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North Kingstown
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North Kingstown

Rhode Island, United States
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Also known as: Rochester
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Article History

North Kingstown, town (township), Washington county, south-central Rhode Island, U.S., on Narragansett Bay. The area, settled in 1641 as Kings Towne, was incorporated in 1674; in 1686–89 it was called Rochester. In 1722–23 it was divided into North Kingstown and South Kingstown. North Kingstown includes the villages of Allenton, Davisville, Hamilton, Lafayette, Quonset Point, Saunderstown, Slocum, and Wickford (the administrative centre).

Early economic activities were textile milling, fishing, farming, and boatbuilding. Industrial tools and machinery are now major manufactures. Davisville was the home of the Atlantic Seabees (naval mobile construction battalions) between 1942 and 1991, when the base was closed. The acreage made available by the decommissioning of the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point in 1974 has been developed as an industrial park. The Quonset Air Museum is housed in a brick hangar at what is now Quonset State Airport. Lafayette has state fish hatcheries.

Wickford is the site of the Old Narragansett Church (1707) and of Smith’s Castle at Cocumscussoc (1678), used as a rendezvous for settlers who fought the Narragansett Indians in the Great Swamp Fight (1675; a battle in King Philip’s War). At Saunderstown the birthplace of Gilbert Stuart, portraitist and creator of the most popular image of George Washington, has been restored; and nearby the Silas Casey Farm (c. 1750) is maintained as a typical New England farmstead. Area 44 square miles (113 square km). Pop. (2000) 26,326; (2010) 26,486.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.