Aquidneck.US

We're Not World Wide!
Who would have guessed there are so many other places named Newport, Middletown or Portsmouth? You won't find their hotels or restaurants here ...
But, since a lot of our site visitors were looking for these Aquidnecks, we've found some pictures, with links to more of their history. If someone knows better links to show, or more information, please drop us a note.

Find What You're Looking For
You'll find the local links you need when you Search the Aquidneck.US Directory because we never (well, hardly ever) go off the Island. Why would we? Everything is right here.
Because there is no fee or membership requirement for being listed, we can make this The Most Complete Newport and Aquidneck Island Directory of local businesses and organizations, and their Websites. Try us!
Lodging (over 140 listings)
Laundry (over 30 listings)
Restaurant (over 150 listings)
... Chinese Restaurant
... Mexican Restaurant
... Pizza Restaurant
Charters (over 40 listings)
Photography (over 30 listings)
Salon (over 40 listings)
Fuel
... Gas Station
... Oil
... Firewood
... Propane (over 15 listings)
Dentist (over 30 listings)
Realtor (over 60 listings)
Translator (3 listings, plus links)

NO REVIEWS, BEST OF, TOP TEN, OR OPINIONS
When we see ''delightful ambiance'' we suspect the review was written by their Mom, and too many bad reviews are for places we know to be good, but someone must have had a bad day. So, no reviews here. Just everything you're looking for. If something is missing, just tell us to list it. It's free.

Geography and Origins
Aquidneck Island is the Rhode Island in our State's full name, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. It is the largest of several islands in Narragansett Bay, about 15 miles long by 4 miles wide, with a total land area of approximately 44 square miles, which is about twice the size of Manhattan. Aquidneck Island enjoys a mild climate, with both summer and winter extremes moderated by the surrounding waters of Narragansett Bay. The rich glacial soil supports dairy farming, nursery growing, and vineyards. Much of it had been cleared and farmed by the native Indian population, long before the arrival of Europeans. Now it is made up of three communities, or four counting the large Navy presence.

Portsmouth
Portsmouth was settled in 1638 as the second European settlement in the area, with Anne Hutchinson as leader. Like Roger Williams and his followers, who had recently founded Providence in 1636, Hutchinson's group had been expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for the serious (sometimes capital) crime of following their own religious beliefs. Williams helped them find a location, and helped negotiate their purchase agreement with the native Indian population, as he had done two years earlier in Providence. On May 12, 1649, the name of Portsmouth was confirmed, for the region until then called Pocasset by the new settlers and the native Indian population.
Portsmouth contains 23.21 square miles of land area and 36.09 square miles of water area. Population in the most recent Census (April 1, 2000) was 17,149. This represented a 1.73% increase (292 persons) from the 1990 population of 16,857.

Newport
Established in 1639, Incorporated in 1784.
Newport's founders, with Coddington and Clarke as leaders, soon left Portsmouth for the freedom to follow their religious beliefs. Further divisions soon appeared in Newport, but rather than splitting again, they let everyone follow their own religious beliefs. Because of this freedom, people came who were not welcome anywhere else. They brought with them diverse ideas and skills, and in many cases some wealth. Newport soon grew into a commercial and shipping center. It's harbor was one of the busiest in the colonies, along with Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charlestown.
Newport played a leading role in the events leading to the American Revolution, but paid dearly for it, with a long and harsh occupation by British forces. The population dropped by half, and both manufacturing and commercial shipping ended, never to return. The harbor was stripped of all timber docks for use as firewood, and many buildings were also destroyed for use as fuel, before Newport was liberated with the help of the French.
In the following decades, new forms of industry and transportation favored a mainland location, such as Providence, which soon surpassed Newport in size and importance. For many years, Newport was forgotten, yet this lack of progress helped to preserve many pre-Revolution homes and commercial buildings, for which Newport is now famous.
By the mid 19th century Newport once again attracted summer visitors, as it had before the Revolution. Newport now describes itself as "America's First Resort." The harbor is now busy with both recreational and fishing boats.
In 1968, the Newport Restoration Foundation was founded by tobacco heiress Doris Duke to preserve, protect, and restore the city's eighteenth and nineteenth-century architecture. The foundation's properties now include 83 structures in and around Newport.
Newport contains 7.94 square miles of land area, and 3.54 square miles of water area. Newport's population in the most recent Census (April 1, 2000) was 26,475. This represented a -6.21% decrease (1,752 persons) from the 1990 population of 28,227.

