I spent the better part of a day traversing the road, stopping at tiny shops and conservation areas and absorbing some fascinating places of historic note along the way. I started up in the North Smithfield village of Slatersville, known as America’s first planned industrial mill village, with its many surviving mill homes and a gorgeous Colonial-era church on Slatersville Green, its white spire jutting into blue sky, all part of an area on the National Register of Historic Places.
Next I cut down into Burrillville, and if you come here, bring your appetite. This is the home of Wright’s Farm Restaurant, which began life as a humble family-style restaurant in 1972 and now seats 1,400, serving chicken and macaroni - and almost nothing else. Also here is the kitschy looking Mr. Doughboy with its chipped-paint neon sign, 2,000-feet of train track around the property (with working train), batting cages, and miniature golf course, all built by its workaholic owner, Robert Sweeney, who before starting this classic roadside restaurant 26 years ago was an optical design engineer.
“I bought a shack that a guy had used to make doughboys down by the lake and then moved it up here,’’ said Sweeney of the fried dough treat dusted with confectioner’s sugar. “The shack’s still out front. We use it for the ticket booth.’’
The place (a refurbished Kentucky Fried Chicken building) has been open daily since 1985, never closing, open even on parts of every holiday, Sweeney said. It attracts a largely local clientele, but also people from as far away as Westerly some 45 miles south. Popular items are its french fries, clam cakes, wieners, fish and chips, and, naturally, doughboys.
Unique history can be found down in Glocester, particularly in the village of Chepachet. It is as pretty as a New England postcard and home to Brown and Hopkins, the country’s oldest continually operating general store, starting life in 1809 and still with its ancient candy counter.
