Scituate - Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage ...

existence through the eighteenth century, and a line oF stage.. was
operating along it between Hartford, Providence, and Boston, the road
was never in good condition, making movement of people and goods
difficult. Upon the urging of many road-improvement supporters, an
act incorporating the Providence-Norwich Turnpike Society for establishing
a turnpike road was passed by the Rhode Tsland General
Assembly in 1795. Creation of the road, later known as the Plainfield
Pike, opened the turnpike era in Rhode Island.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
The nineteenth century was a time of dramatic change in Scituate.
Rhode Island’s industrial transformation stormed the entire state,
converting sleepy hamlets into bustling and prosperous mill villages.
Turnpikes helped promote the flow of goods between the rural hinterland
and the port city of Providence. But, the growth of industry, providing
an alternative to the demands of farm life, and competition from western
farmers, beginning with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, spelled
the decline of agriculture as the major component of Scituate’s economy.
By mid-century, at least, manufacturing was the most important economic
force, and continued to be the backbone of the economy throughout the
rest of the century.
Turnpikes
The Plainfield Pike present Route 14, also known as the Providence
and Norwich Turnpike during part of the nineteenth century, was a fore
runner of other turnpikes which connected Providence with its rural
hinterland and with urban centers in adjacent Connecticut and Massachu
setts. In 1803, the Hartford Pike later Route 101, originally the
Rhode Island and Connecticut Turnpike, was chartered, running westward
from its eastern terminus at Manton. The Foster and Scituate Turnpike
Company, chartered in 1813, had a highway from the Connecticut line to
Hopkins Mills in Foster. Later, the road, which eventually became
known as the Danielson Pike Route 6, was extended to run through
Scituate to its junction with the Rhode Island and Connecticut Turnpike
at North Scituate. Central Pike, created in 1814 by an act of incorpor
ation, was not completed until 1822, when a new act of incorporation was
filed. The last turnpike completed in Scituate, Central Pike, ceased
to be a toll road in 1842. In 1866, the section of Plainfield Pike in
Scituate became a free road, and the entire pike was toll free by about
1870. About that time 1870, Hartford Pike, Danielson Pike, and all
the other Rhode Island turnpikes also became free roads, bringing the
turnpike era to an end.
Waterways and Industrial Transformation
While the turnpikes opened up the rural areas by enlarging markets
for agricultural products and goods derived from nature, it was the
rivers and brooks of Scituate that helped transform the town’s economy
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