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History · Greene

Greene’s post office opened in 1859, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1908 on.

1859first post office
1on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Greene’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Greene began

When was Greene founded?

1859

The Greene post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 914167 years
Founding year: the first Greene post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Greene’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Greene’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Greene’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewGreene station 1908 postcard: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Greene came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Greene.

Read it all →

Until 1854, Greene was a swamp with a cart path running through it. The path connected Hopkins Hollow to the south and Rice City to the north. The railroad came to the area in the early 1850s, and the original train stop was known as "Coffin Station" because Coffin Road was the nearest road. In 1856, railroad officials renamed the station "Greene" after Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene. The railroad wanted to build a depot where local farmers could sell their produce to the trains heading towards Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut, and the Greene depot became an important station in western Rhode Island. Every morning, farmers would bring their produce to sell to the 7:25 milk train going to Providence.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Greene, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s1 item
Greene station 1908 postcardc. 1908Greene station 1908 postcardPostcard
1910s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today5 recent
Former Summit station, September 20182018Former Summit station, September 2018Former Greene station, September 20182018Former Greene station, September 2018ECG-Greene-RI-Coventry-Rail-Trail-Memorial-and-Axel-IMG 16642015ECG-Greene-RI-Coventry-Rail-Trail-Memorial-and-Axel-I…Greene Rhode Island village in Coventry RI Greene Community Church and House2013Greene Rhode Island village in Coventry RI Greene Com…Greene Public Library in Greene Rhode Island in Coventry RI2013Greene Public Library in Greene Rhode Island in Coven…
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Greene station 1908 postcard
Retake this viewGreene station 1908 postcard, c. 1908

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Greene’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Greene

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Questions about Greene’s history

What year was Greene founded?

The Greene post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia and Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.