Middletown
Established in 1639, as the rural portion of Newport. Incorporated in 1743, to better represent their farming population, as Newport grew into more of a commercial center. Middletown contains 12.98 square miles of land area and 1.97 square miles of water area. Middletown's population in the most recent Census (April 1, 2000) was 17,334. This represented a -10.92% decrease (2,126 persons) from the 1990 population of 19,460.

Navy
The United States Navy started in Newport. The Stamp Act of 1765, which as we all learned in school, the colonists protested as "taxation without representation," and additional levies led directly to the American rebellion ten years later. During this period, the English considered establishing a navy yard at Newport, both to protect and to regulate their shipping.
With ever increasing regulation, Rhode Island, the colony most dependent on foreign trade, petitioned Congress to establish an armed naval force. Thus, the American Navy was founded in 1775. This Rhode Island Navy consisted of two armed vessels, the sloop KATY, with 12 guns, and the galley WASHINGTON, with six guns. The so-called "Rhode Island Plan" to construct thirteen frigates for the new Continental Navy, was enacted in December of 1775.
Following the Revolution, funding and manning for both the Army and the Navy dropped to a fraction of their former levels, but grew again when needed for the War of 1812, sometimes called the Second American War of Revolution. This pattern would be repeated often, in later times of war and peace. Looking to the sorry example of seemingly endless wars in Europe, the new country feared not only the expense of a standing military, but the military itself.
Even when scaled back, the Navy remains the largest employer on the Island, as well as the largest land owner. The Navy occupies most of the west side of the Island, including all of Middletown's west side waterfront, and substantial parts of the shore in Newport and Portsmouth.
This competing claim must be noted however: Founded in 1626, the City of Beverly is one of the oldest communities in the state of Massachusetts. Residents describe their city as the birthplace of the United States Navy, noting that the first ship commissioned by the Navy first sailed from Beverly Harbor.

"Rogue's Island" or the "Lively Experiment"
All the other American colonies were established by royal charters, but Rhode Island was not; it was simply populated by exiles from Massachusetts. Both Massachusetts and Connecticut considered it an outlaw. Due to the efforts of Roger Williams and John Clarke, (1609-1676) British clergyman and physician, and Rhode Island's representative to the Crown, Rhode Island did eventually obtain a charter from King Charles II, on July 8, 1663 "To hold forth a lively experiment that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained with full liberty in religious concernments."
(These words are inscribed over the Front of the State Capitol building in Providence)

Colonial Trade
By the early 1700's, trade with the Carribean had established a decent market for Rhode Island exports, such as lumber, fish, and livestock, as well as finished material exports such as candles, rum, barrels, and fine furniture, and silver goods. Silver by Samuel Vernon and Jonathan Otis, Samuel Casey and others, and furniture by the Townsend and Goddard families, who were Newport cabinentmakers over a period of 120 years, were in demand not only in New England, but also in the Southern coastal trade, and in the West Indies. Sadly, this was not the whole picture ...

The Triangle Trade
Rhode Island shippers imported molasses and sugar, used to produce more rum. By the 1740's, rum was Rhode Island's biggest export. Because the West Indies relied on slave labor to perpetuate their plantation system, R.I. supplied them with slaves from Africa, purchased with rum. This so-called Triangle Trade grew to be the largest and most profitable portion of Newport commerce, while Newport ships in turn became dominant in this trade.

"Things the size of Rhode Island"
We have the longest name of any state - Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. But Rhode Island is the smallest of the United States, measuring 48 miles long by 37 miles wide, much of that is water, the land covering 1214 square miles. It is often used as a unit of measurement or comparison, such as "Texas is more than 150 times the size of Rhode Island, Alaska is about 540 times the size of Rhode Island"
We don't care, and according to the CIA Field Guide "Samoa is slightly smaller than Rhode Island, Gibraltar is less than one half the size of Rhode Island"

