Warren RI

Easterbrooks House // 1757

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One of the pre-Revolutionary homes in the picturesque town of Warren, Rhode Island, the Easterbrooks House on Church Street is definitely one of the smallest, but oozes charm. This one-and-a-half-story gambrel roofed cottage stands across from the Town Common and adjacent to what may be the tallest building in town, the First Methodist Church of Warren. The home was built by 1757, likely by William Easterbrooks (1731-1772), and by the time of the Revolution, was occupied by Ms. Nellie Easterbrooks (1761-1853). Nellie and her mother rented a room in their home to Warren schoolmaster, John Holland, who earned the nickname “Traitor Holland”, after he had secretly been sharing news to General Pigot, the British General in charge of forces in Rhode Island. Long thought to have supported the local Patriots, it was learned that he was a loyalist, after the British and Hessian soldiers raided Warren and were leaving the town in 1778. It is said that troops stopped at this house and John Holland accompanied them, cheering alongside and leaving with them. He was never seen in Warren again. Soon after this, a young Nellie Easterbrooks, then in her teens, sought revenge against the British who pillaged and assaulted her friends and family. As the troops were leaving, she is said to have gathered a group of other angry Patriot ladies of town and captured a drunken drummer marching through town. Then they dragged their bewildered captive into a nearby hotel and locked him into a closet there. Nellie would later marry Nathaniel Hicks West (1751-1836), a Revolutionary War veteran, and received a widows pension until her death in 1853. The Easterbrooks House is a rare, intact surviving Georgian home that tells a rich history of Colonial New England and the stories during the American Revolution.

Capt. James W. Barton House // c.1842

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One of four seafaring brothers who lived in Warren, Rhode Island, this charming cottage was built after Captain James Barton purchased a house lot at the northwest corner of Liberty and Union streets in 1841, likely building the home within a year. Captain James Barton (1790-1877) commanded a two-and-a-half year long whaling voyage to the Indian Ocean and undertook three subsequent trips to the Pacific. Upon retiring from the sea in 1867, Captain Barton established the Warren Gazette, where he worked as both owner and publisher. Before his time as a sea captain, James Barton had experience working in a printing office in Providence. Upon the Captain’s death in 1877, his wife Mary, continued to reside here with their daughter Nora B. Easterbrooks and her husband. Built as a modest Greek Revival style cottage for Barton’s wife while he was away at sea, the residence features a touch of the romantic Gothic Revival style in its window trim and the stable behind.

Nora M. Swift House // c.1902

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One of the few high-style, early 20th century homes in Warren, Rhode Island’s Downtown/Waterfront neighborhood, can be found on Washington Streetjust steps from the community’s vibrant Main Street. The handsome residence was built around 1902 for Dora Martin Swift, a widow of Edward A. Swift (1812-1895) a sea captain and whaler in the mid-19th century. Dora’s home exhibits a blending of Victorian-era and Colonial Revival styles with the varied shingle and clapboard siding, asymmetrical porch, and flared shingles between floors showcasing Queen Anne style influence and the portico, swag and wreath motifs, and symmetrical center-hall plan showcasing the emerging Colonial Revival style influence. The property has been well preserved and appears to have been the work of a successful builder or architect. 

Lewis T. Hoar House // c.1800

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While a part of this Warren, Rhode Island, home may date from as early as the late 18th century, it was completely “modernized” in the mid-19th century by owner, Lewis T. Hoar, a successful housewright, giving us the playful design we see today. Lewis Thomas Hoar (1810-1881) worked in partnerships, building many of the stately Italianate style residences in the village of Warren before entering politics, where he was elected as a state representative. Rather than building his own home from scratch, Lewis updated an earlier Federal period house, retaining its Federal-era hipped roof with monitor, but added the more intricate bay windows and porch, embellished with carved balustrade, brackets and ornament. The large property even retains a Second Empire style stable or barn, which has been preserved by later owners. 

George Cole House // c.1863

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This stunning Italianate style residence with ample front yard on Cole Street in Downtown Warren, Rhode Island, was built for a prominent member of a prominent local family. William Bradford Cole, a local housewright and builder, constructed this handsome residence for his brother, George Cole, around 1863, just before he enlisted to fight for the Union in the Civil War, ultimately giving his life for his country in New Orleans in 1865. George Cole was the owner and proprietor of the famed Revolutionary-era Cole’s Hotel located a short distance up Joyce Street at the corner of Main Street until it burned in 1893. The George Cole House exhibits many of the hallmarks of the Italianate style, including: a low pitched roof with overhanging eaves and a bracketed cornice, an entry porch, and proportionally narrow windows capped with shallow hoods.

