Westerly Rhode Island Wallpaper Store Near Me
Westerly Rhode Island History & Facts
Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a population of 23,359 as of the 2020 census.
The Pawcatuck River flows on the western border of Westerly and was once renowned for its own species of Westerly salmon, three of which are on the town's official seal. The river flows from 15 mi (24 km) inland, emptying into Little Narragansett Bay. It also serves as the boundary between Westerly and Pawcatuck, Connecticut. Three large salt ponds lie along the coast of Westerly which serve as shallow, reef-like pools whose outer walls form the long, white beaches for which the town is renowned. From west to east, these ponds are Maschaug Pond, Winnapaug Pond, and Quonochontaug Pond.
The Westerly area was known for its granite and stone-cutting industry, which quarried a unique stone known as Westerly granite. This pinkish granite is ideal for statuary and has been used in numerous government buildings of several states on the eastern seaboard.
Westerly becomes a popular tourist destination during the summer months when the population nearly doubles. Its well-known beaches include Weekapaug Beach, Westerly Town Beach, Misquamicut State Beach, East Beach, and Watch Hill Beach.
Westerly's primary industries today are textiles and tourism, but the town was historically famous for its granite, quarried in Bradford and Potter Hill.
Westerly was named for the settlement's location respective to Rhode Island's geography, being the westernmost town in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The English village was the home of Elder John Crandall (c.1612–1676), one of Westerly's founding fathers. Crandall settled in Westerly in 1661, and the early history of Westerly contains many references to him and his sons.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 74.8 square miles (193.8 km2), of which, 30.1 square miles (77.9 km2) of it is land and 44.7 square miles (115.8 km2) of it (59.78%) is water.
Westerly sits atop a glacial moraine, a series of small hills of debris left behind by receding glaciers in the last Ice Age. A pristine sample of the moraine encompasses a 140-acre (0.57 km2) preserve owned in perpetuity by the Westerly Land Trust. Within the trust land are the rare kettle formations that extend out under the sea to Block Island.
As of the census of 2000, there were 22,966 people, 9,402 households, and 6,130 families residing in the town. The population density was 763.3 people per square mile (294.7/km2). There were 11,292 housing units at an average density of 375.3 per square mile (144.9/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 95.17% White, 0.71% Black or African American, 0.57% Native American, 1.99% Asian, 0.34% from other races, and 1.22% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.18% of the population.
There were 9,402 households, out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.2% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.8% were non-families. Of all households, 29.0% were made up of individuals, and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 2.98.
Washington Trust Bancorp Inc., a publicly traded regional bank with operations in Rhode Island and Connecticut, is headquartered in Westerly.
The Westerly State Airport offers service by one commercial airline. Amtrak offers service between Washington, DC and Boston, stopping at the Westerly station near downtown. The station itself was closed in October 2016, but passengers can still board and disembark at the platform. Additionally, there have been proposals for CTrail to extend its Shore Line East service eastwards to Westerly station.
Famous Peoples From Westerly Rhode Island
Dave Gavitt
David Roy Gavitt (October 26, 1937 – September 16, 2011) was an American college basketball coach and athletic director at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. He was also well known as the first commissioner of the Big East Conference and as part of the committee which created the 1992 Olympic basketball "Dream Team".
Raised in Westerly, Rhode Island and Peterborough, New Hampshire, Gavitt graduated from Dartmouth College in 1959, where he was a member of the 1959–1960 varsity basketball team, the last Dartmouth basketball team to win the Ivy League championship. While an undergraduate at Dartmouth in 1958, Gavitt played summer collegiate baseball for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). He later became player-manager of the CCBL's Harwich Mariners, then returned to Orleans as manager in 1963–64 and 1966–67.
Gavitt spent two years as an assistant basketball coach at Worcester Academy before becoming an assistant coach at Providence under the legendary Joe Mullaney in 1962. He left in 1966 to become assistant coach and then head coach at his alma mater before taking over for Mullaney at Providence in 1969.
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