Connections
The Newport Bridge (in Newport) connects Aquidneck Island to Jamestown, on nearby Conanicut Island in the middle of Narragansett Bay, and subsequently to the mainland on the western side of the bay.
The Mount Hope Bridge (in Portsmouth), adjacent to Bristol Ferry and Common Fence Point, connects the northern side of Aquidneck Island to the mainland at Bristol.
The Sakonnet River Bridge (in Portsmouth) also adjacent to Common Fence Point, connects the northeastern side of the island to the mainland at Tiverton over the Sakonnet River, a narrow saltwater strait.
Just South of the Sakonnet River Bridge, in the area known as The Hummocks and Island Park, is the site of the old Stone Bridge, destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954. The stonework is now a popular fishing spot.
Until 2007, just to the North was the Sakonnet River Railroad Bridge. The bridge was built in 1899, by the Pennsylvania Steel Company and carried passenger and freight trains on the Old Colony & Newport Railroad, and consists of a single-span fixed truss and a center bearing swing truss topped by a machinery house. The bridge was damaged by the excessive weight of a military shipment in 1981, and further damaged by a collision with a barge in 1988. The bridge had not been in service since 1985. In 2007 the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) used a controlled explosive demolition to remove concrete piers that once supported the old Swing bridge. A piece of the bridge’s history – a 24-inch wide phosphor-bronze center bearing, upon which the entire 251-foot swing span turned on – was retained by RIDOT and given to the Portsmouth Historical Society. The Society plans to some day exhibit the bearing.

Rhody Firsts
All this is from my favorite new local book. It's by Roberta Mudge Humble, a professor of English at the Community College of Rhode Island, and is called The RIght to Crow - A Look at Rhode Island's Firsts, Bests & Uniques.
Roberta Mudge Humble is Professor of English and Technical Communications at CCRI. She is editor of the newsletter for the RI Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, and author of numerous textbooks, and several other books including The Historic Armories of Rhode Island (2000) and The Right to Crow - a Look at Rhode Island’s Firsts, Bests, & Uniques. (2006).
Available in select stores across Rhode Island or by sending a check to Westerly Armory Restoration, P.O. Box 614, Westerly, RI 02891; add $2.00 if shipping is required. Call (401) 596-8554 (Westerly) or (401) 738-3844 (Warwick) This book benefits the historic Westerly Armory. Price: $10.00. www.westerlyarmory.com

• first anywhere to establish true religious freedom
• in 1638 - the first Baptist Church in America.
• first colony to renounce the crown,
• Rhode Islanders burned an entire British tax ship, (named the Gaspee)
• first to create an action figure. That would be G.I. Joe, but wait, there is more ...
• Mr. Potato Head was born here.
• So was Furby,
• My Little Pony,
• and the EasyBake Oven,
• We're home to the first industrial mill in the New World, Slater Mill
• first Jewish temple in the New World,
• roller-skating rink,
• the Providence Arcade was America's first enclosed mall, still going strong
• and in 1768, Gladdings became the first department store on U.S. soil. Though it wasn't the U.S. yet.
• Arlene Violet was the nation's first female state Attorney General.
• Usquepaugh hosts the country's only jonnycak e festival.
• And our state troopers were not only voted best dressed, but once did a fashion show on David Letterman. Beat that, Connecticut.
• We also once had the biggest maker of fake flowers anywhere.
• we have the world's biggest termite overlooking Route 95. It's 58 feet long and has been featured on a lottery ticket.
• and that we were home to the America's Cup for more than a century.
• the longest professional baseball game, 33 innings, was at McCoy Stadium.
• the first World Series ever, anywhere, was held here. And the Providence Grays won. They beat the New York Mets. Babe Ruth once played for the Providence Grays.
• The nation's first-ever speeding ticket was given in 1904 in Newport.
• The most expensive piece of furniture ever sold was an 18th-century desk by Rhode Island carpenter John Goddard. In 1989, someone paid $12.1 million for it.
• The first scheduled airline was from Ida Lewis yacht club in Newport to New York City.
• The first gas street lights were in Newport on Pelham Street, which still has gas lights, but not the original ones.
• and the first female state Supreme Court Justice was a Newporter as well.

Plus, I'm guessing no other place has as much collective interest in such odd foods as doughboys, dynamites, grinders, New York System wieners,clamcakes and stuffies. coffee milk, lemonade slush, bubblers, cabinets and an obsession with low-number plates. I've known we have a famous chicken breed, the Rhode Island Red, with its own monument, I think I'll celebrate with some stuffies and coffee milk.