Henry Bull House

Last updated
Henry Bull House
Henry Bull House Newport Rhode Island 1639.jpg
c. 1865–70
Governor Henry Bull House in Newport Rhode Island postcard.jpg
ca.1900 postcard

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]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newport, Rhode Island</span> City in Rhode Island, United States

Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watch Hill, Rhode Island</span> United States historic place

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 all of 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhode Island Historical Society</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touro Cemetery</span> Jewish cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island, United States

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Easton's Point</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newport Historic District (Rhode Island)</span> Historic district in Rhode Island, United States

The Newport Historic District is a historic district that covers 250 acres in the center of Newport in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1968 due to its extensive and well-preserved assortment of intact colonial buildings dating from the early and mid-18th century. Six of those buildings are themselves NHLs in their own right, including the city's oldest house and the former meeting place of the colonial and state legislatures. Newer and modern buildings coexist with the historic structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newport Art Museum</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery</span> United States historic place

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capt. John Mawdsley House</span> Historic house in Rhode Island, United States

The Captain John Mawdsley House, located at 228 Spring Street, is one of the oldest houses in Newport, Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jireh Bull Blockhouse</span> United States historic place

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bliss House</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tavern Hall Preservation Society</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coddington Cemetery</span> Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island

The Coddington Cemetery is an early colonial cemetery located in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It is sometimes called the Friends' Burial Ground, and has more colonial governors buried in it than any other cemetery in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Square (Newport, Rhode Island)</span>

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 most great civic spaces, it developed over time rather than being imposed by design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Baptist Church (Newport, Rhode Island)</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Sumner Luce</span> American architect (1852–1924)

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.

References

  1. "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century" Volume 3, By Edward Field (Mason Publishing Co., Boston: 1902) ( (accessed November 14, 2008 on google book search)
  2. Newport By Rob Lewis (Arcadia Publishing, 1996)
  3. "Historic Newport King Covell Artist Lloyd A. Robson Rhode Island".
  4. "Historic spots in Newport". 1914.

See also

Coordinates: 41°29′28″N71°18′44″W / 41.4911°N 71.3123°W / 41.4911; -71.3123