BK0009

“The Newport Historical Society presents this second book in celebration of Newport’s upcoming 250th anniversary in 2011. Using postcards and photographs we bring you on an historic tour of Newport. We begin with four very similar views of Main Street, showing how this prime location for business has both changed and remained the same over time. From this center of activity we travel Newport’s main thoroughfares and selected side streets. We complete our tour with views of the outlying villages of Guild, Kelleyville, Chandler Mills, and North Newport.

The streets in Newport village were named in 1875 by a committee consisting of Dexter Richards, Edmund Wheeler and Frank A. Rawson. Their original layout can be found on page 264 of Wheeler’s History of Newport. Over time side streets and building lots were developed, old streets disappeared, and new ones came into existence. Some streets that no longer exist are Mill Place, Central Place, River Street and Church Pass (which ran between the Methodist Church and the Newport House from Cheney Street to Park Street.) In earlier times a business address might only say Newport. All the locals ‘knew the territory’ and easily directed out-of-towners to their destination.

Most of the photographs in this book are from postcards created by Lawrence G. Ross and A. S. Currier. Ross and Currier worked in the Newport area for close to twenty years around the turn of the twentieth century.

We invite you to use the street list and map on the following pages, add a little imagination, and travel back in time to experience ‘what was where’ in old Newport.”

Newport Historical Society

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