In a former textile city, the people who remember the machines are becoming the historians.
Pawtucket's mills went quiet decades ago, but the rhythm of that industrial life still shapes the city — in the barbershops, diners, and murals that have replaced the factory floor as the place where the community gathers.
Carlos Mendes worked the mills for 22 years before they closed. Today he leads walking tours retracing that history for a city that risks forgetting it. "The machines are gone," he says, "but the sound of them never really left this town."
