ProJo: Neighborhood of the Week: Thornton is not a run-of-the-mill place

Neighborhood created around 19th-century mills is unlike the rural and suburban feel of much of Johnston.

JOHNSTON, R.I. — The water tower that once served the Pocasset Worsted Mill still looms over the tightly-packed duplexes of Thornton, though its top has been sheared off and cellular transmitter cables crawl up the sides like vines.

The old woolen mill was converted into luxury apartments several years ago, but its legacy and those of the former textile mills along the Pocasset River off Plainfield Street still differentiate this dense area of town from the rural and suburban feel of much of Johnston.

West of Atwood Avenue, another cluster of tightly packed homes surrounds two other late-19th-century mills. Initially called Simmons Lower Village, this section of Thornton also goes by the informal name of Frog City.

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