Newport Spring, the center of Spring Street just behind the Colony House, has been a center of activity for centuries. Most recently it was the home of Coffey’s Gas Station (1985-2015) but the site, which once housed a freshwater spring for which the location is named, has seen activities ranging from Native American use to personal residence and as a transportation hub.
Before Aquidneck Island was inhabited by European settlers in the 1630s, evidence suggests that the Narragansett Tribe of Native Americans had a large summer settlement in downtown Newport and the presence of the freshwater spring was certainly a factor in Native use. The spring site, which is the original settled center of Newport, appears visually on the 1712 Mumford Map where it is one block square. Today it is surrounded by some of the city’s oldest extant buildings, several of which date to the 17th century. While the spring itself is not indicated on this map, the likely location of the original spring can be presumed by the corner of Spring Street and Spring Court (later Spring Lane).
The site’s first owner may have been Newport founder John Coggeshall, as the first known recorded owner is his son Joshua Coggeshall (1623-1689). The property was the site of domestic use for the next 200 years. It was owned by two generations of the Marchant family, including Henry Marchant, a judge and Continental Congressman, and then by other Newport founding families through the late 18th century. In 1797 the land was passed from the estate of Peleg Barker to his daughter and son-in-law in a deed using the language “the same lane where the town spring is.”
In the mid-19th century a branch of the Hazard family opened a livery stable at Newport Spring and the site housed livery stables into the 1930s. As the automobile became the preferred mode of transportation, it’s natural that the location became a gas station. In the 1940s the Colonial Beacon Oil Company added the plaque marking the site of the town spring which survives today. The site remained in service to the automobile under several owners selling gasoline from a variety of companies until 2015. Recently Newport Spring has been the focus of much consideration as experts envision the future of this historic location.
Above: Gas station when selling ESSO gas, c.1958. Image from a private collection.
A photograph depicting a group of men and women at the dedication of the ”Old Town Spring” plaque, Spring Street at Barney Street, 1941. Image from the NHS collection.
Spring Street site c.1935. Image from a private collection.