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Chepachet Village Historic District
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Chepachet depicted in a 1905 postcard
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| Location: | Glocester, Rhode Island |
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| Built: | 1799 |
| Architect: | Unknown |
| Architectural style: | No Style Listed |
| Governing body: | Local |
| NRHP Reference#: |
71000031 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | March 31, 1971 |
Chepachet is a village and census-designated place[2] in the town of Glocester in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is centered at the intersection of U.S. Route 44 (aka Putnam Pike) and RI Route 102 (also known as Victory Highway and Chopmist Hill Road). Chepachet's ZIP code is 02814.
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The area is part of the Foster-Glocester Regional School District, meaning Ponaganset High School, located on Glocester's border with neighboring community North Scituate, is the only secondary school for residents of Chepachet. West Glocester Elementary, an elementary school in Chepachet, is part of the Glocester Elementary School District.
"Chepachet" was originally inhabited by the Pequot and Nipmuc natives, the name means "where rivers meet." During the American Revolution, Loyalists from Newport were exiled near Chepachet, including Thomas Vernon, a Tory from Newport, who recorded election celebrations in Chepachet in 1776:
This being the day for the choice of Deputies (members of the General Assembly). We are told that there is a very great resort of people of all kinds at Chepasseh, and that it is a day of great frolicking. Our landlord and his three sons are gone, having rigged themselves out in the best manner. [A] man on horseback passed by (together with many others) with a very large bag full of cakes made by Granne West (mother to the General [ William West ]) which are to be sold to the people.[3]
. In 1842, Chepachet was the setting of the endgame of the Dorr Rebellion, which helped to win voting rights for non-landowners in a new state Constitution.
Since 1926, the town has hosted the Ancients and Horribles parade, an annual Fourth of July event, notable for its political statements and ribald humor.
In the 1940s, a US Navy auxiliary ship, USS Chepachet, was named after the village. The ship's bell resides at the seat of town government, and the ship's surviving crew had a 50th anniversary reunion in the town in 1998.
In the 1990s Chepachet gained brief national attention in episodes of television's The X-Files as the location of the youth summer home of main character Fox Mulder. In one episode set in Providence he mentions Chepachet is "20 miles up Route 5." This is only marginally correct, as the local Route 5 does not enter Providence's boundaries, but passes through Smithfield, and is accessible to Chepachet only by crossing Burrillville; actually, from Providence, US 44 (which crosses RI 5 in Greenville) is the most direct route to Chepachet, and from points north and south, it's RI 102.
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