National Historic Site

Stephen Hopkins House // 1743

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The Stephen Hopkins House is a Colonial-era house in the East Side neighborhood of Providence, and has survived waves of commercialization and redevelopment for nearly 300 years. The home is associated with Founding Father of the United States, Stephen Hopkins (1707–1785), who served as Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and was a signer of both the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence. In 1742, Stephen Hopkins purchased a one-story cottage built in 1707 on Main Street, and enlarged the original house to its present size by 1743, incorporating the original cottage as the rear ell. The eight-room residence was occupied by Gov. Hopkins, his family, as well as enslaved Africans who lived under the same roof until his death in 1785. During his ownership, George Washington slept here, twice. After 150 years of successive ownership, in 1928, the house was moved to its current location at the corner of Hopkins and Benefit Streets to facilitate the construction of the new Providence County Courthouse complex. The Hopkins House was restored by architectural historian and architect, Norman M. Isham, and is owned by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, operating it as a historic house museum. The Gov. Stephen Hopkins House is a National Historic Landmark.

Weir Farmhouse // c.1780

Buildings of New England4 Comments

Impressionist painter, Julian Alden Weir was looking to build a home in New York’s Adirondack Mountains when Erwin Davis, an art dealer, offered him a farm in Ridgefield, Connecticut, for a painting he owned plus ten dollars. After a visit in 1882, Weir agreed and acquired the 153-acre farm. The old farmhouse, which dates to the 1780s, and was modified in the Greek Revival style before Weir’s ownership and expanded and renovated again during its time as an artist’s retreat. The house was often filled with family and friends as a popular artistic retreat for Weir’s closest friends, including: Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent, and John Twachtman. Weir’s daughter Dorothy Weir, a noted artist in her own right, took over management of the property following her father’s death in 1919. Sculptor Mahonri Young would build a second studio at Weir Farm after the couple married in 1931. The Weir Farm site was designated as a National Historic Site in 1990, but prior to its permanent protection, Weir Farm had been subdivided for housing development in the late 1980s. The Trust for Public Land worked to reacquire the divided land through close to 2 dozen transactions, preserving the site for generations to come.