Thames Street, Rhode Island

Shops along Thames Street

Thames Street is a historic street in Newport, Rhode Island that is one of the oldest continuously used streets in the state. It remains the primary street in downtown Newport and runs parallel along the waterfront.

History

Thames Street (along with Marlborough Street) was one of Newport's original two streets officially laid out in Newport in 1654 and providing access to the city's many wharfs. The street takes its name from the Thames River in London, England, an area from which many of the early colonists migrated. The northern part of Thames Street originates near the Common Burying Ground and passes through several blocks of what was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a Quaker settlement in the area near Easton's Point. Dozens of colonial buildings survive along the street and many are still used for commercial purposes. The southern part of Thames Street was historically home to a large Irish population in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Today local residents pronounce the street name with a hard "th" and which rhymes with "names" rather than the British pronunciation of "temz." Today Thames Street remains the main street in downtown Newport today and numerous restaurants, inns and stores abut it.[1]

Sites on Thames Street

References

  1. ↑ Newport Through Its Architecture: A History Of Styles From Postmedieval To ... By James L. Yarnall (UPNE, 2005), pg. 2-3

External links

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