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

Located along the eastern shore of Mount Hope Bay at the mouth of the Taunton River, the City became famous during the 19th century as the leading textile manufacturing center in the United States. While the texile industry has long since moved on (first to the...

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

Located along the eastern shore of Mount Hope Bay at the mouth of the Taunton River, the City became famous during the 19th century as the leading textile manufacturing center in the United States. While the texile industry has long since moved on (first to the South, and now overseas), its impact on the City's culture and landscape remains to this day.

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, and later acquitted of the 1892 double axe-murder that occurred at her home on Second Street in the city. Fall River is also known for Battleship Cove, the world's largest collection of World War II naval Ship. It is also the only city in the United States to have its government center located over an interstate highway.

History


=Early=

At the time of the establishment of the Plymouth Colony in 1620, the area what would one day become the City of Fall River was inhabited by the Pokanoket Wampanoag tribe, headquartered at Mount Hope in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. The'falling'river that the name Fall River refers to is the Quequechan River (pronounced'Quick-a-shan'by locals) which flows through the city, dropping steeply into the bay. Quequechan is a Wampanoag word believed to mean'Falling River'or'Leaping/Falling Waters. '

In 1653, Freetown, Massachusetts was settled at Assonet Bay by members of the Plymouth Colony, as part of Freeman's Purchase, which included the northern part of what is now Fall River. In 1683 Freetown, Massachusetts was incorporated as a town within the colony. The southern part of what is now Fall River was incorporated as the town of Tiverton as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1694, a few years after the merger with Plymouth Colony. In 1746, in the settlement of a colonial boundary dispute between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Tiverton, Rhode Island was annexed to Rhode Island, along with Little Compton and what is now Bristol County, Rhode Island. The boundary was then placed approximately at what is now Columbia Street.