The town of Warren, Rhode Island, began life as a maritime community in the late 1700s.

It continued to base its economy on the sea until the mid-1800s when the construction of a mill shifted the town's economic base to textiles. This exciting photographic history of Warren chronicles the town's development from about 1870 to 1970 - to this day, Warren includes a number of 18th and 19th century homes, wharves, and warehouses, and many of the earlier incarnations of these structures are still recognizable in today's landscape. The view from the steeple of the Methodist church is substantially unchanged from that which appears in a photograph taken in the 1870s, and only the stately elm trees - since victims to arboreal disease - are missing today from the 19th century streetscapes. This marvelous collection portrays the living history of a charming New England seaport town.