Ashton Historic District (Cumberland, Rhode Island)
The Ashton Historic District is in Cumberland, Rhode Island. It covers about 61 acres and includes a mill and a nearby workers’ village. The area is bordered by Mendon Road, Scott Road, Angell Road, Store Hill Road, Front Street, and Middle Street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1984 (reference number 84000367).
In 1867, the Lonsdale Company built a large brick mill on the east side of the Blackstone River, north of Lonsdale. The mill started as a three-and-a-half-story building with a mansard roof and was later enlarged to four full stories with a flat roof. A compact group of brick row houses and other buildings, including an office with a mansard roof, were built to house workers.
The mill played an important role in 19th-century textile technology and was the site of the first large-scale test of the high-speed Sawyer spindle, one of the earliest of its kind in the United States. The mill workers’ houses are noted for their simple, dense layout.
In 1922, the mills were temporarily shut down during the New England Textile Strike over wage cuts and longer hours.
The village sits in a narrow flood plain at the bottom of a bluff along Mendon Road (Rhode Island Route 122).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:46 (CET).