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is an unincorporated village containing a national historic district in the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island in the United States. Kingston sits at above sea level at Latitude: 41.48 N, Longitude: 71.53 W.
Kingston is the home of the University of Rhode Island and the Kingston Azalea Gardens. West Kingston is located on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor with the historic 120 year old Kingston Station.
The village was originally called Little Rest, but was renamed Kingston in 1826. It was the county seat for Washington County (formerly Kings County) from 1752 until 1894.
Kingston's architecture ( Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, Arts and Crafts, Early and Late Victorian) recalls its heyday as the county seat. Several of Kingston's historic buildings have been converted to new uses. The Kingston Free Library was once the county court house; the Rhode Island General Assembly met there in (alternating with the county seats in Newport and Providence) from 1754 until 1852. At the Little Rest court house in March 1790, Rhode Islanders (led by the Country Party) rejected voting on the U.S. Constitution, only to ratify it by a narrowest margin of any of the original 13 states (34-32) at a convention in Newport three months later. The Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, founded in 1958, is in the former county jail. Other historic buildings in the village are open to the public. South Kingstown established the Kingston Historic District in 1959, and much of Kingston village became a National Register Historic District in 1974.
The University of Rhode Island was established at Kingston in 1888 as the Rhode Island Agricultural School and Agricultural Experiment Station, by funding from The Hatch Act of 1887. In 1892 the Agricultural School became the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts with funding from the Second Morrill Land Grant Act of 1890, later becoming Rhode State Island College in 1909 and the University of Rhode Island in 1951.