The University of Rhode Island’s main campus is in Kingston.

Were it not for the University of Rhode Island, and its 15,650 students, Kingston might be a sleepy, if historically significant, village in South Kingstown.

In the past, Kingston served not only as the government center of South Kingstown and South County, but for 100 years, it was one of Rhode Island’s five rotating state capitals.

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The village began the shift from being a government center to becoming a center of education in 1888-89, when URI was established in Kingston as the Rhode Island Agricultural College. The institution became Rhode Island College in 1909 and URI in 1953.

Today the university is the dominant presence in Kingston. The 2000 Census found 5,446 residents in Kingston; of these, 2,617 were ages 15 to 19, and 1,557 were ages 20 to 24.

When Anna Prager and her husband moved to Rhode Island in the mid-1960s, they chose to live in Kingston, where they rented a house before buying one. Prager said the village’s historic buildings and small-town charm were the main attractions.

“It’s just a nice place to live,” she said. “The Kingston area always had a great appeal. The historic structures are marvelous, and I guess the presence of the faculty here makes it a very wonderful community.”

She said many of her friends and neighbors in Kingston are URI faculty. She remembered that when she moved to town, “nobody asked us if we were faculty members. They asked us which department we worked for.”

Prager has worked as a town planner in North Kingstown and South Kingstown, served on the South Kingstown Planning Board and as chairwoman of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. In 1994, she was elected to the South Kingstown Town Council. Today Prager works to promote affordable housing with the Washington County Community Development Corporation.

Many URI students live off campus. Three new residence halls with room to house 800 students, and a new dining hall, were dedicated last summer. At the time, Thomas R. Dougan, URI’s vice president of student affairs, said that a record number of students — 5,300 — would live on campus this academic year.

Prager said that university traffic can lead to traffic jams on the main roads, Routes 138 and 108, particularly when there are special events on campus, but she has learned to avoid the main roads at busy times and take back roads when needed. But Prager said this inconvenience is far outweighed by the many cultural and artistic events at URI that are open to the community, including concerts and art exhibits. “The fact that I can just walk to a concert … is a wonderful thing,” she said.

Prager said she lives in a cul-de-sac off South Road, and “it’s very quiet and pleasant where I live.”

Many students spend the academic year in nearby rental housing, Prager said. This coastal community includes many houses and apartments that command high rents in the summer, but are a bit more affordable for students in the off-season.

Kingston is a National Register historic district, and many of the historic buildings have been preserved.

There is a used books store in an 1897 building, the Kingston Hill Store, but there is little other commercial activity. The Wakefield section of South Kingstown is the closest shopping area.

Houses on the market in Kingston last week include a 1736 Colonial at 2545 Kingstown Rd. owned by real estate agent Chip Munro. Munro said George Washington stayed at the property on March 5 and 6, 1781, while en route to Newport. Later, the house was used as a stop on the Underground Railroad, he said.

Munro said the property has been in his family since the 1930s, when his grandparents, Dr. Charles and Marie Fish, who founded URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography, bought the house. Only two families have owned the house, Munro said. On the market at $649,900, it was the highest-price house listed for sale last week in Kingston. The 12-room house has 6 bedrooms, 2 full baths and 1 half-bath, and 3,684 square feet of living space.

The least expensive house listed in Kingston was a raised ranch built in 1985 with five bedrooms and three full baths, priced at $324,895.

Prager said that her daughter, who moved out of town when she married and started having a family, eventually moved back to Kingston. “She told me she wanted to give her children the kind of childhood she had,” she said.

POPULATION: (South Kingstown, 2000) 27,921

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE: (South Kingstown, 2006) $365,000

INTERESTING FACT: The Pettaquamscutt Historical Society building in Kingston is the former Washington County Jail, which operated from 1796 until 1956.

cdunn@projo.com