Fall River, Massachusetts

Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about 46 miles south of Boston, 16 miles southeast of Providence, Rhode Island and 12 miles west of New Bedford. The city's population was 91,938 during the 2000 census, making it the eighth largest city in the state. The current mayor of the city is Bob Correia.

Fall River's motto is "We'll Try." It is nicknamed "The Scholarship City", which is seen on the welcome signs upon entering the city. Fall River is well-known for Lizzie Borden, who was accused of the 1892 axe-murder that occurred at her home in the city. Fall River is also known for Battleship Cove, the world's largest collection of World War II naval vessels. It houses the USS Massachusetts, the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., the submarine USS Lionfish, and the Russian Missile Corvette Hiddensee.

[edit] History

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can (January 2008).

Fall River was first settled in 1670 and considered a small village of Freetown, Massachusetts until 1803, when Fall River was separated from Freetown and officially incorporated as its own town. A year later, on June 1, 1804, Fall River changed its name to "Troy." The name "Troy" was used for 30 years and was officially changed back to Fall River on February 12, 1834.

Group of workers in the Sagamore Mfg. Co., August 1911. Photographed by Lewis Hine.

There is no river called "Fall River" in the city. The river that Fall River refers to is the Quequechan River. Quequechan is a Wampanoag name believed to mean "Falling River" or "Leaping/Falling Waters." The city is named after the falls that once were visible on the river, as there were once multiple smaller waterfalls and one larger waterfall leading to where Battleship Cove currently is, under the Braga Bridge. The Waterfall area was blasted down when the highway went in around 1962, so about 45 years ago during the highway construction boom of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration timeframe. The quick flowing riverway that remained was routed through an underground tube and one can see the river daylight before going under a factory which currently houses a number of businesses including Work Out World WOW! Fall River gymnasium. The water goes underneath the factory building and comes out to where Battleship Cove is. The river's source is South Watuppa pond and most of the river lies within tubes underneath Interstate 195, a highway from Providence to Wareham area which runs through the cities of Fall River and New Bedford.

Settlers from Plymouth Colony purchased a very large parcel of land from the Wampanoags in 1659. A number of communities now exist on it, including Fall River. In 1690 Benjamin Church built a saw mill near the falls and settlement followed, based on industry powered by the falling water and ocean-going commerce up the Taunton River. The site was a strategic one: In the Battle of Freetown, fought in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War, the townspeople put up a strong defense against a British force.

[edit] Industrial revolution in Fall River

According to historian Diana Muir writing in Reflections in Bullough's Pond, Fall River remained a farming hamlet through the eighteenth century because, although it is located on the water, it did not have a good natural anchorage suited to the age of sail. Fall River does, however, have an unusual asset, a small river that frops 123 feet in a distance of 2,3000 feet able to power nine millseats within spitting distance of salt water. The first cotton mill opened in 1811 by Colonel Joseph Durfee and several other investors, the other mill seats filled rapidly. The Troy Mill, the first of the great granite structures at the foot of the Quequechan River, was built in 1813. By 1830, the town had seven, small textile mills, a steamboat to Providence and Newport, a newspaper, and a population of 4,159. But, according to Muir, it was iron and steam that built Fall River into a great manufacturing city.

Muir writes that a group of Providence, Rhode Island businessmen, including pioneering industrialist Samuel Slater, were in need of a local iron works and chose Fall River because they were able to purchase a mill seat almost at tidewater and bring bituminous coal form Nova Scotia and iron form Egg harbor, New Jersey directly to their docks, keeping transportation costs low. the foundry opened in 1821, producing parts for the New England cotton industry, as well as "hoops for whale oil casks, castings for machinery, and nails." (Muir, Reflections in Bullough's Pond, p. 177) The nails were shipped all the way to Ohio on the Erie Canal.

The first railroad line serving Fall River, The Fall River Branch Railroad, was incorporated March 14, 1844 and opened about 1845. The Old Colony Railroad and Fall River Railroad merged on March 25, 1854, forming the Old Colony and Fall River Railroad.

According to Diana Muir wiriting in Reflections in Bullough's Pond, Fall River, with its small river and, therefore, limited water power, did not become a great manufacturing city until new efficiencies pioneered by George Corliss in the 1850's made steam power competitive with water power. At this point, the advantage of being able to import baled of cotton and coal to fuel the steam engines to Fall River's deep water harbor, and ship out the finished goods also by water, made Fall River the choice of a series of cotton mill magnates. In 1854, Fall River was officially incorporated as a city. This growing trend continued and by 1872, 18 new mills and 15 new corporations were started as Fall River became one of the textile capitals of the nation.

