 under Postmaster George F. Crowningshield. The Post Office was discontinued on April 30, 1909 and reopened as a branch of the Pawtucket Post Office on May 1, 1909. This branch Post Office remains open today.

Central Falls is the smallest municipality in Rhode Island. The city is situated just to the Northwest of Pawtucket on the Blackstone River and was a center for many of Rhode Island's manufacturing and industrial plants.

The City of Central Falls was formerly a part of the town of Lincoln and was first incorporated as a city on February 21, 1895. The current population of the city is slightly in excess of 19,000. 

The State of Rhode Island has currently designated Central Falls as a distressed Urban Area and under the "Distressed Areas Economic Revitalization Act," has declared it to be a state "Enterprise Zone." The simply means that manufacturers locating in the city are exempt from paying municipal taxes.

Central Falls is the site of the oldest known veterans monument in the U.S. It is known as "Nine Men's Misery" and commemorates the ambush and massacre of Captain Michael Pierce and his company of Plymouth soldiers during King Phillip's (Wampanoag Chief Metacom) War in 1676. Only one man survived.

Source: Rhode Island Postal History: The Post Offices - Merolla, Jackson & Crowther


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