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.