Charlestown, Rhode Island · Founded 1740 · Building: circa 1667 and 1740; multi-period inn complex
A restored Charlestown inn whose guest history begins in 1740 beside a circa-1667 schoolhouse room, reopened after a decade-long hiatus in 2022.
General Stanton Inn began receiving guests in 1740, when Joseph Stanton II built an inn wing on a Charlestown property that already included a circa-1667 room later associated with a Native American schoolhouse. The historic complex served generations of travelers along the old coastal road and accumulated Revolutionary-era and presidential-visitor stories. After the inn and tavern sat closed for roughly a decade, David and Jackie Moore restored and reopened the property in 2022 as a lodging, dining, and event venue.
Local tradition says the Niantic people granted Thomas Stanton a large Charlestown tract after he negotiated the return of a kidnapped Niantic girl from Block Island. The underlying seventeenth-century land and treaty evidence was not independently reviewed.
Source: WJAR, "General Stanton Inn's reopening brings history back to life," August 26, 2022; Rhode Island Monthly, "A Revolutionary Rebirth for the General Stanton Inn," September 7, 2022
A room now known as the Indian Room is reported to date to about 1667 and to have been used as a school for Native American children. It forms the older section of the present historic complex.
Source: Rhode Island Monthly, September 7, 2022; General Stanton Inn property-history materials; inns-for-sale listing, requiring primary architectural verification
Joseph Stanton II built the inn wing and began receiving guests, establishing the General Stanton Inn's reported hospitality origin.
Source: General Stanton Inn, "About Us," updated February 1, 2026; Rhode Island Monthly, September 7, 2022; Westerly Sun, "Historic General Stanton Inn reopens," August 20, 2022
Local histories associate Joseph Stanton III and the inn with Revolutionary-era covert meetings and spies. The exact events, dates, and participants need primary military, correspondence, and local-record verification.
Source: Rhode Island Monthly, "A Revolutionary Rebirth for the General Stanton Inn," September 7, 2022; General Stanton Inn, "About Us," updated February 1, 2026
The historic property includes a 1920s section associated in modern accounts with the Prohibition era, distinct from the circa-1667 room and 1740 Colonial inn wing.
Source: WJAR, August 26, 2022; Rhode Island Monthly, September 7, 2022
National Park Service state listings identify the General Stanton Inn as included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The exact listing date, reference number, and nomination should be verified from the original record.
Source: National Park Service, Rhode Island National Register list
The inn and tavern entered a long closure/hiatus period that lasted about ten years before the 2022 reopening, according to local reopening coverage.
Source: Rhode Island Monthly, September 7, 2022; Westerly Sun, August 20, 2022; TripAdvisor guest review summary
David and Jackie Moore bought the property, completed a multimillion-dollar renovation, and reopened the tavern in August. The Colonial wing, additional guest rooms, dining, and banquet spaces were scheduled to open in mid-September.
Source: WJAR, August 26, 2022; Rhode Island Monthly, September 7, 2022; Westerly Sun, August 20, 2022
General Stanton Inn continues operating at 4115 Old Post Road with guest rooms, dining, weddings, and private events.
Source: General Stanton Inn official website and "About Us" page, accessed September 1, 2026; OpenTable, General Stanton Inn Restaurant, February 28, 2026
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The inn's current history, Rhode Island Monthly, WJAR, and the Westerly Sun consistently identify 1740 as the year Joseph Stanton II built the inn wing and began receiving guests. This is the best-supported hospitality-origin date, distinct from the older circa-1667 room on the property.
The inn has an 1740 guest-service origin, but local reopening coverage says the tavern and inn had been closed for roughly ten years before David and Jackie Moore bought and reopened the property in 2022. That documented hiatus defeats a literal uninterrupted-operation claim.
The inn's current site and local reopening coverage include George Washington among several presidents and Revolutionary figures said to have come through the property. The claim is a longstanding part of the inn's local history, but this review did not find a Washington diary, military itinerary, inn register, correspondence, or contemporary newspaper confirming a stop at this specific building.
Rhode Island Monthly, property-history material, and tourism listings identify the Indian Room as a circa-1667 part of the complex and associate it with an early Native American schoolhouse. The date and use require confirmation through an architectural survey, deed history, archaeology, or original education/mission records.
The inn has a current haunted reputation, but no verified guest log, historic newspaper, named early witness, paranormal investigation record, or earliest published ghost-story source was located in this review. The reputation can be discussed as folklore, not evidence of a verified haunting or a confirmed identity for any alleged spirit.
