Allenton

The village of Allenton, dating back to the middle of the 1800's, formed as the commercial center for the nearby small mill communities of Narragansett Mills and Belleville to its north and Shady Lea and Silver Spring to the south. The community, spread along both sides of the Boston Post Road (now Tower Hill Road) had at its center, the Allenton Baptist Church, an attractive schoolhouse, a post office, a number of shops and stores and numerous boarding houses designed for use by the workers of the nearby textile mills. The village was named after its founder William H. Allen, who opened his general store here, around 1850. The Allen family had owned much of the land in this area since 1775.