Davisville

The Historic Village of Davisville Over 350 years ago….. The land held by the Narragansett people becomes Davisville, through colonial settlement.

Over 350 years ago Joshua Davis arrived on the scene in 1694, and he and his English relatives built a place of commerce, prosperity, and community. This became the Historic Village of Davisville, part of the town of North Kingstown, RI. He built grist mills, saw mills, and fulling mills for textile processing along the Hunts River.

Workers built needed housing and established places to buy goods. The meeting house, the mill houses, and other buildings helped bind the community together. During the buildup to WW II, Davisville became the point of entry for construction materials arriving by rail.

A military base was hastily built nearby, and many historic buildings were moved or demolished at that time. Today the mills and basic village are gone, but the Davisville Library, over 100 years old, still exists. It serves the community as a result of the generosity of Davis family descendants. The Davis family donated the land the library sits on and provided funds for its construction.