Governor Henry Bull House, in Newport, Rhode Island was purported to be the oldest house in Rhode Island, with parts of the house dating to 1639. It was destroyed by fire in December 1912.
The Henry Bull house was located on the eastern side of Spring Street in Newport near modern-day Bull Street and Broadway. According to turn-of-the-twentieth-century research by Norman Isham, the back part of the stone house was built around 1639 by Henry Bull, a Quaker leader and one of the original settlers of Portsmouth and Newport. Bull served as a colonial militia officer and jail keeper. The original Newport jail may have been part of the house. Henry Bull died at the house in 1694 and was the last survivor of the original founders of Rhode Island. Large modifications were made to the house in later decades. Henry's son, Jireh Bull, constructed a large fortified house in South Kingstown, Rhode Island which was demolished during King Philip's War. [1] A fire burned and destroyed the Henry Bull House on December 29, 1912. [2] [3] [4]
Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately 33 miles (53 km) southeast of Providence, 20 miles (32 km) south of Fall River, Massachusetts, 74 miles (119 km) south of Boston, and 180 miles (290 km) northeast of New York City. It is known as a New England summer resort and is famous for its historic mansions and its rich sailing history. The city has a population of about 25,000 residents.
Watch Hill is an affluent coastal neighborhood and census-designated place in the town of Westerly, Rhode Island. The population was 154 at the 2010 census. It sits at the most-southwestern point in Rhode Island. It came to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th century as an exclusive summer resort, with wealthy families building sprawling Victorian-style "cottages" along the peninsula. Watch Hill is characterized by The New York Times as a community "with a strong sense of privacy and of discreetly used wealth," in contrast with "the overpowering castles of the very rich" in nearby Newport.
The Rhode Island Historical Society is a privately endowed membership organization, founded in 1822, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Rhode Island. Its offices are located in Providence, Rhode Island.
Touro Synagogue Cemetery, dedicated in 1677, is located in the colonial historic district of Newport, Rhode Island, not far from the Touro Synagogue. Other Jewish graves are found nearby as part of the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery on Farewell Street.
The Newport Historical Society is a historical society in Newport, Rhode Island that was chartered in 1854 to collect and preserve books, manuscripts, and objects pertaining to Newport's history.
The Point is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Newport, Rhode Island and has one of the highest concentrations of colonial houses in the United States. The neighborhood sits between Washington Street and Farewell Street/America's Cup in Newport looking out on Goat Island, former home to the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station.
The Newport Art Museum, founded in 1912 as the Art Association of Newport, is located at 76 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The museum operates a gallery in the John N. A. Griswold House, a National Historic Landmark that is one of the first American Stick Style buildings. It was designed by the noted American architect, Richard Morris Hunt in 1864 and one was one of his first commissions in Newport. The museum purchased the house in 1915.
The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pair of cemeteries was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a single listing in 1974.
The Captain John Mawdsley House, located at 228 Spring Street, is one of the oldest houses in Newport, Rhode Island.
The Jireh Bull Blockhouse is an historic archaeological site on Middlebridge Road in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. In 1657 a blockhouse was built on the site by Jireh Bull, son of Rhode Island Governor Henry Bull. The stone garrison house was burned by the Native Americans in King Philip's War on December 15, 1675, and fifteen soldiers defending the fort were killed. The site was acquired by the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1925.
The John Bliss House is an historic stone ender house on 2 Wilbur Avenue near Bliss Road in Newport, Rhode Island. The late seventeenth century Jacobean house is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Rhode Island.
The Tavern Hall Preservation Society is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation and upkeep of the Elisha Reynolds House (1738) in Kingston, Rhode Island. The society was founded as the Tavern Hall Club in 1911 to foster understanding and cooperation between the people of the Village of Kingston and the nearby Rhode Island State College community.
Henry Bull (1610–1694) was an early colonial Governor of Rhode Island, serving for two separate terms, one before and one after the tenure of Edmund Andros under the Dominion of New England. Sailing from England as a young man, Bull first settled in Roxbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but soon became a follower of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, and was excommunicated from the Roxbury church. With many other followers of Hutchinson, he signed the Portsmouth Compact, and settled on Aquidneck Island in the Narragansett Bay. Within a year of arriving there, he and others followed William Coddington to the south end of the island where they established the town of Newport.
The Coddington Cemetery is an early colonial cemetery located in Newport, Rhode Island. It is sometimes called the Friends' Burial Ground, and has more colonial governors buried in it than any other cemetery in the state.
Washington Square is the geographical and historical heart of Newport Rhode Island. More trapezoid than square, it exists at the intersection of several major streets and what was the colonial long wharf, projecting into the harbor off Aquidneck Island and into Narragansett Bay. Although as a civic space it is colonial in origin, dating back to the first settlement of 1639, much of its present shape, form and name dates from the 19th century while a number of its most prominent buildings are of early 20th century design. Like many civic spaces, it developed over time rather than being imposed by design.
The United Baptist Church, John Clarke Memorial is a historic Baptist church in Newport, Rhode Island, USA that was founded in 1638–1644. It is one of the two oldest Baptist congregations in the United States and is currently affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. The current meeting house of the church was constructed in 1846.
Timeline of Newport, Rhode Island.
Clarence Sumner Luce (1852–1924) was an American architect who practiced first in Boston, then at Newport, Rhode Island, and finally in New York. He is best known for his design for the Holyoke Opera House, and his designs for a series of Newport houses.
Henry Bull was a colonial attorney and politician in Rhode Island.