Apponaug is a neighborhood in central

Warwick, Rhode Island Warwick ( or ) is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, the third largest city in the state with a population of 82,823 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is located approximately south of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, sout ...

, United States, situated on Apponaug Cove, a tributary to Greenwich Bay and nearby

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sma ...

. The name Apponaug is a derivation of the Narragansett Indian word for "place of oysters". Indeed, Apponaug Cove holds one of the richest shellfish beds in the United States and was densely populated by the

Narragansett people The Narragansett people are an Algonquian American Indian tribe from Rhode Island. Today, Narragansett people are enrolled in the federally recognized Narragansett Indian Tribe. They gained federal recognition in 1983. The tribe was nearly lan ...

for many centuries prior to the arrival of European settlers. Apponaug consists of what is effectively a large rotary. In the 1960s, the

Rhode Island Department of Transportation The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is a Rhode Island state government agency charged with design, construction, maintenance and inspection of a wide range of transportation infrastructure. These include 3,300 lane miles of stat ...

was in need of a faster way to feed the increasing number of cars through Apponaug that were en route to West Shore Road and other locations. Traffic patterns were rerouted in what was supposed to be a temporary solution, creating a one-way hub in the center of the village. Apponaug is located at the intersection of three of Warwick's primary streets:

Post Road A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...

(

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

), Greenwich Avenue (R.I. Route 5), and Centerville Road (R.I. Route 117). It is considered ''downtown'' or central Warwick, as Warwick City Hall is located here, plus police and fire headquarters, the Apponaug branch of the Warwick Public Library, a museum, and the post office. The cluster of municipal buildings in the center of Apponaug is designated as the Warwick Civic Center Historic District, while a cluster of stately homes in the southern part of the neighborhood is designated as the Apponaug Historic District.

Notable people

Apponaug is the birthplace of

George S. Greene George Sears Greene (May 6, 1801 – January 28, 1899) was a civil engineer and a Union general during the American Civil War. He was part of the Greene family of Rhode Island, which had a record of distinguished military service to the United S ...

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

general and noted engineer.

References

External links

Apponaug Village in Warwick, Rhode Island Website

Description of Apponaug in 1776 Diary of Thomas Vernon, a Tory prisoner, page 93"> Description of Apponaug in 1776 Diary of Thomas Vernon, a Tory prisoner, page 93
Neighborhoods in Rhode Island Populated places in Kent County, Rhode Island Populated coastal places in Rhode Island {{RhodeIsland-geo-stub