[2] The mill towns of Rhode Island were already in decline at the time of the union organizing general strike of textile workers of 1934.

William F. Sayles, the businessman and philanthropist who owned the original bleachery mills in Saylesville donated the funds to build Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in Pawtucket.

The district covers the Saylesville, Fairlawn and Lonsdale villages and the western half of Lincoln Woods State Park.

The mill worker housing on Chapel and Smithfield are about 1/2 single-family structures and 1/2 multi-unit buildings, either 1-1/2 or 2-1/2 stories in height, built out of either wood or brick.

[4] The Saylesville Meetinghouse, an active Friends worship group built in 1703, is on Great Road beyond the end of Chapel Street, and is not part of the historic district.