From the 1870s until the 1920s, Fall River was the second largest center in the United States for the manufacture of cotton textiles after Manchester, New Hampshire.

The payroll per week in 1887 was $118,005; the weekly production of print cloths was 175,000 pieces; the cloth produced was 480,500.000 yards (439,000 m); bales of cotton consumed, 210,550; tons of coal, 159,550; oil, 172,350 U.S. gallons (652 m³); and starch, 1,981,00 lb (899,000 kg). To run the mills, 11 water-wheels were in operation, producing a total of 1,555 horsepower (1160 kW), and 106 steam-engines producing a total power of 36,805 hp (27,445 kW).

The period from 1847 to 1937 was marked by the Fall River Line, America's most luxurious steamship line connecting rail travelers from Boston to New York. The Fall River Line Pier is maintained today along with the Fall River Marine Museum.

In 1862, after a border dispute with Rhode Island, the United States Supreme Court ruled to move the state border south from Columbia Street to State Street. Since that time, all of Fall River has been in Massachusetts.

On August 4, 1892, Fall River was the scene of two murders allegedly committed by Lizzie Borden. These grisly murders are remembered in a children's rhyme originally for jumping rope, according to the Fall River Historical Society. "Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks, when she saw what she had done she gave her father forty-one." Borden was ultimately acquitted of the murders. Lizzie Borden is one of the most famous Fall River natives, because of the alleged murders.

In 1920 the population of Fall River peaked at 120,485.^[1]

North Main Street in c. 1910

First Cotton Mill, built in 1811

Printing Works in c. 1920

[edit] LNG in Fall River

In 2002, Fall River was controversially tapped as the location for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank. Weaver's Cove Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Hess Corporation, proposed building this facility in a densely populated neighborhood (approximately 10,000 people live within a one-mile radius of the proposed site). A major concern of residents was that no facility of this sort has ever been built in an inner city before, and that LNG has a mixed safety track record.^[2]

In spite of the protests, the plan was recently approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Local citizens and politicians, notably Richard Clarke, the former "terror czar" advisor to former president George H. W. Bush , have attempted to derail the project since FERC's approval.^[3]

The Coast Guard, through its Southcoast Commander, Captain Ray Nash, determined in October 2007 that the LNG facility proposed for Weaver's Cove not be constructed, citing problems with navigating large tankers through and around the Brightman Street Bridge.

[edit] Geography

Fall River is located at 41°41′53″N, 71°8′49″W (41.698102, -71.146994).^[4]

View of Bay in 1905

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 38.2 square miles (99.0 km²), of which, 31.0 square miles (80.3 km²) of it is land and 7.2 square miles (18.6 km²) of it (18.84%) is water.

The city lies on the eastern border of Mount Hope Bay, which begins at the mouth of the Taunton River starting south from the Charles M. Braga, Jr. Bridge. The greater portion of the city is built on hillsides rising quite abruptly from the water's edge to a height of more than 150 feet (46 m). From the summits of these hills the country extends back in a comparatively level table-land, on which a large section of the city now stands.

Two miles (3 km) eastward from the shore lies a chain of deep and narrow ponds, eight miles long (13 km), with an average width of three-quarters of a mile, and covering an area of 3,500 acres (14 km²). These ponds are supplied by springs and brooks, draining a water-shed of 20,000 acres (80 km²). The northern pond is the North Watuppa Pond, the city's main reservoir. The southern pond is the South Watuppa Pond. Where the two ponds meet is called the "The Narrows." East of the North Watuppa Pond is the Watuppa Reservation that includes several thousand acres of forest-land for water supply protection that extends north into the Freetown-Fall River State Forest, and east to Copicut Reservoir. Copicut Pond is located on the border of Dartmouth in North Dartmouth's Hixville section that borders Fall River. The Quequechan River breaks out of its bed in the west part of the South Watuppa Pond, just west of The Narrows, and flows through the city (partially underground in conduits) where it falls to a channel leading to what is now Heritage State Park at Battleship Cove on the Taunton River. The Quequechan River originally flowed unconfined over an almost level course for more than a mile. In the last half-mile (800 m) of its progress it rushes down the hillside in a narrow, precipitous, rocky channel, creating the falls for which Fall River is named. In this distance the total fall is about 132 feet (40 m). and the volume of water 122 cubic feet per second (3.5 m³/s).

Granite Mills in 1908

Originally an attractive feature of the landscape, the Quequechan has seldom been visible since it was covered over by cotton mills and the Bay Colony Railroad line in the 19th century. As the Quequechan become an underground feature of the industrial landscape, it also became a sewer. In the 20th century the mills were abandoned and some of them burned, exposing the falls once more. Because of highway construction in the 1960s, the waterfalls were buried under Interstate 195, which crosses the Taunton River at Battleship Cove.

