Little Compton #21: RI's Best Communities 2013

Little Compton #21: RI's Best Communities 2013

From its proud, small, distinctly Yankee and remote, populated by both old-money families and longstanding rural families with little more than their land, Little Compton defies the momentum-based lifestyle that has taken over most of the state's communities. A prime vacation destination with the nostalgic mood of New England, Little Compton may be Rhode Island’s most small-town small town with a legacy of insularity that makes residents practically family.

Little Compton by the numbers

Established: 1862
Population: 3,492
Median household income: $96,200
Median housing price: $507,500

2013 Best Communities rankings

Overall ranking: 21
Affordability ranking: 35
Education ranking: 11
Economic condition ranking: 1
Safety ranking: 1
Arts & Culture ranking: 23 (T)

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Famous residents:

Awashonks, female sachem of the Sakonnet tribe
Sydney Richmond Burleigh, artist
Captain Benjamin Church, father of American ranging
Christopher R. Hill, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and current United States Ambassador to Iraq
Henry Demarest Lloyd, muckraking journalist
J. William Middendorf, diplomat, civil servant, and artist
Arden Myrin, cast member of MADtv
Elizabeth Pabodie, daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, recognized as the first white girl born in New England
Abel Head "Shanghai" Pierce, a rancher and cattleman in Texas
John Simmons, clothing manufacturer and founder of Simmons College
Henry Tillinghast Sisson, Civil War hero, Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, and inventor of the three-ring binder
Charles Edwin Wilbour, journalist and Egyptologist
Isaac Wilbour, Governor of Rhode Island, member of the United States House of Representatives, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Paul Suttell, current Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court