WJAR and Rhode Island Monthly identify David and Jackie Moore as the buyers who restored the property in 2022. OpenTable’s current listing names Jacqueline and David Moore as co-owners, and the inn's own current site advertises active lodging, dining, and events.
General Stanton Inn has operated continuously as a tavern and inn since 1740.
The inn began receiving guests in 1740, but local reopening coverage says the tavern and lodging operation experienced a roughly ten-year hiatus before David and Jackie Moore restored and reopened the property in 2022.
Source: Rhode Island Monthly, "A Revolutionary Rebirth for the General Stanton Inn," September 7, 2022; Westerly Sun, August 20, 2022
The entire General Stanton Inn building was built in 1740 by Thomas Stanton.
The complex contains a reported circa-1667 room associated with a Native American schoolhouse, while the inn wing was built in 1740 by Joseph Stanton II, Thomas Stanton's grandson. The property is a multi-period complex, not one 1740 structure built by Thomas Stanton.
Source: Rhode Island Monthly, September 7, 2022; General Stanton Inn, "About Us," updated February 1, 2026; WJAR, August 26, 2022
George Washington's visit to General Stanton Inn is documented in Revolutionary War records.
The Washington visit is repeated by the inn and local histories, but this review did not locate a primary travel record, inn register, diary, letter, or contemporaneous news report confirming a stop at this specific property.
Source: General Stanton Inn, "About Us"; WJAR, August 26, 2022; no independently reviewed primary Washington record located
General Stanton Inn is at 4118 Old Post Road.
Current official, reservation, and dining sources list the inn at 4115 Old Post Road, Charlestown, Rhode Island 02813.
Source: General Stanton Inn official website; OpenTable, February 28, 2026; Booking.com listing
General Stanton Inn survived because its owners treated the building as both a colonial artifact and a working hospitality property. The Moores took on a long-closed inn, rebuilt kitchens and guest rooms, restored the 1740 wing, and reopened the tavern before returning lodging and banquet space to service. Its lasting appeal comes from a layered local history—seventeenth-century land stories, eighteenth-century road travel, Revolutionary lore, Prohibition memories, and modern restoration—rather than a simplistic claim of uninterrupted operation.
General Stanton Inn began receiving guests in Charlestown in 1740, when Joseph Stanton II built an inn wing beside an older room dating to about 1667. The property accumulated stagecoach, Revolutionary-era, presidential-visitor, and Prohibition stories over the centuries. After a roughly ten-year closure, David and Jackie Moore bought, restored, and reopened the inn, tavern, dining rooms, and guest accommodations in 2022.
No settled Rhode Island oldest-inn title is established for General Stanton Inn in this record. It has a documented 1740 guest-service origin and is one of the state's oldest colonial inn properties, but it experienced a roughly ten-year hiatus before reopening in 2022. The White Horse Tavern in Newport has an earlier 1673 founding claim, but that separate establishment must be evaluated under its own source record before any statewide ranking is declared.
The dates refer to different parts of the property. The Indian Room is reported to date to about 1667 and is associated with an early Native American schoolhouse. The inn’s hospitality history begins in 1740, when Joseph Stanton II built the inn wing and began receiving guests. The older room does not prove that the hotel business itself started in 1667.
Yes. Local reopening coverage says the inn and tavern had been closed for about ten years before David and Jackie Moore bought the property and completed a major renovation in 2022. The tavern reopened in August 2022, with additional dining, guest-room, and banquet facilities opening later that year. The closure means the inn cannot accurately claim uninterrupted operation since 1740.
General Stanton Inn and local histories say George Washington was among the presidents and Revolutionary figures who came through the Charlestown property. This review did not locate a Washington diary, itinerary, inn ledger, letter, or contemporary record confirming a stop at the inn itself. The claim is longstanding local tradition but remains unverified at the primary-source level.
No reliable earliest newspaper, archival, oral-history, or folklore-book source for General Stanton Inn's haunted reputation was identified in this review. Modern stories mention colonial travelers and the Stanton family, but they do not establish a documented origin date or verify a specific spirit. The haunting should be presented as current folklore unless early source material is found.
4115 Old Post Rd, Charlestown, RI 02813
(401) 364-8888
General Stanton Inn currently offers guest rooms, dinner, Sunday brunch, private events, and weddings. Reservations are recommended; confirm restaurant hours, room availability, and special-event access directly before visiting.