Fall River, MA Summary

In the decades following construction of Fall River’s first cotton mill in 1811, its access to abundant water power and the port of Mt Hope Bay, an arm of Narragansett Bay, enabled “Spindle City” to grow into one of the country’s most important cotton thread and cloth manufacturing centers.

At least some residents got rich from the 120 mills that eventually sprang up—evident today in the Victorian mansions on the heights above the city. But serious labor unrest, including a textile workers’ strike in 1904-05, demonstrated that not everyone felt they were sharing adequately in the city’s good fortune, which declined along with the textile industry here in the 1920s.

Plymouth Colony settlers founded Fall River in 1656. Its name derives from the Native American word for the area, Quequechan, or “falling water.” Today the city at the mouth of the Taunton River numbers almost 91,000 residents, and clothing manufacturers offer discount prices in many outlet stores. Fall River entered the annals of crime in 1892 with the trial of Lizzie Borden, who was acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe in a house that is now a B&B and offers daily tours.

In addition to textiles and clothing, Fall River produces medical products, electrical equipment, and chemicals. Besides its many historic buildings, the city is the site of Battleship Cove, the final resting place of the 680-foot USS Massachusetts, which survived 35 battles in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters in World War II. Two operational PT boats, the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr, and the World War II attack submarine USS Lionfish are also moored here. It is open to visitors daily except New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Displays of steam-powered transport can be found at the Marine Museum. Other attractions are Fall River Heritage State Park, which has exhibits depicting the city’s textile and nautical history, and the Old Colony and Fall River Railroad Museum. Fall River is north of I-195, south of Boston, and southeast of Providence in Rhode Island, both of which are served by international airports.