On August 22, 1738 a large parcel of the Town of Westerly was separated and incorporated as the Town of Charlestown-named after Charles II. On August 18,1747, our town was divided at the Pawcatuck River and the Town of Richmond was incorporated.

In the early 19th century, the Pawcatuck River was harnessed to power textile mills, and several industrial villages sprang up. Cross Mills developoed as a local center oriented to the important Post Road and serving area farmers with stores, a post office, gristmills and a busy blacksmith shop. Grist mills, saw mills and single mills were also built on the Pawcatuck River, and later came cotton and woolen mills. The mills gave birth to new villages as mill houses were contructed to house the workers. Clark's Mill (now Shannock), Carolina Mill and Kenyon Mill enlarged our towns population. Our year-round population now approaches 7,000 but on a typical summer day it is not unusual to find 30,000 spending their leisure time here.

In 1958, the state formally opened the current Charlestown Brechway improving ocean and pnd access. The "New" Route 1 was constructed in the early 1960's. In 1974, the World War II Naval Air Base in Charelstown, about 600 acres, was closed and more recently divided into a U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge and the town-owned Ninigret Park. There is a lovely family beach at the spring-fed pond, a playground, tennis courts, a nature center, an astronomical observatory, a health/exercise track, a criterium bicycle racing course and a Senior Citizens center. Nature abounds and there is an abundance of game birds and often visible herds of wild deer.

Charlestown, with her 7 miles of beached and well-deserved popularity can no longer be said to be the "best kept secret in Rhode Island".