Formed June 3, 1729 (3rd county)
Washington County (129,836), South Kingstown* (31,931)
The Modern facility was built in Wakefield in 1988. There were 1775 and 1895 courthouses in West Kingston. The Wakefield courthouse is on Tower Hill Road northeast of Hillside Road. Tower Hill River is United States Highway 1. David Presbrey Architects provided the building designs. The county was established on June 3, 1729 from Providence County as the 3rd county. The county is named for American Revolutionary War General George Washington. Wakefield is named for Wakefield, England.
Washington County has a sheriff but doesn’t have a unified government as each township governs. Twenty-six Superior Court Judges and Fourteen District Court Judges serve the entire state. The county is on the southwest border with Connecticut and the Atlantic Ocean. Providence, Rhode Island is north and Hartford, Connecticut is northwest of the county. The county center is 9.1 miles west of Wakefield near Richmond. The county is surrounded clockwise by Kent and Newport counties and the Atlantic Ocean, New York, and Connecticut. Wakefield is in the southeast quarter of the county. Westerly is on the southwest border of the county. South Kingstown is the county seat and largest populated area. South Kingstown is 24.6% of the county population. The county looks like the head of a vacuum cleaner with an added island south of the mainland area.
The area of the county is 329 square miles. It is 2 out of 5 in the state. It ranks 3 out of 5 in population in the state. It has a density of 394.6 persons per square mile making it 5 out of 5 in the state. Washington County has 0.0% of its population in its incorporated areas since there are no incorporated cities. Interstate Highway 95 crosses the county from north to southwest from Kent County to Connecticut. United States Highway 1 enters from Kent County, north, and follows the coast to Connecticut, west. This county is in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Wakefield (unincorporated)
