East Greenwich Village is located in the northeastern part of the town and extends north about 0.93 mi (1.5 km) into the city of Warwick, Rhode Island.

East Greenwich, the 8th oldest town in Rhode Island,[6] was founded in October 1677 by the General Assembly in an attempt to solidify land claims against those of Connecticut and the Narragansett Proprietors.

The Assembly designated 5,000 acres to the new town and provided lots to settlers who would agree to live there—land was deeded to 48 men who had fought in King Phillip's War against the Wampanoag.

The Assembly put Captain Abraham Whipple in charge of this new military branch and these ships, with the formal title commodore.

[9] In the 19th Century, East Greenwich attracted a wave of immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavian countries, as well as free Blacks.

[10] As it grew, the neighborhood of immigrants and mixed ethnicities developed a reputation as a "shantytown" of "low and lawless nature" by white writers and community leaders.

Most of East Greenwich's neighborhood of Scalloptown was destroyed by 1926, after a mass eviction order by the town council left most of its buildings vacant.

[11] But, historian Catherine Streich argues, the racial prejudices of white East Greenwich residents and their dwindling desire for social reform led to their destruction of Scalloptown.

[13] 20 percent of the land in East Greenwich consists of undeveloped woods and farmland, although development continues to bring this proportion down.

In 2015, Newsweek magazine ranked East Greenwich High School first in Rhode Island and 186th in the United States.

[17] The campus includes a 265,000 square foot facility[18] dedicated to classrooms, technical labs, medical suites for training simulations, and administrative services.

[17] The current East Greenwich Free Library, at 82 Pierce Street, was endowed by Daniel Albert Peirce in 1913.

Across from the coast is Goddard Memorial State Park, which has many beaches including Sandy Point and has easy access from East Greenwich Cove.

Scalloptown Park has been completed at the southern end of Greenwich Cove, built atop the old town landfill.

At the federal level, all of East Greenwich is included in Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district and is represented by Democrat Seth Magaziner.

In presidential elections, East Greenwich is one of the very few towns in deep blue Rhode Island that has a tendency to lean Republican.

Biden also became the first major party candidate to win over sixty percent of the vote in the town since also then vice president George H. W. Bush.