Aquidneck Island was the territory of the Narragansett Tribe of Native Americans when it was first encountered by European settlers in the 1630s. With the help of Providence’s Roger Williams, the Island was purchased from the Narragansett sachems Conanicus and Miantonomi. What the English settlers found on their arrival was not an empty wilderness. Native people had been in the area for thousands of years, and had established sophisticated land management and fishing practices. Current evidence points to the existence of a large summer settlement in what is now downtown Newport, and the freshwater spring at the Newport Spring location was certainly a factor in Native use. Archaeological work done in the yard of Touro Synagogue some years ago indicates the presence of a Native American lithics manufacturing site.
The City of Newport was founded in 1639. Its location was described in the Records of the Colony of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations on March 16th of that year: “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.” The Newport Spring site first appears visually in the record on the Mumford Map of Newport, drawn in 1712, where it is one block square. It is in the original settled center of Newport, and is still surrounded by some of the oldest extant buildings, several of which date to the 17th century. While the spring itself is not indicated, the likely location of the original spring can be presumed on this map by the corner of Spring Street and Spring Court (later Spring Lane).
The site’s original owner may have been John Coggeshall, an original founder of Newport, as the first known recorded owner is Joshua Coggeshall (1623-1689), his son. The property was the site of domestic use for the next 200 years. It was owned by two generations of the Marchant family during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, then by other Newport families through the late 18th c. In 1797, the land was passed from the estate of Peleg Barker to his daughter and son-in-law in a deed using the language “the same lane where the town spring is.”
The surrounding properties were covered with a dense settlement of homes and small businesses. David Williams, Newport clock maker, lived and worked here, as did brewer Giles Hozier. The families worshiped in the rich traditions of diverse religions which made Newport distinctive. Baptist, Seventh-Day Baptist, Quaker, Jew, Congregationalist, and Church of England denominations all had representatives here. Their churches and meeting houses were all within a few moments’ walk. Many still stand today.
During 17th and 18th centuries, while the land use was basically domestic, a public function was also fulfilled. The site, which is the point from which the One Mile Corner marker is measured, was likely seen as the center of town. While we do not know when the spring was no longer available at the surface, the underground river that runs down Barney Street toward the harbor has continuously been a source of fresh water. Almost every existing lot on Barney Street includes a cistern underneath the structure or buried in the yard. A photograph from as late as 1874 shows a well on the spring site. It is likely that the cisterns served more than private uses – horses needed to be watered, and stored water was essential in this wooden city as a way to fight inevitable fires. In addition, the placement of the Touro Synagogue may have been influenced in part by the need for running water for the associated mikvah, or ritual bath. Although the location of the original mikvah is not known, a 19th century mikvah sits under a current residence on Barney street.
When industry grew at this location, it was transportation related. A branch of the Hazard family opened a livery stable on the site in the mid-19th century. Livery stables operated on the site into the 1930s, and the first gas station appears to have been added in the 1920s. A gas station was operating here by the Colonial Beacon Oil Company in the 1940s, and it is at this time that the plaque marking the site of the town spring was also placed. The site remained in service to the automobile under a number of owners, and selling gasoline from a variety of companies, until sold by the Coffeys in 2015.