Plans exist to "daylight" the falls, restore or re-create them, and build a green belt with a bicycle path along the Quequechan River. In the south end, Cook Pond, also formerly known as Laurel Lake, is located east of the Taunton River and west of the South Watuppa Pond. Between the area of modern day Cook and South Watuppa Ponds, east of the Taunton River and north of Tiverton, Rhode Island, was once referred to as "Pocasset Swamp" during King Philip's War in 1675–1676.

[edit] Demographics

According to the United States Census of 2000, the population of Fall River is 91,938. The largest racial groups within the city were 91.2% (83,815) White, 2.5% (2,283) African American, 2.2% (1,987) Asian and 0.2% (172) Native American. 47% (43,253) of the population described themselves as being of Portuguese ancestry. The next largest groups by ancestry are French 13.4% (12,343), Irish 9.8% (9,029), English 6.6% (6,085), French Canadian 5.9% (5,458), Italian 3.6% (3,293) and Polish 3.4% (3,148). ^[5]

Fall River and surrounding communities form a part of the Providence metropolitan area, which has an estimated population of 1,622,520.

In percentage terms Fall River has the largest Portuguese American population in the United States. However the exact percentage of the population they make up is disputed. A 2005 study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has given it at 49.6% ^[6] while other sources give it as 43.9% ^[7].

The city has 38,759 households and 23,558 families. The population density was 2,963.7 people per square mile (1,144.3/km²). There were 41,857 housing units at an average density of 1,349.3/sq mi (521.0/km²). Of the 38,759 households 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.3% were married couples living together, 16.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.2% were non-families. 34.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.32 and the average family size was 3.00.

In terms of age the population was spread out with 24.1% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 87.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,014, and the median income for a family was $37,671. Males had a median income of $31,330 versus $22,883 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,118. About 14.0% of families and 17.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.4% of those under age 18 and 17.4% of those age 65 or over.^[8]

[edit] Government

[edit] State and federal representation

Fall River is represented by three separate Massachusetts House of Representatives districts (one of which represents the majority of the city) and is represented by David B. Sullivan (6th Bristol), Kevin Aguiar (7th Bristol), and Michael J. Rodrigues (8th Bristol). The city is represented in the state senate in the First Bristol and Plymouth district, which includes the city and the towns of Freetown, Lakeville, Rochester, Somerset and Swansea.

Fall River is patrolled by the Third Barracks of Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police, based out of Dartmouth.

On the national level, the city is divided between Massachusetts Congressional Districts 3 and 4, which are represented by Jim McGovern and Barney Frank, respectively. The state's senior (Class I) Senator, re-elected in 2006, is Ted Kennedy, and the state's junior (Class II) Senator, up for re-election in 2008, is John Kerry.

[edit] City government and services

Fall River Superior Court in 1905

The city is led by the mayor-council form of government, and the current mayor is Robert Correia.

The city's police department is consolidated into a large central police station. There are six fire stations located around the city. The Fire Headquarters is located on Commerce Drive, just across from the former Fall River Municipal Airport. There are four post offices in the city, located in Flint Village, the South End Branch (near Globe Corners), Highland Station and the central branch just behind Government Center, a post office modeled after the New York City main post office behind Penn Plaza. The city is also home to a Superior Court, a District Court and the new Bristol County Court House, located in the former B.M.C. Durfee High School building on Rock Street. A new District Court is under construction on South Main Street.

[edit] Education

[edit] Public schools

Durfee High School in c. 1920

There are 21 elementary schools in the Fall River public school system, which are grouped by the four middle schools they feed into: Matthew J. Kuss Middle School (serving the center of the city), Henry Lord Middle School (serving the South End), James Morton Middle School (serving the North End), and Edmond P. Talbot Middle School (serving the east side of the city).

The city has one public high school, B.M.C. Durfee High School. The school was founded in 1887, its original grand school building being a gift of Mrs. Mary B. Young, in the name of Bradford Matthew Chaloner Durfee, her late son, whose name also graces a dormitory at Yale University. The current school building was opened in 1978, and it was recently announced that a replica of the Durfee Chimes, the original school's red-capped bell tower, will be recreated on the grounds.

Durfee's teams wear black and red (in honor of the old school's black roof and red observatory dome and tower spire), and are called the Hilltoppers, sometimes shortened to Toppers. The nickname dates back to the old school's perch on top of the hill north of the Quequechan River.^{[citation needed]} The school is a member of the Big Three Conference, where it competes with Brockton High School and its longtime natural rival, New Bedford High School.

