John Brown House | |
Location | 52 Power St., Providence, Rhode Island |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°49′23″N71°24′12″W / 41.82306°N 71.40333°W |
Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) |
Built | 1786/1788 |
Architect | Joseph Brown |
Architectural style | late-Georgian (Federal) |
Part of | College Hill Historic District (ID70000019) |
NRHP reference No. | 68000007 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 24, 1968 [1] |
Designated NHL | November 24, 1968 [2] |
Designated NHLDCP | November 10, 1970 |
The John Brown House borders the campus of Brown University at 52 Power Street on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island. Completed in 1788, it was the first mansion to be built in Providence and is named after its first owner, John Brown, a statesman, merchant, slave trader, and early benefactor of the University.
The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968. [2] [3]
The American president John Quincy Adams called it "the most magnificent and elegant private mansion that I have ever seen on this continent." [3]
The building was designed by John Brown's brother Joseph, an amateur architect who had also designed the First Baptist Church in America. [4] It was built between 1786 and 1788. [4] Notable guests during this time include George Washington, who is reported to have visited for tea. Brown was an admirer of Washington, modeling this house on Mount Vernon and commissioning a mural of Washington's inauguration in one of the rooms. The carriage house of the Brown House contains a chariot owned by Brown and purportedly used by Washington during a visit to Providence. [5]
The house was sold in 1901 to Rhode Island industrialist and banker Marsden J. Perry. Perry renovated the extension to add modern bathrooms and central heating systems. John Nicholas Brown purchased it in 1936. In 1942, the Brown family donated the house to the Rhode Island Historical Society for preservation, [3] and the society restored it to its original colonial decor. The museum now contains many original furniture pieces provided by the Brown family estate.
The lawn of the John Brown House is the setting for the Rhode Island Historical Society's annual summer concert series "Concerts Under the Elms." The concerts feature a variety of mostly local music talent, ranging from Big Band to Latin Jazz to folk, oldies, and more. Local food trucks provide meals. [6] [7]
The house is a three-story brick structure with a hipped roof topped by a flat section. Both the main roof line and the flat section are ringed by a low balustrade. Four chimneys rise from the sides of the house, and its main entrance is in a center projecting section topped by a small triangular pediment. The entry is sheltered by a portico supported by sandstone Doric columns, and there is a Palladian window above the portico. The interior of the house follows a traditional Georgian plan, with a central hallway flanked by two rooms on either side. The hall is particularly grand, with engaged columns supporting architectural busts and a two-stage stairwell with an ornate twisting banister. Richly detailed woodwork is evident in all of the public rooms. Eleven of the building's twelve mantelpieces are original. [3]
The First Baptist Meetinghouse also known as the First Baptist Church in America. It is the oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States. The Church was founded in 1638 by Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island. The present church building was erected between 1774 and 1775 and held its first meetings in May 1775. It is located at 75 North Main Street in Providence's College Hill neighborhood. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA.
Moses Brown School is an independent, Quaker, college preparatory school located in Providence, Rhode Island, offering pre-kindergarten through secondary school classes. It was founded in 1784 by Moses Brown, a Quaker abolitionist, and is one of the oldest preparatory schools in the country. The school motto is Verum Honorem, "For The Honor of Truth", and the school song is "In the Shadow of the Elms", a reference to the large grove of elm bushes that still surrounds the school.
The Elms is a large mansion located at 367 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, completed in 1901. The architect Horace Trumbauer (1868–1938) designed it for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind (1848–1936), taking inspiration from the 18th century Château d'Asnières in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. C. H. Miller and E. W. Bowditch, working closely with Trumbauer, designed the gardens and landscape. The Preservation Society of Newport County purchased The Elms in 1962, and opened the house to the public. The Elms was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
Marble House, a Gilded Age mansion located at 596 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built from 1888 to 1892 as a summer cottage for Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It was unparalleled in opulence for an American house when it was completed in 1892. Its temple-front portico resembles that of the White House.
Chateau-sur-Mer is one of the first grand Bellevue Avenue mansions of the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island. Located at 474 Bellevue Avenue, it is now owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County and is open to the public as a museum. Chateau-sur-Mer's grand scale and lavish parties ushered in the Gilded Age of Newport, as it was the most palatial residence in Newport until the Vanderbilt houses in the 1890s. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.
