Pawtucket

Accessibility, walkability and community engagement are three things that come to Marlena Martins Stachowiak’s mind when she thinks about her hometown of Fairlawn. The city councilor and Re/Max Preferred Realtor says this Pawtucket village is home to “a thriving community of artists and great people who want to use public art to elevate the visual elements of the city.” This is exemplified by the neighborhood’s Lorraine Mills, a former mill building converted into a coworking space for artists, including the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative and Mixed Magic Theatre. In this community, there are nearly as many renters as there are homeowners enjoying convenient proximity to local shops and eateries, Interstate 95 and Downtown Providence, less than 5 miles away. For traditional Colombian fare and custom cakes, locals head to Caprichos Antioquenos Bakery. “When you leave your home country, you always live by nostalgia,” says Alexander Parmenidez, a Colombian real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty, who has been selling homes in Rhode Island for a decade. He speaks fondly of the bakery that’s been in the community for more than 40 years. “The owner sadly passed away a few years ago. He was a pioneer,” Parmenidez adds. La Arepa serves Venezuelan dishes in casual digs, while Shish Kabob is the spot for Persian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Another neighborhood staple is Miss Loraine Diner, a retro train car diner with red leather upholstery and cozy wooden booths. Foolproof Brewing Company is the local watering hole with its wide selection of local lagers, stouts and IPAs. Residents stock up on everyday essentials at Stop & Shop, the International Meat Market and the Walmart in Charles. In the neighborhood’s northeast corner sits a large collection of multifamily homes ranging from large barn-like houses with gambrel roofs to clapboard triple-deckers built in the 19th and 20th centuries. Here, properties are close together with tiny front porches only a couple of steps from the sidewalk. Prices for these homes typically fall between $335,000 and $600,000. Fairlawn’s single-family homes, concentrated on its western side, have more space and yardage, with some front yards stretching to the street in lieu of sidewalks. According to Debbie Gold, a Rhode Island native and Realtor with Coldwell Banker Realty, shotgun ranch-style homes are a quintessential Fairlawn dwelling. These long and narrow single-story houses share the streets with compact Cape Cods, Colonial Revivals and a handful of two-story homes sporting Victorian-inspired turrets. Prices for these properties range from $240,000 to $500,000. The 20-acre Fairlawn Veterans Memorial Park offers more than green space. It’s a community gathering place featuring tennis and basketball courts, ball fields and a playground. The wooded portion provides visitors with a natural escape, and the outdoor pool is a popular spot come summertime. Recently updated, the park now has a fenced Dog Park with obstacles and turf. For indoor recreation and plenty of fun, locals head to the R1 Indoor Karting Center, where they can rock climb, rent batting cages, suit up for paintball or race around in go-karts. Fairlawn is a highly accessible area for commuters traveling to nearby Providence or to Boston, 48 miles away. Residents can head to the new Pawtucket/Central Falls Transit Hub to catch a ride on the commuter rail operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or a Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus. Drivers can take Interstate 95, the area’s primary transportation artery, as well as Route 146. T.F. Green Airport is a 13-mile drive south. Children here can attend Nathanael Greene Elementary. Receiving a C grade from Niche, the school recently underwent a full-scale revitalization. “It’s an iconic building with amazing architecture. Instead of knocking down and rebuilding, they added modern amenities on the inside,” Stachowiak explains. Students can move on to Samuel Slater Middle, also with a C rating. Teens can attend the C-plus-rated Charles E. Shea High or audition for the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing & Visual Arts, given an A-minus from Niche. Nearby private and alternative options include Saint Raphael Academy and Blackstone Academy Charter School.

