9 Storybook Towns In Rhode Island

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country but has more than 400 miles of shoreline folded into its small footprint, which is what happens when a state is mostly bays, coves, islands, and river mouths. That shoreline has built nine towns that have held onto their New England character through three centuries of maritime trade, summer visitors, and quiet winters. Newport has its Gilded Age mansions and its jazz and folk weekends at Fort Adams. Jamestown sits on Conanicut Island with lighthouses at both ends. Wickford lines a protected harbor with rows of 18th-century houses, and Block Island sits twelve miles offshore with two working lighthouses and not much traffic. These are the nine Rhode Island towns worth slowing down for.

New Shoreham

New Shoreham, the only town on Block Island, has the distinction of being the smallest town in the smallest state. The island sits about 12 miles off the mainland and has 30 miles of hiking trails, sandy beaches, more than 300 freshwater ponds, and a year-round population well under a thousand.

Two working lighthouses anchor opposite ends of the island. The Southeast Light stands above the Mohegan Bluffs, which rise roughly 150 feet above the Atlantic Ocean at the island's south end. A long wooden staircase descends from the top of the bluffs to the rocky beach below, where the view back up to the lighthouse and the cliffs is the one most often reproduced on postcards. The North Light, finished in 1867, sits in a lower, more remote stretch of dunes and cobble at the island's north end. Back in town, Ballard's on the beach and Spring Street Gallery handle food and art respectively.

Little Compton

Little Compton sits on the Sakonnet side of Newport County, bounded by the Sakonnet River to the west and the Atlantic to the south. It is one of the quieter corners of the state, with stone walls along the roads, working farms, and a compact commons at the center of town that is still the social heart of the community.

The Wilbor House, a preserved 17th-century farmhouse owned by the Little Compton Historical Society, anchors the town commons along with the United Congregational Church. Down at Sakonnet Point, the offshore Sakonnet Light has stood since 1884 at the entrance to the Sakonnet River. The Stone House, a historic inn on Sakonnet Road, and Wilbur's General Store at the commons cover most of the visitor's practical needs, Wilbur's having served as the town's general store, toy shop, and gift stand in some combination since the 19th century.

Jamestown

Jamestown covers most of Conanicut Island in the middle of Narragansett Bay, connected to the mainland by the Jamestown and Pell Bridges. Beavertail State Park on the island's southern tip is one of the most dramatic places in the state to watch waves hit rock, with unobstructed views across the mouth of the bay.

Beavertail Lighthouse, at the park's edge, occupies the site of the third-oldest lighthouse station in the country. The current 64-foot tower dates to 1856, but a light has stood on the point since 1749. At the island's southeastern end, Fort Wetherill State Park sits atop high granite cliffs and still holds the ruins of its 20th-century coastal artillery installations. In the village, the 1787 Jamestown Windmill is the town's most photographed landmark. Narragansett Avenue runs through the center of town with shops, Slice of Heaven for pastries and gelato, and Our Table for seasonal dinners.

Wickford

Wickford, a village in the town of North Kingstown, sits on one of the best-protected natural harbors on the Atlantic Seaboard. Its harbor is small and shallow, which is part of what has kept the village looking the way it does. The Wickford Village Historic District holds one of the densest concentrations of 18th-century buildings in New England, most of them still in use as houses or small businesses.

The Old Narragansett Church, built in 1707, is one of the oldest surviving Episcopal church buildings in the country. Kayak Centre rents boats on the harbor from spring through fall, and the Wickford Art Association has run the Wickford Art Festival every July since 1962. A short drive north, Smith's Castle in Cocumscussoc is one of the oldest surviving houses in the state, built on the site of a 17th-century trading post run by Roger Williams and Richard Smith.

Tiverton

Incorporated in 1694, Tiverton was part of Massachusetts until 1747, when it was transferred to Rhode Island along with the rest of the Sakonnet side. The town sits on the east bank of the Sakonnet River, with Mount Hope Bay forming its northern boundary, and has remained largely agricultural and residential.

