Virtual Road Trip - US Route 1 - Part 6

Foxborough, or Foxboro as it is sometimes called, is the home to the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution, NFL and MLS teams respectively. They both play at the Gillette Stadium which is located just off Route 1, in fact you can see it from the road...

The town was first settled in 1704 and incorporated in 1778, it was named after Charles James Fox, a member of the British parliament, but a strong supporter of the colonies for many years prior to the American Revolution.

Foxborough once boasted the world's largest straw hat factory, now there's a claim to fame! Another claim to fame is that the former president of Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu, who presided over Vietnam from 1967 to 1975, spent his final years in Foxborough before dying in 2001.

Plainville is the third youngest town in the state of Massachusetts, it was incorporated in 1905, being beaten by only Millville(1916) and East Brookfield(1920). It was named Plainville due to the abundance of geographical plains in the area.

The author of one of my grandchildren's favourite book series, Jeff Kinney, opened a café and bookstore in Plainville in 2015. He is the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series of books.

The area was first settled in 1669, and in 1670 it had it's first tavern. Despite homes in the area being burnt in a war with the indigenous people, known as King Philip's War, the tavern stood undamaged. It was later used by George Washington on his march to Boston.

Attleboro contains the settlements of North Attleborough and South Attleboro, the "ugh" was dropped from Attleborough in 1914, when the town became a city. Although North Attleborough decided to keep their name intact. The city is named after the town of Attleborough in Norfolk, in the United Kingdom.

The name of Pawtucket comes from the Algonquian word for "river falls". Prior to the immigration of Europeans, the area around Pawtucket, and in particular the falls on the river, was one of the most populated in what is now New England. Indigenous folk would catch salmon and other smaller fish on the falls.

By the 1920's Pawtucket was a prosperous town with mills and factories involved in the textile industry. Although milling has declined there are many industrial businesses in the town including Hasbro, one of the world's largest manufacturers of toys and games.

I'm not sure where the route goes here, signs are a bit haphazard. Route 1 either joins up with I-95 again, or it goes through downtown. Anyway, here's a view in the downtown area...

And so we come to Providence, state capital of Rhode Island, and it's largest city. One of the oldest cities in New England, Providence was founded in 1636 by a Reformed Baptist, Roger Williams, who named it in honour of "God's merciful Providence".

Despite being a prosperous city at the turn of the 20th century, Providence's industry declined in the 1920's and it was deeply affected by the Great Depression of the '30s. In the late '70s and early '80s, massive investment in the city brought about change and an upsurge in prosperity. Many new companies came to the town, however despite this just over 20% of the population still lives below the poverty line.

Providence has the most coffee and doughnut shops per capita of any city in the country. The city has also gained a reputation as one of the most active gay communities in the north east United States.

As you can probably imagine, Providence has it's fair share of notable people, there are too many to mention here but they include cult science-fiction writer, H P Lovecraft, composer Bill Conti, famous for the music of the Rocky and Karate Kid movie franchises, and serial killer Stephen Morin, executed in Texas for the murders of at least forty women and girls in the 1970s.

The town of Cranston was created in 1754 and was originally called Pawtuxet after the river of the same name. Cranston, however, is thought to have been named after one of two people, Samuel Cranston, Rhode Island's longest serving governor, or his grandson Thomas Cranston who was speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives at the time of the town's greation.

Route 1 just skirts the edge of Cranston, and as such there isn't a lot to see. Cranston is however the site of the first automobile racetrack in the United States. It was situated on a harness horse racing track on what is now Cranston Stadium. The first race was held in 1896 and the winning car was a Riker, an electric car that completed five laps on the one-mile track in a few seconds over 15 minutes. The last race was held in 1923, at a time when the bleachers were deemed unsafe, the track closed following a fire in 1924.

According to the show's creator, Quahog, the fictional city in the TV show Family Guy, is modelled on Cranston.

Warwick takes it's name from Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick, who in 1643, helped the founder of the town, Samuel Gordon, in attaining a Royal Charter from England's King following a dispute over land rights for the area.

Much like Cranston, Warwick is only skirted by Route 1, although on the opposite side to Cranston, this leaves us with little to see apart from a myriad of car sales lots, fast food restaurants, and business premises, interspersed with the odd residential building.

There is an opportunity for some signs though...

