Arctic Walking Tour Info.

The Pawtuxet River (Narragansett Indian name for "river of little falls") provided the water power that attracted early industrialists to build mills along its shores. Around these mills grew the villages that make up the town of West Warwick.

The village of Arctic was the last of West Warwick's mill villages to be developed. In 1834 Rufus Wakefield, a builder and developer, constructed a stone mill and leased space to small producers of textiles. In 1852 the property was bought by the great commercial and manufacturing firm of A.W. Sprague and the development of Arctic grew quickly. The Spragues had a great deal of experience in textile manufacture. Along the side of Wakefield's Mill, the Spragues erected a large cotton mill and workers' housing to the north along the east slope of Main Street. By 1862 Arctic was a well-established village.

With the addition of Arctic, the Spragues were adding to a growing empire of mills and villages, which would include Natick, Quidnick, Centreville, and Riverpoint.

In 1869 Albert K. Barnes established a trading post at present day Arctic Square on a sizeable amount of acreage that he had purchased. He platted the land and sold house lots. Several new buildings were constructed along Main Street between Gough Avenue and Birch Hill. Originally known as Quidnick Street, Washington Street was laid out between 1862 and 1870.

Barnes was a visionary who helped established what would become the economic and social hub of western Rhode Island. He called the new settlement Jericho (from the Bible story), because of a man he had known whom bandits robbed soon after coming to town. The name was used for generations.

Large groups of immigrants, drawn by the promise of mill jobs, began settling in the area by the 1880's. French-Canadians and Irish were the two largest groups to arrive. The French settled into the heart of Arctic Center and dominated the cultural and political life for several generations.

Throughout the early twentieth century, several commercial, industrial and community improvements proclaimed Arctic Square as the civic center and the most densely settled village in western Rhode Island.

In 1913 West Warwick was officially incorporated as a town separate from Warwick. Arctic continued to grow as a commercial center until the 1960's, when the development of suburban shopping malls on Bald Hill Road (Route 2) all but crushed the village's economic development.

This walking tour celebrates the history of Arctic as illustrated in the mills, store fronts, and houses that make up the village.