Georgian

Daniel Smith House // c.1750

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Daniel Smith House at 362 Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, stands out in the neighborhood as an uncommon gambrel-roofed Georgian-era residence, but it was not built here! The home was built by about 1750 for Daniel Smith, and may possibly date to around 1725 a year after he was deeded land from his father and the same year he married his wife, Dorcas Harris. If the home does indeed date to around 1725, it would likely be the oldest extant house in Providence! The home was originally located across town on Chalkstone Avenue, and moved to the present site on Benefit Street in 1982 to save it from institutional expansion by Roger Williams Hospital. The hospital set a date to demolish the farmhouse, then covered in asbestos siding, and offered the building for free to someone who could move it off the site. After tense weeks and a nearing deadline, Angela Brown Fischer, a real estate executive, agreed to pay the costs to move the building across town to a site on Benefit Street, where it remains today. The home was put back together and restored by Newport-based architect, Richard Long, who worked as principal architect for the Restoration Foundation of Newport before opening a private architectural practice. What a great preservation success story!

Captain Joseph Tillinghast House // c.1770

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This Georgian house at 403 South Main Street in Providence’s East Side was built by Captain Joseph Tillinghast (1734-1816) a wealthy merchant and participant in the Gaspee Affair, a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. The Gaspee Affair occured in 1772, when a group of men from Providence attacked and burned the British customs schooner, HMS Gaspee. The incident was fueled by colonial resentment towards British customs enforcement, and took place not too long after the Boston Massacre. Joseph built this house for his family on land he inherited from his family, who claimed the land in 1645. Tillinghast was also the owner of a line of packet boats (light shipping of domestic freight and mail) operating between Providence and Newport. After Joseph died in 1816, the property was occupied by members of the Tillinghast family until 1847. By the mid-20th century, urban renewal and the proximity to the new highways caused the surrounding area to suffer, with this historic home threatened. Throughout 2008, the building’s condition continued to rapidly deteriorate, and local preservationists advocated for the home’s future. After attention was brought to the residence and its significance, the house was restored with the assistance of the Providence Revolving Fund, including the stabilization of the foundation, roof and chimneys rebuilt, with clapboards and windows repaired.

Joseph Brown House // 1774

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Constructed in 1774 by architect Joseph Brown (1733-1785) of the Brown family of Rhode Island as his personal residence, the John Brown House of Providence, stands as one of the oldest (if not the oldest) house built by an American architect for his own use. Joseph Brown, while a member of the Brown Family, was not as much in the shipping business as others in his family, instead turning his attention to scientific matters, becoming an expert in astronomy, electrification, and architecture. He was an architect in the Thomas Jefferson-gentleman mode, owning English architectural books from which he selected motifs for inclusion in his designs. It is believed that the eccentric curved ogee gable that caps the façade was adapted from the roof design of a garden house published in William Salman’s Palladio Londinensis, owned by Joseph Brown’s builder, Martin Seamans. The same ogee gable was later replicated in the Colonial Revival period in Providence. The residence’s entrance was originally raised above ground and accessed via symmetrical flights of stairs; in the late 18th century, the entrance was moved to street level in the brownstone basement level. Over a decade after Joseph’s death in 1785, the structure was acquired by the Providence Bank, an enterprise founded by Brown’s brothers John and Moses, and used as an office. The bank occupied the structure until 1929, and the Joseph Brown House was subsequently owned by the Counting House Corporation, and still appears to be owned by descendants of the Brown Family.

Kingston Almshouse // c.1772

Buildings of New England2 Comments

Built on the banks of the Jones River in Kingston, Massachusetts, this large residence is said to date to 1772 and was the home to a prominent ship-building family as well as to hundreds of destitute residents of the community who lived and worked here as the town’s poor house. Land (and possibly an earlier house) was acquired in 1772 by Zenas Drew (1735-1822), the son of Cornelius Drew, a wealthy shipbuilder who employed his many sons to work in the same industry, and the existing house was constructed for his family. From the house, numerous shipyards would be seen with large brigs travelling down the Jones River into Plymouth Bay and the Atlantic. After Zenas Drew’s death in 1822, the Town of Kingston acquired the property for use as the town’s almshouse or poorhouse, and likely expanded the property to its current Federal style configuration. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, almshouses were a reality for society’s most vulnerable people, where these locally run institutions provided living and working conditions in a time before Social Security, Medicaid and Section 8 housing became a reality. These facilities were designed to punish people for their poverty and, hypothetically, make being poor so horrible that people would continue to work at all costs. Being poor began to carry an intense social stigma, and increasingly, poorhouses were placed outside of public view, as was the case here in Kingston outside of the town center at the banks of the river. By the 1920s and 1930s, these institutions began to close, with Kingston’s closing in 1923. The property was sold to a private owner, and has remained as a single-family residence ever since. 

Bildad Washburn Tavern // c.1774

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This stately Georgian style house on Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, was originally built in nearby Marshfield and later moved to its current location just decades later. The house was built on the Winslow estate in Marshfield in about 1774 by either Dr. Isaac Winslow or his brother, Maj Pelham Winslow. In 1796, the property was purchased by Bildad Washburn, a noted gravestone carver, and the house was moved to its present site. Reports state that the house was moved by boat and oxcart to its current location, where it became a tavern and residence of Mr. Washburn. In 1804, the house was sold to Major George Russell, a merchant and town clerk, who later served in the War of 1812, who converted the ell into a store where he sold, East and West India goods from his ships. After his death, his daughter ran a dame’s school from the house. The Washburn Tavern is significant as a large Georgian-era house that remains in a great state of preservation.