A sizeable neighborhood on the east side of Pawtucket, Darlington’s development traces the outlines of the history of New England as a whole. “Darlington and everything east of the Blackstone River used to be part of Massachusetts,” says Barbara Zdravesky, the president of the board of the Heritage Alliance of Pawtucket. “It was mostly plains, and it was part of the farming settlement of Rehoboth. Then, the railroad and factories moved in, and the area’s population grew. They named the railroad station after Edwin Darling, a power player in those days, and the name stuck.” Darlington’s past is apparent in the neighborhood’s homes, businesses and parks. Darlington’s patchwork street grid is one facet of its long history, and many of its homes are also a record of that past. Most of its Cape Cod or saltbox-style single-family houses were built in the early 20th century, though many have been renovated. These sell from the low-$200,000s through the mid-$400,000s. Closer to the Ten Mile River are the Countryside and Pinecrest developments, which feature more space and larger houses that cost as much as $650,000. “Once you move into one of those houses, you don’t move again,” Zdravesky says. Multifamily homes, many in Queen Anne-inspired style, cluster the main streets such as Newport Avenue and Armistice Boulevard and are generally for rent rather than purchase. Newport Avenue is the heart of the neighborhood, and businesses line the streets. There are plenty of local restaurants, one of the most popular being Uncle Tony’s Pizza & Pasta. “I’ve been going to Uncle Tony’s for a long time, and it’s a really popular place for locals,” Zdravesky says. “They had kind of outgrown their building, so they recently moved into a bigger place that used to be a car dealership.” Another local favorite is Central Ave Bakery, which has been preparing Portuguese pastries and bread since 1981. For groceries and other essentials, a Stop & Shop is located on the northwest side of the neighborhood. While the city's west side is generally known as the more “artsy” side of town, Darlington hosts its share of art events. Each fall, the Pawtucket Arts Festival takes place across the city, one of the main attractions being the Slater Park Fall Festival. Over three days, artists, vendors, and neighborhood residents gather to celebrate the city, capped off by a fireworks show. In the public school system, Darlington students can attend the recently renovated Potter-Burns Elementary School, which was given a C-plus grade by Niche, followed by Lyman B. Goff Middle School, also rated a C-plus. Tolman Senior High School earned a C grade, or students can audition for admittance to the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing Arts, which received an A-minus. The Catholic private school pipeline is also a strong option for students, with the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade St. Cecilia School and ninth-through-twelfth St. Raphael Academy each graded an A from Niche. Right up against the Ten Mile River on the southeastern side of Darlington is Slater Memorial Park, which features walking and biking trails through the woods, tennis courts and baseball and softball fields. The park’s most historic feature is its Looff Carousel, built in 1895 and moved to Slater Park in 1910. Many holiday celebrations occur in the park, including a Christmas tree lighting ceremony and a haunted trail each fall. Darlington is located on the east side of Pawtucket, snug against the Massachusetts border. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority offers commuter rail from the Pawtucket/Central Falls station for the many residents who commute into Boston. The trip takes about an hour each way. Otherwise, residents generally own cars and will drive to their destinations. It’s a 5-minute drive to downtown Pawtucket and just 15 minutes into Providence.

Sitting on Pawtucket’s southern border, Oak Hill is a neighborhood known for having similar amenities to the trendy East Side of Providence at a lower price point. “We’re the first neighborhood in Pawtucket, so we’re right next to the very desirable East Side,” says David Hasslinger, an Oak Hill resident of 40 years. “It's like East Side light for eds and meds wanting to be close to hospitals and Brown University.” Regardless of profession, Oak Hill provides residents with charming community events, trendy restaurants and quiet, tree-lined streets to call home 5 miles from downtown Providence. Dense residential streets branch from Pawtucket and East avenues, lined by single-family homes mostly built throughout the 20th century in styles ranging from basic bungalows and National gable-fronts to stately Colonial Revival two-stories. Simpler homes with little to no front lawn sitting close to their neighbors sell for $300,000 to $750,000, while homes with higher square footage, creative custom designs and more generous lawns can sell for $800,000 to $1.4 million. Condos in converted single-family homes or multi-family dwellings and townhouse communities sell for $220,000 to $350,000. While width and upkeep