Short answers, pulled from the story.
Samuel Slater built the first water-powered cotton mill in America with construction finished in 1793. The facility used Richard Arkwright's system for carding, drawing, and spinning cotton yarn powered by a dam, waterway, and waterwheel.
Workers at Slater Mill led the first factory strike recorded anywhere in the United States in 1824. Young women organized against the labor conditions established under the Rhode Island System to challenge the prevailing economic model.
Blanche Higgins Schroer helped found the non-profit Old Slater Mill Association in 1921. Her group aimed to save the historic mill from total destruction or neglect before restoration efforts officially began in 1923.
Slater Mill received designation as a National Historic Landmark on the 13th of November 1966. It became the first property listed on the National Register of Historic Places that same year.
The National Park Service acquired the Slater Mill and other key buildings in 2021. This acquisition integrated the site into a broader national park system dedicated to industrial history alongside the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park formed in December 2014.