Discussion about such a museum arose during the city's centennial in 1988 and a designer was selected the following year; the economic recession of the early 1990s delayed funding and completion. The museum was originally slated to occupy the picturesque Falls Yarn Mill (see
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), but as plans evolved the project was moved to this plain brick, flat-roofed, pier-and-spandrel building. A site along the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, the museum organizes exhibitions and programs that focus on Blackstone Valley mill workers and their ethnic and cultural backgrounds.