vary, sidewalks typically line at least one side of the street throughout the neighborhood, traversing long flat areas and steeper hills. Individual storefronts and strip malls pop up throughout Oak Hill, like the Modern Diner, an iconic breakfast joint known for serving patrons in a Sterling Streamliner which was the first diner ever accepted to the National Register for Historic Places. Down the road, the Blackstone Place shopping plaza houses global cuisines from casual pizzeria standards to Indian favorites. “There are quite a few nice restaurants in the area. Garden Grille is one of the best vegetarian restaurants,” Hasslinger says. For groceries and essentials, locals can stop at CVS or the Vicente’s Market on Pawtucket Avenue. Religious services are held at the Congregation Ohawe Sholam synagogue and several churches standing just outside the neighborhood. On Halloween night, residents gather at the triangle park at Oak Hill and Raleigh avenues to kick off the Halloween Hootenanny Parade. “It’s a great little event, people come from all over and the parents get dressed up,” Hasslinger says. “There’s a marching band that comes in, and the city and the town will bring a firetruck.” Local business sponsors provide gift voucher prizes to the winners of costume contests judged by volunteer organizers. Students can attend Varieur Elementary School which earns a C-plus on Niche, followed by Jenks Middle School which earns a C-minus and Shea High School which earns a C-plus. Outside the classroom, Shea High runs a food pantry during school hours to provide students and their families with pantry staples, combatting food insecurity. To get active, locals can take their toddlers to the playground or hit the basketball and tennis courts at Tom Duffy Recreational Center. Residents often head just south of their neighborhood to Lippitt Park, a wide, grassy community park dotted with shady trees, park benches and a playground and hummingbird garden. “They have one of the best farmers markets on Saturdays from May through October,” Hasslinger says. “There’s a great selection of produce and food, but there’s also crafts and art vendors.” Locals are also looking forward to the completion of the Tidewater Landing Stadium between Taft Street and the Seekonk River, the future home of the Rhode Island FC professional soccer team slated to open in 2025. Commuters have a 5-mile drive down I-95 into downtown Providence, and RIPTA bus routes run along Pawtucket Street and East Avenue. Miriam Hospital is within a mile of Oak Hill, and locals can head 3 miles down East Avenue and Hope Street to reach Brown University. The Pawtucket/Central Falls MBTA commuter rail station is less than a mile from the neighborhood’s northern border, providing an hour-long ride into South Station in Boston.

Aging midcentury houses, medical offices and a waterfront fishing pier are some of the hallmarks of the gritty Pawtucket neighborhood of Beverage Hill-The Plains. This urban area with cracked sidewalks, chain-link fences and a paved walkway along the Seekonk River attracts first-time homebuyers with its relatively low prices and location near major highways. “You get a mixture of single- and multifamily homes, with some commercial buildings as well,” says Rosa Viveiros, an associate with RE/MAX River’s Edge in East Providence who worked with a Pawtucket agency for 30 years. Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island closed in the neighborhood in 2017, and the building still sits there today without a clear path forward. Residential development in the neighborhood happened in the early to mid-20th century. Houses sit right next to each other on small lots. Most homes have driveways, but the roads are wide enough for street parking. Colonials can cost $400,000; bungalows can go for $330,000 and ranch-style houses can cost $350,000. The average home value is $344,419. “Pawtucket has always been a good city for first-time buyers, especially when prices in Massachusetts near the Boston area start to increase. The first thing we see is buyers coming down to Pawtucket,” Viveiros says. For groceries, neighbors have several options. Bravo Supermarket and Price Rite Marketplace are about 2 miles away, and Stop & Shop is about 4 miles south in Providence. Near Stop & Shop, neighbors can shop for essentials at Walmart or head to Home Depot for tools. Along the commercial thoroughfare of Prospect Street, locals start their days with breakfast at Rhody Hen Café, a cozy eatery inside a one-story brick house. For doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, they head to Bachini’s Bakery. The Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket, a community organization focused on empowering children, is in Beverage Hill-The Plains. Kids head to the Boys & Girls Club after school for arts and crafts activities, athletic clubs, college preparation and more. Parents can take advantage of childcare services before and after school, and kids living in Beverage Hill-The Plains can easily walk to the Boys & Girls Club. Kids in Beverage Hill-The Plains can attend school