Arcadia is a mill village without the mill.
During my two afternoons exploring the village’s hilly terrain, admiring the simple elegance of mill workers' housing and the larger, less rectangular homes once occupied by management, no one I talked to could even remember when the mill closed. It seemed they hardly ever thought about it.
Straddling Roaring Brook, a tributary of the Wood River, Arcadia has around 20 houses in the village proper. Sprawling between Exeter and Richmond (and Hopkinton, depending on who you talk to), at least one thing is unmistakable about this former hive of industry: Arcadia is now a rural community.
Many locals in Arcadia keep barns and tall fences, though in February only the horses could be seen roaming outdoors. Perhaps short on barn space, one Arcadian has filled an entire school bus with firewood.
Family compounds are common in Arcadia. At the Middle of Nowhere Diner on Route 3 — one of the closest restaurants, as Arcadia has none — waitress Ginger Williams said she grew up in a trailer house next to Roaring Brook. Now, she lives in a “foreman’s house” up the road that once belonged to her grandmother.
From an outsider’s perspective, the Tomaquag Museum is the main attraction in town. It is Rhode Island’s only museum dedicated to indigenous history and culture.
Lorén Spears, executive director of the museum, grew up in Arcadia. Her mother, Eleanor Dove, ran the museum before her, in addition to the Dovecrest restaurant, which served indigenous cuisine — like succotash and johnnycakes — next door.
Williams’ mother also worked at Dovecrest, though she was not of Narragansett ancestry. The Dovecrest restaurant closed in 1986.
The Tomaquag Museum is full of fascinating cultural materials. A birch canoe that has been in Spears' family for 150 years hangs from the ceiling. The headdress of Chief Strong Horse — at 96, the last living Narragansett subchief — rests in a display case alongside his dance stick and a pair of decorated cuffs that bear his name.
The museum features an exhibit on wampum, an indigenous craft made of shell beads and used for record keeping, diplomacy and ceremonial purposes. Another exhibit showcases a style of basket weaving unique to the tribes of southern New England. Sculptures designed by Spears’ husband, Robin, are on display as part of the museum’s first iteration of an “artist of the month” series.
Spears estimates that only 10 percent of the museum’s collection can be displayed at a given time. She described the Tomaquag Museum as "unusual" because it is a museum where history "is told in the first, not third, person."
Outside of Spears' orbit, it can be hard to track down history in Arcadia. The Ocean State Libraries Catalog lists only two books devoted to the history of Exeter, and neither mentions Arcadia except in passing.
Historical resources on Richmond are more readily available. According to "Driftways Into the Past," a history of Richmond’s villages, James Harris founded the Arcadia Mill, which manufactured "fine white sheeting," in 1836. As the operation grew, Harris and later owners expanded their remote village. In 1870, they built a combination library, store, post office and social hall (since demolished); in 1872, a church (which is now a private residence); and in 1883, a school (also now a private residence).
Unlike many other mill villages, Arcadia's workforce was mostly "native," a word which "Driftways Into the Past" translates to "Swamp Yankee."
In 1918, a new owner repurposed the textile mills as Arcadia Print Works and opened a bleachery nearby. In 1937, fire destroyed the mill complex's industrial structures, which were not rebuilt. The site has since been used as a junkyard and a farm and is now subdivided into backyards. One mill’s foundation is still visible.
Abandoned long ago by their patron industries, Rhode Island's mill villages persist and take on new centers of gravity, new uses for their land, and new demographics. Arcadia the mill village is dead. Arcadia the rural community is alive and well.
Today, the real-estate website Zillow lists two houses for sale in Arcadia: a five-bedroom duplex for $275,000 and a three-bedroom cape for $289,000. Zillow also lists a 4-acre parcel in Arcadia for $149,000, along with an encouraging note: "Awesome opportunity to build dream home."
