Fall River

 Historical References: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  

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Nickname(s): “The Scholarship City”
Motto: “We’ll Try”

 

  

File:Fall River Seal.png 
Located along the eastern shore of Mount Hope Bay at the mouth of the Taunton River, the City became famous during the 19th century as the leading textile manufacturing center in the United States
 The first settler was Benjamin Church, a hero of King Philip’s war, who built a sawmill in 1690. The city’s geography determined its destiny; as historians have pointed out, the significant fact about Fall River is that it had water power and port facilities together, making it both a transfer point for passenger and freight traffic to New York and the site of intense industrial development. Its diverse residential population is made up of immigrants from Great Britain, Portugal and Canada drawn to the mill jobs available in the city. Fall River’s industrial history began in 1811 when Colonel Joseph Durfee opened the Globe Manufactory. By 1830 the city had seven textile mills, a steamboat to Providence and Newport and its own newspaper. A staggering population and industrial boom made Fall River one of the textile capitals of the nation with more than 100 cotton mills housing four million spindles, employing more than 30,000 people, and generating a weekly payroll of over $500,000.  While the textile industry has long since moved on, its impact on the City’s culture and landscape remains to this day.
Fall River’s official motto is “We’ll Try”, dating back to the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1843. It is nicknamed “The Scholarship City”, because Dr. Irving Fradkin founded Dollars for Scholars here in 1958.

Fall River is well-known for Lizzie Borden, who was accused, and later acquitted, of the 1892 double axe-murder of her father and stepmother that occurred at her home on Second Street in the city. Fall River is also known for Battleship Cove, the world’s largest collection of World War II naval vessels. It is also the only city in the United States to have its city hall located over an interstate highway.

Fall River City Hall
One Government Center
Fall River, MA 02722
Phone:(508) 324-2000 or visit http://www.fallriverma.org/
Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry
100Years Serving Businesses 1911-2011
200 Pocasset Street , Fall River, MA 02721
508 -676 -8226  www.fallriverchamber.com

 
 
Battleship at Fall River Fall River Neighborhoods in the 1890s
Battleship Cove Virtual Tour Fall River Police Dept. History
Community Profile Fall River Public Library
Digital Archive for Fall River Over Time Fall River Tourism
Federal Census, 1850, Fall River Historic Maps Covering Fall River
Federal Census, 1860, Fall River Marine Museum at Fall River
Fall River Historical Society Mary Darling-Parlin Historic Site
Fall River Homepage