through the Pawtucket School Department, which teaches more than 8,000 students. Kids can begin at Agnes E. Little Elementary School, rated C by Niche. They can then move to Joseph Jenks Middle School, which earns a C-minus, and finish at William E. Tolman Senior High School, which scores a C-plus. Tolman students can participate in clubs for sports media, gaming and reading. Beverage Hill-The Plains hugs the Seekonk River, a waterway formed from the industrial Blackstone River. The Blackstone is famous for powering Slater Mill, the first successful water-powered cotton factory in the U.S. and the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. Neighbors can enjoy the Seekonk at Festival Pier, a public boat ramp and park where people cast their lines over the railing. The park has a paved pathway for walking and several benches for relaxing. On the weekends, kids play baseball games in the neighborhood at Prospect Baseball Fields. Beverage Hill-The Plains sits south of Interstate 95. Pawtucket sits on the Massachusetts border and directly north of East Providence. It takes about 10 minutes to drive from the neighborhood to the Pawtucket/Central Falls train station, where trains run into Boston. Downtown Providence is 6 miles south, and Boston is 46 miles north. The neighborhood’s affordability and easy commuter access make it attractive. Across the Seekonk River, developers are building Tidewater Landing, a commercial project designed to be the second coming of Pawtucket. It includes commercial and residential development spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet and a USL Championship league soccer stadium. In 2020, Pawtucket lost its minor league baseball team, the Pawtucket Red Sox. Bringing in a soccer stadium is a way to fill that void. “Rhode Island in general has a large Portuguese and Hispanic population. Being Portuguese myself, I’m not into sports, but my husband constantly watches soccer,” Viveiros says. “It’s a good place for it because of the population.” Renderings for Tidewater Landing show plans for residences, a splash pad, a beer garden and a farmers’ market.

Woodlawn is where the action is: from hip eateries to the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum, there’s no shortage of creativity and history to dive into. Yvonne Sousa, a Realtor with RISE Real Estate Consultants, points out that this area has always been a hotbed of activity. “Taking its name from the Algonquin word meaning ‘river falls,’ Pawtucket was one of the most populated communities before the arrival of the Europeans. Today, Pawtucket is a bustling town of almost 76,000 people as well as home to some of the state’s most interesting locations.” Between Route 1 to the east and Interstate 95 to the west, there’s a tight grid of homes that make up Woodlawn. Prices can start in the low $300,000s and extend to the mid $500,000s but more generally you’ll find Woodlawn properties in the mid $400,000s. Cape Cods and Victorians are prevalent. For example, look for turn-of-the-century Victorians that spread three bedrooms across 2,300 square feet. Often, period details are preserved, such as original woodwork and built-in shelving. Yards can sometimes be fenced, but this isn’t a completely remote suburban feel – there’s still a bit of an urban edge to Woodlawn. Nathanael Greene Elementary is located next to Fairlawn Veterans Memorial Park, and enrolls around 400 students in grades K-5. The student-teacher ratio is 14 to 1, helping the school to receive a B from Niche in the teachers category. Samuel Slater Middle steps up the student population, with nearly 700 enrolled in grades 6-8. But it’s able to maintain a 14 to 1 student-teacher ratio, and it earned a B from Niche in the teachers category. Shea High is the largest school in the local pipeline, with roughly 950 students in grades 9-12. The school received a B-minus from Niche in the teachers category, and is locally known for its bold Art Deco architecture. For outdoor fun, residents play in Payne Park, a triangular parcel wedged between homes. There are basketball courts, splash pad amenities and playground facilities, plus plenty of grassy space and paths to walk on. You can also hop over to Fairlawn Veterans Memorial Park, a 20-acre space where the community meets to swim, stroll the shaded lawns or play ball of various sorts. Main Street is an entertainment destination, with eateries like 10 Rock Tapas Bar, which serves colorful dishes like flat bread pizza topped with fruits and veggies. After a bite to eat, catch a national music act by heading to The Met, which opened in 1975. For a blast from the past, visit the Electromagnetic Pinball Museum, where you can play some of the most vintage and obscure pinball games ever manufactured. The museum is part of the Creative Commerce Center, an initiative to revitalize Woodlawn. Inside you’ll also find a 5,000 square foot skate park, a yoga studio and Smoke & Squeal, a popular local BBQ business. You can’t miss the bright mural decorating the outside of the building. With a splash of color, Woodlawn has its sights set on growth.