Burrillville

Burrillville is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The Town is centrally located in southern New England and is an easy commute to Providence, Boston, Worcester and Hartford. This town was named for 19th century United States senator James Burrill, Jr. who was then the Rhode Island Attorney General.
With abundant open space, woodlands, pristine lakes, waterways and glorious scenery, Burrillville has a rich proud history, dating back to America’s Industrial Revolution.

The Town operates with a Town Manager/Town Council form of government with seven elected council members headed by a council president. The Burrillville School District is directed by a seven member School Committee. The Town has three elementary schools, a middle school and one high school.

History of Burrillville
The first European settlers arrived in Burrillville in the late 17th century. For many decades after, and throughout the 18th century, farming was the predominant occupation of the inhabitants, who cleared most of the town’s forested lands for their fields and pastures. Burrillville’s natural features, landscape and waterways have played an important role in the town’s development. During the first half of the 19th century, the town’s larger waterways — the Chepachet, Clear, Pascoag and Branch River system were harnessed to power the textile mills, which formed the nuclei for more than a dozen hamlets and villages. The textile industry remained active into the 20th century, but gradually the mills ceased operating; many were torn down or destroyed by fire and never rebuilt.  Improved transportation facilities, and a changing economy have resulted in most of the townspeople working outside of the town. As a result, it has become a bedroom community. The former mill villages are no longer dependent on the mill fortunes, and most of these settlements survive as lovely and pleasant residential communities.