Charlestown Town

Washington County, Rhode Island

Charlestown Town Hall is located at 4540 South County Trail, Charlestown, RI 02813.
Phone: 401‑364‑1200.

Neighborhoods

Charlestown Township was taken from Westerly and incorporated in 1738. It was named for King Charles II, who gave Rhode Island its charter in 1663.

In September, 1789, Jesse Lee, a Methodist itinerant minister, arrived in Charlestown and spoke in Mr. Stanton's coffee house; this is believed to have been the first Methodist sermon in Rhode Island.

General Joseph Stanton Jr., born in Charlestown in 1739, was a colonel in a Rhode Island Regiment during the American Revolution, and was prominent during the affairs of the French and Indian War. He was one of the first two U. S. Senators from Rhode Island.

1. Workers of the Federal Writers' Program of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Rhode Island, Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State, American Guide Series, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1937.