East Greenwich was called just Greenwich when it was first settled in 1677. It was named after Greenwich in England, you know, the one that's famous for it's "mean time". In 1686 it was renamed Dedford but reverted to it's original name just three years later. By 1741, the town had grown enough to be split into East and West Greenwich.

East Greenwich is the wealthiest town in Rhode Island, although this wasn't always the case. In the 19th century the area attracted many immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia as well as many free former slaves. They lived in a neighbourhood that became known as Scalloptown, due to the main industry of scallop fishing. The area became a "shanty town" and in 1913 was condemned as uninhabitable. Most of the area was destroyed in 1923.

The waterfront that was the site of Scalloptown, is now a vibrant waterfront with restaurants, bars, and clubs. There is a dock, and marina with an abundance of boat mooring facilities.

Like East Greenwich, North Kingstown originally began as just Kingstown, although back in 1674 when it was founded, it was called Kings Towne. The town was split into North and South Kingstown in 1723. In 2024, the National Park Service announced that the city was to become a World War II Heritage City.

The town of North Kingstown was home to a large naval airbase until it closed in 1974, Quonset Point Naval Air Base gave it's name to the ubiquitous Quonset Hut, a semi-circular pre-fabricated structure made of corrugated steel similar to a Nissen Hut built by the British in World War 1.

Like the entry immediately above this one, South Kingstown started out as just Kingstown. The town was the site of a battle in1675 between the indigenous people and the New England militia. It was called the Great Swamp Fight.

Unfortunately, Route 1 only runs along the edge of South Kingstown, there is nothing really to see, the road is dualled and is somewhat boring. But I suppose that gets us on our way to the south quicker, always a silver lining to be found!

The road continues in the same vein for a few miles, bypassing Charlestown and the wonderfully named Quonochontaug, where the family of Fox Mulder, he of X-files fame, had a holiday home, purely fictional of course. The road continues until we come to...

Westerly by name, and westerly by nature, this town sits on the edge of Rhode Island, on the border with our next state. It was so named due to it's location at the westerly end of what was then The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

There were several granite quarries in Westerly until the 1950's. Granite from the area was used in many buildings along the eastern seaboard including the Georgian State Capitol, and many headstones in various cemeteries.

As we start heading out of Westerly, we pass a well maintained War Memorial, just a few hundred yards from the bridge over the river and into...

Just over the Pawcatuck River we arrive in Pawcatuck, a village that is considered part of the town of Stonington, although that is a few miles away and just off Route 1.

There are some very nice properties in Pawcatuck, but I'm very disappointed not to see any humorous signs or novelties, it seems the folk of the village may be either too nice, or too boring! Sorry Pawcatuck, it's nothing personal, but you just didn't do it for me.

Not much can be said about Vargas Corner, it's a village that surrounds a road junction. There's a Shell fuel stop, a few houses and not a lot more. Wikipedia doesn't even have an entry for it. Although, according to the Stonington Historical Society, the hamlet is named after the Vargas family that settled there and had an ice business. The Vargas name comes from the Azores, an island archipelago that is part of Portugal.

There really isn't anything mystic about Mystic, it derives it's name from the Pequot term "missi-tuk" which describes a large river with waters that are driven into waves by tides.

Mystic Seaport, founded in 1929, is not only one of the nations best maritime museums, but is renowned as one of the best world-wide. It has over 500 watercraft exhibits, a working restoration shipyard, a replica fishing village, and many items of maritime art.

Groton was established in 1705 and is named after the small village of Groton in Suffolk, England. The land around Groton was poor but the access to waterways and the sea made up for it. Shipbuilding and trade became the mainstay of the town bringing prosperity.

After the War of 1812, Groton became a major whaling centre, although seal skins were still a big part of the trade. With the discovery of gold in California, Groton's shipyards turned to manufacturing clipper ships. From 1915, submarines started to be based at the Naval base, they are still located in Groton today. The world's first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, can be seen at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton.

Just after the above hotel, Route 1 joins I-95 again for a short spell over the Thames River, not the one in London, England but the one between Groton and New London. I thought this would make a convenient stopover point in our series.

The reviews on Tripadvisor for this hotel are varied, but it's only a one night stay, and I'm not really staying there so it's fine. I've noticed there's an Applebees next door, so I'm off for some food.

Mileage so far...620 + 90 = 710 miles.

According to Google, which incidentally are where all the pictures are from, well their Streetview service anyway, I could have made this trip from Walpole in around 3 hours. It seems longer somehow when you're just clicking a few yards at a time.