Free for Me Week at Slater Mill

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Slater Mill Museum and its "Free for Me" program sponsor Amica are inviting school children to visit Slater Mill for free during spring vacation the week of April 16-20. When a child comes to Slater Mill accompanied by an adult, the child gets in free. Adults pay the regular admission fare, and the limit is one child per adult.

Regular admission rates are $12 for adults, $8.50 for children age 6-12, $10 for seniors, and free for children younger than six.

For more information about hours of operation, programs and events, or to schedule a private tour, visit www.slatermill.org.

Tours include Slater Mill, Wilkinson Mill and the Sylvanus Brown House. Each building is a national historic landmark and visiting children and parents have an opportunity to see and learn about many subjects of the past, including what life was like in a pre-industrial, agrarian America.

According to a news release, children learn about innovation, the entrepreneurial spirit, immigration, espionage, hydropower, unions and child labor.

Staff say young people visiting Slater Mill cannot help but relate when they learn how 6-year-olds once worked at highly specialized, often dangerous tasks in the mills from dawn to dusk, between 10 and 14 hours daily, with just 30 minutes off for lunch, six days every week. They watch the 16,000-pound waterwheel catch water shunted from the Blackstone River, the power generated turning gears that drive leather belts which connect to machine tools.

Slater Mill Museum is located on the Blackstone River at 67 Roosevelt Ave. in Pawtucket.