Slater Mill Museum

Slater Mill Museum Review

In 1793, Samuel Slater and two Providence merchants built the first factory in the United States, to produce cotton yarn from water-powered machines. The Slater Mill Historic Site celebrates the American Industrial Revolution, comprising the old yellow clapboard mill, since restored and housing machinery illustrating the conversion of raw cotton to finished cloth, and the stone Wilkinson Mill, built in 1810, where a 9-ton reproduction of an 1826 waterwheel powers a 19th-century machine shop using a system of leather belts and pulleys to drive the machines. Interpreters demonstrate activities of daily family life in the 1758 Sylvanus Brown House and garden, and guides in period clothing conduct living-history tours.