Historic Newport Town Spring

Melissa Devine

It's in the works but unfortunately currently the site does not look like much. This is the original spring, one of the key features upon which the New-Port was founded in the early 1600's. The well was recently unearthed after having been unknowingly covered in concrete, the location of the former CITGO gas station. 'The Historic Newport Spring Project’s central goal is now to celebrate, at the place of Newport’s founding, a key and integral part of Newport’s history that has been overlooked by historians, governments, and indeed many of our citizens for centuries: that Newport was explicitly founded on the values of freedom of religion, religious tolerance, and separation of church and state. \u200b Once complete, the Historic Newport Spring park will preserve this unique historically significant site in a manner that provides public access and civic enjoyment, improves traffic and pedestrian circulation and safety, and fosters cultural awareness. “It is agreed and ordered that the Plantation now begun at this South west end of the island, shall be called Newport... and that the Towne shall be built upon both sides of the spring, and by the sea-side Southward.” (Records of the Colony of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations; Volume I, 16th March, 1639).

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