Smith’s Castle has a long history as a historic site. Gifted to Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, by the Narragansett Tribe, the land was first used as a site for a trading post in 1637. Unfortunately, the original structure was burned in 1676 during a conflict with the Narragansett Tribe. In 1678, the Castle was rebuilt, and once the land was sold to the Updike family in the early 18th-century, Smith’s Castle became a prominent plantation. Encompassing more than 3,000 acres divided into five farms, the land was worked by a large force of tenant farmers, indentured servants and slaves.