Geography | |
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Coordinates | 41°26′59″N71°11′54″W / 41.449826°N 71.1983787°W |
Area | 0.015 sq mi (0.039 km2) |
Highest elevation | 16 ft (4.9 m) |
Administration | |
United States | |
State | Rhode Island |
County | Newport County |
West Island is a 9.6 acre (0.015 sq mi) uninhabited island located approximately 0.25 miles (0.4 km) off the coast of Sakonnet Point and roughly 900 feet (274.3 m) east of the Sakonnet Point Lighthouse in Little Compton, Rhode Island, United States. The island is the former site of the West Island Club, an exclusive sport fishing club and hotel, between 1865 and 1906. The island is currently managed by the Sakonnet Preservation Association for use as a nesting sanctuary for shorebirds.
Three stone columns and a chimney are the only surviving ruins of the former West Island Club that remain on the island. Public access to the island is permitted during the nesting off-season. [1]
West Island was purchased by the West Island Association in 1853 for the purposes of establishing a sporting and leisure club on the island. The West Island Club opened in 1865 and primarily appealed to elite socialites for its stripped bass fishing and luxury amenities. During this time, West Island consisted of a two-story hotel and clubhouse complex. Membership was capped at thirty individuals at any given time; notable visitors to the West Island Club include Grover Cleveland, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Chester A. Arthur and Charles Tiffany. [2]
The West Island Club ceased operations in 1906 due to declining membership. West Island was sold to Joseph Wainwright in 1907 who subsequently donated the land to the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island; the now-vacated island was later sold to Marion Eppley in 1929. The remaining structures on West Island sustained damage by arson before being mostly destroyed by the Hurricane of 1938.
West Island was purchased by Jessie Lloyd O'Connor in 1949 who donated the island to the Sakonnet Preservation Association in 1983 for preservation and conservation purposes. [3]
Little Compton is a coastal town in Newport County, Rhode Island, bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the Sakonnet River, on the north by the town of Tiverton, and on the east by the town of Westport, Massachusetts. The population was 3,616 as at 2020.
Middletown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,075 at the 2020 census. It lies to the south of Portsmouth and to the north of Newport on Aquidneck Island, hence the name "Middletown."
Tiverton is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 16,359 at the 2020 census.
The Rhode Island Red is an American breed of domestic chicken. It is the state bird of Rhode Island. It was developed there and in Massachusetts in the late nineteenth century, by cross-breeding birds of Oriental origin such as the Malay with brown Leghorn birds from Italy. It was a dual-purpose breed, raised both for meat and for eggs; modern strains have been bred for their egg-laying abilities. The traditional non-industrial strains of the Rhode Island Red are listed as "watch" by The Livestock Conservancy. It is a separate breed to the Rhode Island White.
The Narragansett Council of the Boy Scouts of America serves all of the state of Rhode Island and some of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Its several camps include Camp Yawgoog, Champlin Scout Reservation, and Camp Norse.
Scouting in Rhode Island has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.
Cuttyhunk Island is the outermost of the Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. A small outpost for the harvesting of sassafras was occupied for a few weeks in 1602, arguably making it the first English settlement in New England. Cuttyhunk is located between Buzzards Bay to the north and Vineyard Sound to the south. Penikese Island and Nashawena Island are located to the north and east respectively.
The Stone Bridge was a bascule bridge that carried Rhode Island Route 138 over the Sakonnet River between Portsmouth and Tiverton. The span was built in 1907, replacing an earlier wooden bridge. It was severely damaged by Hurricane Carol in 1954, and replaced in 1956 by the Sakonnet River Bridge.
Route 138 is a numbered State Highway running 48.3 miles (77.7 km) in Rhode Island. It is the longest state numbered route in Rhode Island, and the second longest highway after US 1. Route 138 begins in Exeter at the Connecticut state line in the west and runs to the Massachusetts state line in Tiverton in the east, and is the only state-numbered route to completely cross Rhode Island. Route 138 also keeps the same route number on the other side of both state lines.
East Bay Newspapers, also called Phoenix-Times Publishing Company, is a publisher based in Bristol, Rhode Island, United States, and owner of seven weekly newspapers in eastern Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Office hours are Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Paul Suttell is the chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Henry Tillinghast Sisson was a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War, a lieutenant governor of Rhode Island from 1875 to 1877 serving under Governor Henry Lippitt, and inventor of the three-ring binder.
Sakonnet Light, built in 1884, is a sparkplug lighthouse near Sakonnet Point, Little Compton, Rhode Island, on the eastern side of the state.
The Stone House Inn, also known as the David Sisson House, located at 122 Sakonnet Point Road in Little Compton, Rhode Island, is a large four-story fieldstone residence – built in 1854 for David Sisson, a Providence-based industrialist – and its associated c.1886 barn. The structures sit on 2 acres of land overlooking Round Pond to the south, with a view of the Sakonnet River and Sakonnet Harbor to the west. When the house was completed, it was the largest single-family dwelling in that region and the only one built of stone.
The Viola is a steam trawler built in 1906 in Hull. She is the oldest surviving steam trawler in the world. During her long career, she was known as HMTViola, Kapduen, and Dias. She is currently beached at Grytviken in South Georgia, though there are currently plans afoot to return her to Hull.
Occupying a peninsula between the Sakonnet River and Rhode Island Sound, the 242-acre (0.98 km2) Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge is a very popular site for the over 65,000 annual visitors each year. It is located in the southeasternmost part of the Town of Middletown.
Quicksand Pond is a pond in Little Compton, Rhode Island.
Fort Church was a World War II United States Army coastal defense fort in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Together with Fort Greene near Point Judith, it superseded all previous heavy gun defenses in the Harbor Defenses of Narragansett Bay.