The Fall River School Department is currently involved in several major building projects, designed to consolidate several of the smaller neighborhood schools and replace older, smaller schools, some of which are close to 100 years old.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Private schools

In addition to public schools, there are several private and parochial schools in the city, including nine Catholic schools, two private schools, a Christian academy, and Atlantis Charter School, a Pre-K through 8 charter school with a marine science-themed curriculum. The city is also home to Bishop Connolly High School, a Catholic high school named for Bishop James L. Connolly, fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Fall River. The city is the home of Diman Regional Vocational-Technical High School, which also serves the towns of Somerset, Swansea, and Westport. Famous chef Emeril Lagasse graduated from this high school, in the Culinary Arts Program that is still run today. The school's roots date back to the days of the Durfee Textile School, which branched out to include Diman. (The college, founded to promote the city's textile sciences, is now a part of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.)

[edit] Transportation

The Fall River skyline, as seen from Somerset.

Fall River has always been considered a transportation hub for the South Coast and Mount Hope Bay areas, due to its location along the Taunton River. In addition to the Fall River Line (discussed in the "History" section), Slade's Ferry ran from Fall River to Somerset since the 1600s, connecting the two communities. In 1875, Slade's Ferry Bridge was opened, connecting the two cities for trolley lines as well as cart (and later, car) traffic. It was a two-tiered steel swing span bridge, extending over 1,100 feet from Remington Avenue to the intersection of Wilbur Avenue, Riverside Avenue and Brayton Avenue in Somerset. This bridge was in use until 1970, when it was closed and subsequently demolished. (The path of the bridge is now marked by twin sets of power lines crossing the river.) In 1903, the state authorized a second bridge, the Brightman Street Bridge, a four lane, 922-foot long drawbridge ending at its namesake street, which opened in 1908 and is still standing today. The third bridge to span the river in Fall River was the Charles S. Braga, Jr. Memorial Bridge. Started in 1959 and opened in the spring of 1966, the six-lane cantilever truss highway bridge spans 1.2 miles and was part of the project to build Interstate 195.

In the late 1980s, problems were beginning to arise with the Brightman Street Bridge. Currently 100 years old, it is often closed for repairs, which puts much strain on local traffic, forced to take long detours across the nearby Braga Bridge. In 1983 plans were being made to build a new bridge 1,500 feet north of the current one, which would directly link with Route 138. Plans were put on hold in 1989 due to Coast Guard concerns, but construction of the new span began in the late 1990's and continues today despite numerous delays and controversy. A new avenue to link the bridge and Route 6 in Somerset has already begun construction a few yards inland. As of yet, no name for the bridge has been decided upon.

[edit] Major highways

Interstate 195 is now the main point of entry for the city, entering via the Braga Bridge from Somerset and leaving over "The Narrows," a small strip of land between the North and South Watuppa Ponds that carries Interstate 195, Route 6 and Old Bedford Road into Fall River from Westport as the roads make their way east towards New Bedford and Cape Cod. The highway covers much of the old path parallel to the Bay Colony/New Bedford Cape Cod Railroad as well the original path of the Quequechan River, and has resulted in a unique situation—it is one of the few highways in the country with a city hall (officially known as "Fall River Government Center") standing directly on top of it. The tunnel which passes below Government Center was the site of an accident in March of 1999, in which a cement ceiling tile, its supports worn away by poor drainage, collapsed, landed on several cars but not causing more than minor injuries. The incident caused major traffic problems in the area, and bears a striking resemblance to the incident involving the I-90 tunnel collapse (a part of the Big Dig) in 2006.

In addition to Interstate 195, Fall River is also served by four other major routes, which include Route 6 (which passes over the Brightman Street Bridge going west before joining the city grid then continuing east into Westport); Route 24, a 2 Lane North/South divided highway linking Fall River to Boston and Newport; Route 79, another divided highway that begins at the Braga Bridge and continues northbound to Route 24; Route 138, which also enters the city via the Brightman Street Bridge before joining the city grid, passing southwards towards Aquidneck Island; and Route 81, which begins near the former site of the Quequechan River and travels south into Tiverton. Additionally, Route 177 clips the extreme southern part of the city for less than 0.25 mile between Westport and Tiverton. Route 138, Route 24, I-195, and US 6 are based upon old Indian routes and trails.

[edit] Rail

The Fall River State Pier is still in operation, bringing goods into the city via boat and also by a freight train line which travels north from the pier parallel to Route 79. Plans are in the works to add commuter service along the current Stoughton Line of the MBTA's commuter rail line. This line would also connect New Bedford with the line...Governor Patrick has committed 18 million dollars to the continued study of the project..an environmental impact statement is set to be completed in 2008..at that time a route will be selected, with construction set to start in 2012, with a target date for service to start in 2016..the price tag is 1.4 billion dollars..

