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Beach house at Misquamicut Beach, Rhode IslandPhoto: Juliancolton · Public domain
–Not graded
History · Misquamicut

Half of Misquamicut’s homes were built after 1970

Most of Misquamicut was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1970.

0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
Photo: Juliancolton · Public domain
Quick answers

Where Misquamicut’s name came from

How did Misquamicut get its name?

Misquamicut is a Narragansett word meaning "Red Fish Place" or "Salmon Place".

What stands out about Misquamicut’s past

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

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Start Misquamicut’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The story

How Misquamicut came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Misquamicut.

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The district was once known as Pleasant View. The land was purchased from Chief Sosoa of the Montauks in 1661. The name was changed from Pleasant View to Misquamicut in 1928. The area suffered a series of devastating hurricanes that wiped out beach homes, hotels, and other structures in 1938, 1944, and 1954. A portion of the oceanfront became Misquamicut State Beach in 1959.

Atlantic Beach Park is a privately operated amusement center with 12 acres (49,000 m2) of land and buildings within the Misquamicut section of beachfront. It lies south of Misquamicut State Beach and north of Winnapaug Pond, a source of Rhode Island quahogs and bay scallops.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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Famous people

Famous people close to Misquamicut

Nobody well known was born in Misquamicut itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

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Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Questions about Misquamicut’s history

Memory lane

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

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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 Wikipedia. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.