General John Thomas House // c.1761

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The General John Thomas House at 156 Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, is significant as a pre-Revolution Georgian style residence and for its connections with a notable Patriot. General John Thomas (1724-1776) was born in Marshfield and later studied medicine, completing his studies in 1746 at the age of 22. He practiced medicine until being appointed in March 1746, as assistant surgeon by Governor William Shirley in Samuel Waldo’s regiment. Liking military service, in 1747 he traded his post as surgeon for that of a lieutenant. By the time of the French and Indian War he had risen to colonel in the militia. After the war, he married Hannah Thomas in 1761 and either built or moved into this house in Kingston, where he practiced medicine. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, John Thomas was a Brigadier, and briefly resigned from the ranks, disappointed that while four major generals were named, he was not on the list. Congress was then trying to name no more than one major general from each state, and Artemas Ward was given preference. George Washington implored him to remain, and John Thomas returned to service. The Congress resolved that he would be given precedence over all other brigadiers in the army. On the night of March 4, 1776, he led his division to fortify the Dorchester Heights, overlooking the south harbor at Boston, by using cannon that Henry Knox had brought from Fort Ticonderoga. From that position, he threatened the British fleet and the British were forced to withdraw, evacuating Boston on March 17. Thomas was finally named a major general. Soon after, Thomas was assigned to command in Canada and take charge of the Canadian invasion. He joined the army besieging Quebec and remained there until he died of Smallpox in June 1776, not living long enough to see a free America. The John Thomas House is a lasting and important physical vestige of his legacy.

Joseph Royall House // c.1770

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

This is one of the oldest buildings in Boston! The Joseph Royall House is located at 770 Washington Street in the Ashmont section of Dorchester, set back from the street and passed by thousands who likely do not know its history and significance. The house dates to around 1770 and was built by Joseph Royall, of the infamous Royall Family of Cambridge, Medford, and Antigua, who made much of their money through sugar plantations in the Caribbean and enslaved Africans. Joseph was a nephew of Isaac Royal Jr., the patriarch of the family who resided at what is now the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford. Upon the outbreak of the American Revolution, the Tory Royalls were forced to flee for protection, Joseph would move to England. Isaac’s daughter (and Joseph’s cousin), Penelope Royall Vassall had her Cambridge home confiscated as a Tory property during the Revolution, causing her to flee to Antigua. When she returned to Boston after the war she was a widow and lived in poverty. Her cousin, Joseph, would sell her this Dorchester estate in 1782 nearly for free, allowing her to sell the property for money to survive in Boston. The house would remain here for another two-and-a-quarter centuries, as Ashmont grew around it. One-story stores were built in the front yard, completely obscuring the Georgian residence until later owners, Bob and Vicki Rugo, restored the house and demolished the stores in front, preserving this house for centuries to come. While the house is one of the oldest in Boston, it is not a landmark or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Richard Trevett House // 1730

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Richard Trevett Jr. (1690-1749) was a wealthy shipwright and sparmaker (a carpenter who finishes and installs spars, masts, and cargo booms) in Marblehead, and part of a wealthy shipowning family. He would build this house on Washington Street (originally named King Street before the Revolution) and reside here with his family. Trevett lived here for just a few years until the death of his father, and he sold the property, which was later purchased by Joseph Pedrick, a wealthy ship owner, who’s son, John Pedrick, built an even larger mansion down the street. By the turn of the 19th century, this house was owned by Captain Samuel Horton, a commander in the Revolution under General John Glover. After the war, Samuel Horton engaged in mercantile pursuits, importing goods from all over the world. He likely brought home pineapples similar to the pineapple motif over the doorway from plantations in the Caribbean and South America as well.

Reverend John Barnard House // 1717

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

John Barnard (1681-1770) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and received his degrees from Harvard in 1700 and 1703, reading theology under Cotton Mather. After graduating, he was appointed one of the five chaplains for the expedition against Port-Royal, a French-colonized settlement in present-day Nova Scotia. After time in Barbados and England, Barnard was ordained by the Marblehead Congregational church on in July 1716, and served that church for the rest of his life. Upon arriving to Marblehead, he had this Georgian residence built on Franklin Street, completed by 1717. The house is said to be one of the first Georgian facades in the town, showcasing Reverend Barnard’s standing in the community and knowledge of English Georgian residences across the ocean. The early Georgian house exhibits a gambrel roof, nearly symmetrical facade with center hall plan, and high ceilings inside for its time. The house was converted into condominiums in 1988 and has retained its historic appearance, at least at the exterior, ever since.

Huntington Homestead // c.1715

Buildings of New England1 Comment

The Huntington Homestead in Scotland, Connecticut, was the birthplace and boyhood home of Samuel Huntington (1731–1796), a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a distinguished statesman during the Revolutionary War and early Republic. The remarkably well-preserved site includes an eighteenth century house on its original foundation surrounded by acres of farmland and is now protected as a museum. The house was built sometime between the transfer of land in 1715 from Deacon Joseph Huntington to his son Nathaniel, and Nathaniel’s marriage in 1723 to Mehetabel Thurston. As originally constructed, the house consisted of a two-story structure with an end chimney on the west end and one large room on each floor. By the time of Nathanielís death in 1767, the house had been doubled in size with the addition of two rooms west of the chimney, giving the house its current five-bay form. The Georgian style Colonial-era home features a symmetrical facade, twelve-over-twelve windows, and a saltbox roof and is one of the finest Colonial-era homes in this part of the state.