|
|
West Greenwich, Rhode Island
Population: 3,492
Located in Kent County
West Greenwich was originally the western part (called "Vacant Land Tracts") of the Town of East Greenwich, which was incorporated October 31, 1677. On June 30, 1709, thirteen men purchased 35,000 acres of this land, and a parcel on Hopkins Hill was sold the same year to Theophilus Whale, known as the "regicide judge", who built a house there prior to 1711. The Town of West Greenwich was set off from East Greenwich and incorporated by the General Assembly on April 6, 1741.
West Greenwich boasts the third highest rate of growth in the state, despite the fact that the state of Rhode Island had taken a very large portion of the town for state parks, a college campus, and a reservoir.
The first school in the town was located at Kitts Corner in the Old Kitt Matteson Tavern. Later the town had twelve school districts, each with its one-room school. Today as part of the Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School we have a modern and excellent school system.
Early citizens were farmers and woodsmen. Dairy herds helped provide Providence with fresh milk, which was shipped daily from the railroad station at Summit or Greene. All these farms are now gone. The residents work out of town in most cases. Modern Interstate highways insure rapid transportation to other parts of this and nearby states.
New houses are being built all over the town. Highway businesses thrive. We have a recreation section, with a ski area and ranch where country-type entertainments are offered.
West Greenwich isn't a tightly composed color photograph suitable for a calendar for the Main Street Oil and Coal Company. It covers forty-nine square miles, and even at its most densely populated point over on Nooseneck Hill there is only a small cluster of buildings. But traveling south on the Victory Highway, Rhode Island 102, you come to a marker which tells you that you are in West Greenwich, and less that a mile further there is a crossroads identified by a filling station and general store, Pat and Leo Driscoll's If-We-Haven't-Got -It-We'll-Get -It-In -A Hurry emporium. Diagonally across from the store is a gray-shingled farmhouse. In 1859 the gentleman who resided there had an idea to revolutionize the pickle industry. True, his cucumbers made the prettiest, greenest pickles anybody had even seen. At the first official taste test Mr. (Stephen) Capwell got greener than his products and in a matter of hours his career was finished for good. It seems that Peter Pepper Perpetrated Poisoned Pickles by Putting a Copper Penny in the Pot.
Plain Meetin' House Road twists and turns for four and a half green miles past pretty farms, over little bridges, past the Wickaboxet State Park, and ends up at the Plain. This is where the church gets its name, and not because it is a sect of Amish or Mennonites. Right here at the church was the Center. It is still called West Greenwich Center, but the church alone remains standing, close to several foundations, which tell us that once there was a community here. That's what it's like in West Greenwich. Everyone - new and old resident - the young and the old - love West Greenwich.
Find homes for sale in West Greenwich Rhode Island
|