Warren Foundry & Manufacturing Co. // c.1895

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The Warren Foundry and Manufacturing Company began manufacturing metal goods in the 1870s in Warren, Rhode Island. The company was started by Benjamin Miller Bosworth, and at first, the company only made wrought iron goods, but later expanded into producing iron and brass items. Its location next to the railroad tracks made the site perfect for importing raw material and shipping out finished products to markets all over New England. The original factory and smelting facility burned down in 1892, but Bosworth’s son, Walter, rebuilt the facility with this present building by 1895. The business closed by the 1920s and the unique wood-frame building with unique tower, has been adaptively reused as “The Mill at Warren Junction”, containing office and manufacturing space for small businesses.

Charles Wheaton Jr. House // c.1815

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Charles Wheaton (1761-1863) enlisted in the his local militia at just 14 years old and served in Colonel Robert Elliott’s Regiment of Artillery to protect Narragansett Bay. After the war, Charles settled in Warren, Rhode Island, and married Abigail Miller. They would have at least nine children, with one of their children, Charles Wheaton, Jr., (1791-1863) marrying Abiah Goodwin Turner in 1815, the daughter of a wealthy sea captain. Around the time of their marriage, they built this house on Liberty Street in Warren in the Federal style with a three bay facade, monitor on hip roof, and portico at the entrance with Ionic columns. By the end of the 19th century, the house was enlarged and a bay window was added over the entry portico.

Liberty Street School // 1847

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The Liberty Street School building in Warren, Rhode Island, was built in 1847 as only the third high school building constructed in the state, and is the oldest survivor of its style. Architect Thomas Alexander Tefft, one of the nation’s first professionally trained architects, designed the school when he was just 21 years old in the Italianate style, with a two-story form, center entrance set within a round-arched surround and a central projecting gable-end pavilion. The young architect would later take an excursion around Europe in the mid 1850s, but would fall ill with a fever in Florence, Italy and he died there in 1859. He was just 33 years old when he died. The Liberty Street School was remodelled as an elementary school at the turn of the 20th century and continued as a public school until the 1970s. The historically and architecturally significant building has sat vacant for years. The building is still owned by the Town of Warren, and after over decades of planning studies and proposals, the building remains vacant and deteriorating. What would you like to see as the future of the Tefft-designed Liberty Street School?

Salisbury-Johnson House // 1823

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One of the great Federal style homes in the charming downtown of Warren, Rhode Island, the Salisbury-Johnson House at 43 Miller Street features many of the hallmarks of the prominent architectural style. The main body of the house was constructed by 1823 after Theophilus Salisbury (1781-1835) purchased the house lot at the corner of Union Street, possibly being moved from another site to the present location at this time. The two-story, five-bay façade is detailed by quoined corners and an exceptional center entrance with sidelights and large, elliptical blind fan carved from a single piece of wood. After later owners, the property was purchased by Rodolphus B. Johnson (1816-1884), a wealthy shipping agent who owned whaling ships and ran a wharf at the foot of Johnson Street nearby.

Warren Baptist Church // 1844

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The Warren Baptist Church on Main Street in Warren, Rhode Island, is a landmark example of an ecclesiastical building in the Gothic Revival style completed in stone. Like many communities in Rhode Island, Baptists in Warren, were the first and largest denomination in the community, dating back to the 18th century. The congregation’s first purpose-built church was constructed in 1764 and was burned by the British in 1778 as they left Warren. Its replacement (1784) was demolished for the present building sixty years later. Interestingly, this site is significant additionally as the site of the founding of Brown University. as when Reverend James Manning was called in 1764 to take over the congregation and its new church building, he did so with the proviso that he could open a school for the training of Baptist ministers because all existing colonial colleges at the time provided for training only in the Congregational and Episcopal ministries. The school was located behind the present location of the church and it spent its first four years here in Warren, holding its first commencement in that church until the new school (and Reverend Manning as president) were lured to Providence, where Brown University has remained ever since. The present Warren Baptist Church was built in 1844 and was designed by famed Rhode Island architect, Russell Warren, who is best-known for his work in the Federal and Greek Revival styles, but here shows his expertise and skill in the Gothic mode. The building is notable for its lancet-arched windows and belfry with narrow lancet arched louvered windows set below the clock faces set in triangular trefoil tracery. The congregation also maintains Tiffany windows donated by members of the church.