Tiverton Four Corners, the village at the historic center of town, is a small cluster of gray-shingled buildings that now house galleries, Groundswell Café & Bakery, and a handful of specialty shops. The surrounding Four Corners Historic District is on the National Register. Fogland Beach, a short drive south on the Sakonnet River, is one of the better spots on the East Bay for windsurfing and kiteboarding. Weetamoo Woods and the adjacent Pardon Gray Preserve offer trails through woods and fields on the north side of town.

Bristol

Bristol has held its continuous Fourth of July parade since 1785, the oldest uninterrupted Independence Day celebration in the country. The town sits on a narrow peninsula between Mount Hope Bay and Narragansett Bay, and the Fourth of July preparations begin in June when Bristol's center line is painted red, white, and blue down Hope Street.

Colt State Park, 464 acres of former farmland on Bristol's west side, includes paved paths along Narragansett Bay, picnic groves, and the stone Chapel by the Sea. Blithewold Mansion, Gardens, and Arboretum occupies a 33-acre former summer estate a short distance away, with a 45-room English-style country house at the center and an arboretum of several hundred woody-plant species on the grounds. The Herreshoff Marine Museum, down at the harbor, preserves the legacy of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, which built America's Cup defenders from its Bristol yard through the early 20th century. For a harbor-side meal, The Lobster Pot has been a Thames Street fixture for decades.

Charlestown

Charlestown runs along the southern coast of the state's South County, with a mix of barrier beaches, salt ponds, and inland woodland. Blue Shutters and the Charlestown Breachway are the main town beaches, the latter sitting at the narrow cut where Ninigret Pond meets the ocean.

Frosty Drew Observatory, in Ninigret Park, runs public stargazing programs every Friday night year-round, and its dark-sky rating is among the best in southern New England. The Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, which occupies much of the former Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, covers 858 acres of salt marsh, freshwater wetland, forest, and kettle pond, with trails open to walkers and cyclists. The 1667 General Stanton Inn on Old Post Road is one of the oldest inns in New England, though it has had several run-ins with developers in recent years and its future operation is not fully settled.

Narragansett

Narragansett occupies a narrow strip of the state's southern coast at the mouth of the Pettaquamscutt River. Narragansett Town Beach runs along the Pier, and Narragansett's surf break at the Point is one of the most reliable in southern New England.

The Towers, the remaining archway of the 1883 Narragansett Pier Casino designed by McKim, Mead and White, still spans Ocean Road and functions as the town's informal gateway. The rest of the casino burned in 1900. Point Judith Light, whose current 1857 tower replaced an earlier wooden light first established in 1810, stands at the tip of the peninsula south of town and remains an active aid to navigation. The South County Museum in Canonchet Farm covers rural and coastal life in a group of preserved buildings on a 174-acre town park. The Coast Guard House restaurant, in a 1888 Stanford White building at the north end of the Seawall, is the standard Sunday-brunch answer in town.

Newport

Newport is Rhode Island's best-known seaside town, built on Aquidneck Island and layered with colonial waterfront, a Gilded Age mansion district, and a summer music calendar that includes the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals, both held at Fort Adams State Park.

The 3.5-mile Cliff Walk runs along the back lawns of Bellevue Avenue's mansion row, which includes Vanderbilt properties The Breakers and Marble House, the Astors' Beechwood, and the Berwinds' The Elms. Thames Street parallels the harbor with colonial buildings now occupied by shops, chowder houses, and taverns. At the harbor's mouth, Fort Adams itself is one of the largest coastal fortifications ever built in the United States and is open for guided tours through the warmer months.

Nine Rhode Island Towns

Rhode Island covers less ground than some single counties elsewhere in New England, but these nine towns show just how much variety the state fits inside its lines. From Block Island's cliffs to Bristol's Fourth of July, from Wickford's 18th-century harbor to Newport's Gilded Age avenues, each of them has held onto its own character. Any one of them is worth a day, and most of them are worth more than that.