Plummer's Landing

In 1836 Israel Plummer built a store beside a boat basin and dock here, the midpoint of the canal journey between Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. Retail products sold at Plummer's store included stove parts, tools and hardware, foods, plaster, fuels, and dry goods. Plummer's Landing became an important commercial center that received manufactured goods from the cities and mill villages, and raw materials and agricultural products from the rural countryside. Goods shipped from this basin included textiles, lumber, wood shingles, cut stone, and machinery. After the Blackstone Canal closed in 1848, Plummer opened a depot and shipped goods on the Providence and Worcester Railroad. At the holding basin, canal boats loaded and unloaded goods and waited a turn to pass through nearby Lock No. 26. The fieldstone walls and foundations of the landing remain visible, and the canal lock, constructed of granite cut from local quarries, still exists as the abutment where Church Street crosses over the canal.

Northbridge, Massachusetts · United States