Valley Falls was one of several industrial centers in the community, with a mill that operated for over a hundred years until 1834 and helped make Valley Falls the political center of Cumberland. A distinctive neighborhood grew around the mill complex, the 1894 Town Hall, churches, stores, a fire station, and a post office. In its early years, Valley Falls was settled by many ethnic groups, including people of Irish, English, French Canadian, Polish, and Portuguese descent. Some historic company housing still stands there, reflecting the important part these residents played in the cultural and industrial history of Valley Falls, where mill work helped bring them together as a community. The convergence of the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1847 and the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Railroad in 1877 stimulated the growth of local industry, commerce, and population. By 1820, the mill at today’s park site used Blackstone River water power, and later it used the Providence and Worcester Railroad to move raw materials and finished products. Today Valley Falls is a densely populated urban area in the southern part of Cumberland, and its waterpower resources and railroad connections made it an important textile manufacturing center in the 1800s and early 1900s.