Fall River, Massachusetts
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Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 91,938 at the 2000 census. The current mayor of Fall River is Edward M. Lambert Jr. The city's motto is "We'll Try."
The city is home to Battleship Cove, the world's largest collection of World War II naval vessels, which houses the USS Massachusetts, the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., and the submarine USS Lionfish. The Fall River high school is named B.M.C. Durfee High School, named after a descendant of Colonel Joseph Durfee, founder of the first cotton mill in the city.
Along with New Bedford, Fall River is considered one of the two most important cities along Massachusetts' South Coast area.
History
Fall River was first settled in 1670 and was officially incorporated in 1812. It was formerly a part of Freetown, Massachusetts until 1803, at which time it was incorporated as the Town of Troy. The name was officially changed to Fall River in 1834.There is no river called "Fall River" in English. The river to which the name refers is called the Quequechan River, a Wampanoag name believed to mean "Falling Water", after the falls that once were visible on the river.
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 Revolutionary War in America, the townspeople put up a strong defense against a British force.
From the 1870s until the 1920s, Fall River was the largest center in the United States for the manufacture of cotton textiles. The industrial history of Fall River began in 1811 when Colonel Joseph Durfee and several investors built the first cotton mill. Two years later the Troy Mill, the first of the great granite structures at the foot of the Quequechan River, was built and Fall River's cotton spinning era had begun in earnest. After a decade of building, Fall River and the surrounding town's populations began to increase steadily. By 1830, the town had seven textile mills, a steamboat to Providence and Newport, a newspaper, and a population of 4,159. This growing trend continued and, by 1872, eighteen new mills and fifteen new corporations were started as Fall River went on to become one of the textile capitals of the nation.
The pay roll 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 US gal (652 m³); and starch, 1,981,000 lb (899,000 kg). To run the mills, I I water-wheels were in operation, of a total of 1,555 horsepower (1160 kW), and 106 steam-engines of 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 travellers from Boston to New York. The Fall River Line Pier is maintained today along with the Fall River Marine Museum so that visitors can see and relive the glory of that era.
On August 4, 1892, Fall River was the scene of the murder allegedly committed by Lizzie Borden, remembered in a nursery rhyme. Borden was ultimately acquitted of this charge.
Problems in Fall River
In 2002, Fall River was controversially tapped as the location for a giant liquified natural gas (LNG) tank. Weaver's Cove Energy, LLC., a subsidiary of [Amerada Hess], proposed building this facility in a densely populated neighborhood (approximately 10,000 people live within a one-mile radius of the proposed site). They have also stated that no facility of this sort has ever been built in an inner city before, and that LNG has a mixed track record [link] It is also highly explosive.
In spite of the protests, the plan was recently approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Local citizens [link] and politicians, notably Richard Clarke, the former "terror czar" advisor to former president George H. W. Bush [link]have attempted to derail the project since FERC's approval - to no avail thus far.
Along with its neighbor, New Bedford, Fall River has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection in the United States that is directly attributed to the use of unsterilized needles that are used to inject illicit drugs, such as heroin. [link] According to several statistics, only one out of four people who are HIV-positive got infected from an unsterile needle; this accounts for 58 percent of HIV-positive Fall River residents.
Probably not coincidentally, Fall River has one of the highest heroin abuse rates in the state of Massachusetts, and the vast majority of the crime there is drug-related. The city has received financial aid from the state to assist its drug-prevention programs on many occasions; however, drug use continues to be a problem. Fall River also has a lot of residents who are from Cape Verde, which is located just outside sub-Saharan Africa, the area which has the most HIV/AIDS cases worldwide - this may also be a contributing factor.
The public school system in Fall River has experienced academic difficulties, similar to those of other large urban communities in Massachusetts, and the entire United States as a whole. However, B.M.C. Durfee High School, the city's only public high school, has shown some satisfactory progress. It was removed from probation and granted full accreditation by the NEASC in January 2006.
Geography
Fall River is located at (41.698102, -71.146994)[Geographic references#1GR1].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 99.0 km² (38.2 mi²). 80.3 km² (31.0 mi²) of it is land and 18.6 km² (7.2 mi²) of it (18.84%) is water.
The city lies on the eastern border of Mount Hope Bay, at the mouth of the Taunton River, and the greater portion 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), of 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 southernmost one, South Watuppa Pond, breaks out of its bed through the Quequechan river and falls to a channel leading to what is now Battleship Cove on the Taunton River. The Quequechan 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).
This originally attractive feature of the landscape has seldom been visible since it was covered over by cotton mills in the 19th century. Having become an underground feature of the industrial landcape, it also became a sewer. In the 20th century the mills were abandoned and some of them burned, exposing the falls once more. Subsequently they went under Route 195, which crosses the Taunton at Battleship Cove. Currently the citizens of Fall River are enthusiastically working on a project to "daylight" the falls, restore or recreate them, and build a green belt with a bicycle path along the Quequechan River.
Demographics
As of the census[Geographic references#2GR2] of 2000, there were 91,938 people, 38,759 households, and 23,565 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,144.3/km² (2,963.7/mi²). There were 41,857 housing units at an average density of 521.0/km² (1,349.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.16% White, 2.48% African American, 0.19% Native American, 2.16% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.43% from other races, and 2.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.31% of the population.
Fall River hosts one of the biggest Portuguese-speaking communities in the US. In 2000, 43.9% of Fall River residents identified as being of Portuguese heritage. This is the highest percentage of Portuguese Americans in the country. Most of the population claims to be of Azorean origin, many from São Miguel Island. There are smaller, but significant presences of other Portuguese-speaking communities, such as other Azorean Islanders, Portuguese from mainland Portugal, Madeirans, Cape Verdeans, Brazilians, Angolans, etc. Other ethnic communities of Fall River include a significant French Canadian (Québécois) descendent population, and also English, Polish, Italians, Lebanese, Irish, Greeks, Jews, Cambodians, and Chinese.
There were 38,759 households out of which 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 the city 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.
Notable natives
- Lizzie Borden - famous accused axe murderer, acquitted in the so-called "Trial of the Century" in 1893
- Emeril Lagasse - chef, TV personality
- Cornelius Newton Bliss - 21st Secretary of the Interior, born in the city
- Jerry Remy - former MLB second baseman, played for the California Angels and Boston Red Sox, for whom he is now a color commentator for television broadcasts, born in the city
- Greg Gagne - former MLB shortstop, most notably started for the 1987 and 1991 world champion Minnesota Twins, born in the city
- Morton Dean - ABC News correspondent
- E.J. Dionne - syndicated columnist for Washington Post
- John Moriarty (Conductor) - vocal coach, author, conductor, opera director
- Henry Joseph Nasiff Jr. - TV and radio personality (Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf on Howard Stern)
- Bert Patenaude - US soccer player, first scorer of a hat-trick in a World Cup
- Joe Raposo, Jr. - famous composer of Sesame Street songs
- George Stephanopoulos - TV Personality, President Bill Clinton's communications director
- Humberto Sousa Cardinal Medeiros - Archbishop of Boston
External links
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