RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Rhode Island >> Providence County >> West Greenville >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in West Greenville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to West Greenville and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for West Greenville:
    • 41.877599, -71.571452
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on West Greenville
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Providence County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Providence County
    • Since West Greenville is near Worcester County and also Bristol County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Worcester County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bristol County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for West Greenville

Communities Also Named West Greenville ...

We found three communities that are also named West Greenville.

Within Rhode Island, the name West Greenville is unique.

Beyond Rhode Island, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Greene County
      • This West Greenville is located in Greene County and lies 131 miles [210.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the West Greenville that is located in Providence County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greene County community of West Greenville.
    • South Carolina
      • Greenville County
      • This West Greenville is located in Greenville County and lies 761 miles [1,224.7 km]<1> to the southwest of the West Greenville that is located in Providence County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greenville County community of West Greenville.
    • Wisconsin
      • Outagamie County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Wisconsin community of West Greenville [Outagamie County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near West Greenville ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Cherry Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Cherry Valley is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Valley
  • Elmdale ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Elmdale is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmdale
  • Field Station ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Field Station is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Field Station
  • Fountain Spring
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Fountain Spring is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain Spring
  • Fruit Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Fruit Hill is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruit Hill
  • Georgiaville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Georgiaville is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Georgiaville
  • Greenville
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Greenville is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenville
  • Greystone
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Greystone is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greystone
  • Harmony
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Harmony is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harmony
  • Spring Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Spring Grove is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Grove
  • Stillwater
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Stillwater is located in Providence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stillwater

How Far From West Greenville to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as West Greenville to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in West Greenville and extending to:

  • Providence, which is the Seat of Providence County, lies just to the East Southeast.
  • Providence, which is the State Capital of Rhode Island, lies just to the east southeast (ESE).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 353 miles [568.1 km]<1> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from West Greenville to White House, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 20 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 14 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,544 miles [8,922.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,250 miles [10,058.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,126 miles [6,640.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- West Greenville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that West Greenville could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from West Greenville to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in West Greenville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.8776, Longitude: -71.5715       In this case, the coordinates for West Greenville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 304.351 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.913 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 301.044 degrees.