[edit] Bus

The city, along with New Bedford, shares ownership of the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SRTA), a bus line which covers much of the south coast. Its hub and accompanying bus station is currently at the rear of South Main Place on Second Street, but plans are in the works to move it, with South Main Place destined to become the site of the new district courthouse (replacing the old one at the corner of Rock and Bedford Streets).

[edit] Air

Until approximately 1990, the Fall River Municipal Airport served as a general aviation airport for small planes and commuter flights to the Cape and Islands just north of the junction of Routes 79 and 24, but the airport has since closed, the land claimed for an industrial park.

[edit] Sport

[edit] Soccer

Fall River has a rich soccer history. The game was first introduced to the city in the 1880s by the arrival of immigrants from Lancashire and Glasgow who worked in the local textile industry. In later decades the arrival of immigrants from Portugal helped to sustain the games popularity. Between 1888 and 1892 teams from Fall River won the American Cup five times in succession. One of these teams, Fall River Rovers also won the National Challenge Cup in 1917. The star and captain of the team was local-born Thomas Swords who in 1916 also captained the United States in their first official international. During the 1920s and early 1930s Fall River Marksmen were one were one of the most successful soccer clubs in the United States and were American soccer champions on seven occasions. In 1932 another club, Fall River F.C., were also champions. The Marksmen also won the National Challenge Cup four times. Among their most notable players were Billy Gonsalves and Bert Patenaude who were both raised in Fall River. In 1930 they both played for the United States at the first ever soccer World Cup. Patenaude is also credited with scoring the first ever hat-trick at a World Cup. During the 1940s Ponta Delgada S.C. became one the most successful amateur teams in the United States. In 1947 the team was even selected en-masse to represent the United States at the North American football championship. In 1950 two of their local born players, Ed Souza and John Souza, also played at the World Cup and helped the United States defeat England 1-0 ^[9].

[edit] Points of interest

The First Congregational Church
Battleship Cove The world's largest historic naval ship exhibit
Freetown-Fall River State Forest
Fall River Historical Society
Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast
Kennedy (formerly South), North and Ruggles Parks, all designed by Frederick Law Olmsted

[edit] People from Fall River

see Cat:People from Fall River, Massachusetts

[edit] References

^ US Census. 1940 Population Reports. p. 32
^ BBC NEWS | Africa | Algeria blast shatters gas plant
^ Three rip plan for Fall River LNG site - The Boston Globe
^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
^ General Demographic Characteristics for Fall River
^ University of Massachusetts Dartmouth pg. 8
^ www.epodunk.com
^ General Demographic Characteristics for Fall River
^ Soccer in a Football World - The Story of America’s Forgotten Game (2006) : David Wangerin [1]

Images of America: Fall River by: Rob Lewis (Introduction History Pages 7 and 8)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Fall River, Massachusetts

Fall River, MA Official Website
Battleship Cove Website
- Fall River Chronicles : Volume I
- Fall River Chronicles : Volume II
- Fall River Chronicles : Volume III
The First Congregational Church of Fall River
Preservation Society of Fall River
SouthCoastToday.com/FallRiver - local news and city information for Fall River, MA
Wall & Gray. 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts. Map of Massachusetts. USA. New England. Counties - Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex and Norfolk, Boston - Suffolk,Plymouth, Bristol, Barnstable and Dukes (Cape Cod). Cities - Springfield, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Newburyport, Salem, Lynn, Taunton, Fall River. New Bedford. These 1871 maps of the Counties and Cities are useful to see the roads and rail lines.
Beers,D.G. 1872 Atlas of Essex County Map of Massachusetts Plate 5. Click on the map for a very large image. Also see detailed map of 1872 Essex County Plate 7.

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Bristol County, Massachusetts

County seat: Taunton

Cities	Attleboro \| Fall River \| New Bedford \| Taunton

Towns	Acushnet \| Berkley \| Dartmouth \| Dighton \| Easton \| Fairhaven \| Freetown \| Mansfield \| North Attleborough \| Norton \| Raynham \| Rehoboth \| Seekonk \| Somerset \| Swansea \| Westport

CDPs	Acushnet Center \| Bliss Corner \| Mansfield Center \| North Attleborough Center \| North Seekonk \| North Westport \| Norton Center \| Ocean Grove \| Raynham Center \| Smith Mills

Villages	Assonet \| East Freetown \| Padanaram \| South Attleboro