Union Station describes two distinct, defunct train stations in Providence, Rhode Island. Parts of the latter one were renovated and the building contains offices and restaurants.
The Slater Mill is a historic water-powered textile mill complex on the banks of the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, modeled after cotton spinning mills first established in England. It is the first water-powered cotton spinning mill in America to utilize the Arkwright system of cotton spinning as developed by Richard Arkwright.
The Eleazer Arnold House is a historic house built for Eleazer Arnold in about 1693, and located in the Great Road Historic District at Lincoln, Rhode Island. It is now a National Historic Landmark owned by Historic New England, and open to the public on weekends.
The Redwood Library and Athenaeum is a subscription library, museum, rare book repository and research center founded in 1747, and located at 50 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The building, designed by Peter Harrison and completed in March 1750, was the first purposely built library in the United States, and the oldest neo-Classical building in the country. It has been in continuous use since its opening.
The Governor Henry Lippitt House is a historic house museum at 199 Hope Street on the East Side of Providence, Rhode Island. A National Historic Landmark, it is one of the finest Italianate mansion houses in the state, and considered one of the best-preserved examples of Victorian-era houses in the United States. It is notable for its association with Henry Lippitt (1818–91), a wealthy textile magnate who was the 33rd Governor of Rhode Island. The house is owned by Preserve Rhode Island, and is open to the public for tours seasonally or by appointment.
Kingscote is a Gothic Revival mansion and house museum at Bowery Street and Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, designed by Richard Upjohn and built in 1839. As one of the first summer "cottages" constructed in Newport, it is now a National Historic Landmark. It was remodeled and extended by George Champlin Mason and later by Stanford White. It was owned by the King family from 1864 until 1972, when it was given to the Preservation Society of Newport County.
The Nelson W. Aldrich House, also known as the Dr. S. B. Tobey House, is a Federal-style house at 110 Benevolent Street in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The house was the home of Nelson W. Aldrich, a U.S. Senator from 1881 to 1911. Aldrich was a dominant and controversial figure in the Senate, exercising significant control over the legislative process. This house, one of two surviving properties associated with Aldrich, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. It is now a house museum operated by the Rhode Island Historical Society.
The Old Colony House, also known as Old State House or Newport Colony House, is located at the east end of Washington Square in the city of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is a brick Georgian-style building completed in 1741, and was the meeting place for the colonial legislature. From independence in 1776 to the early 20th century, the state legislature alternated its sessions between here and the Rhode Island State House in Providence.
The College Hill Historic District is located in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District on December 30, 1970. The College Hill local historic district, established in 1960, partially overlaps the national landmark district. Properties within the local historic district are regulated by the city's historic district zoning ordinance, and cannot be altered without approval from the Providence Historic District Commission.
The Thomas P. Ives House is a National Historic Landmark at 66 Power Street in the College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island. Built in 1803–06, this brick house is an extremely well-preserved and little-altered example of Adamesque-Federal style. The house was built by Caleb Ormsbee, a Providence master builder, for Thomas Poynton Ives, a wealthy merchant. Although two of its principal chambers were redecorated in the 1870s, these alterations were reversed in the 1950s. The house was in Ives family hands for more than 150 years. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970.
The John N. A. Griswold House is a historic house located at 76 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. It was built in 1864 for John Noble Alsop Griswold, an Old China Trade merchant and member of the Griswold Family, and was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in the American Stick style, one of the earliest buildings in that style, and one of Hunt's first works in Newport.
The Nightingale–Brown House is a historic house at 357 Benefit Street on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island. It is home to the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University. The house is architecturally significant as one of the largest surviving wood-frame houses of the 18th century, and is historically significant as the longtime seat of the Brown family, whose members have been leaders of the Providence civic, social, and business community since the 17th century, and include nationally significant leaders of America's industrialization in the 19th century. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Candace Allen House is a historic house located at 12 Benevolent Street in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. Named after Candace Allen (1785-1872) an dauther of Zachariah Allen, a prominent Providence mill-owner.
The Thomas F. Hoppin House is a historic house at 383 Benefit Street in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The house was built c. 1853 to a design by Alpheus C. Morse, and is an elaborate local example of an Italianate palazzo-style residence. The Library of Congress called the property "one of the largest and most elegant houses built in Providence in the mid-nineteenth century."
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(help) and Accompanying 11 photos, exterior and interior, from 1967 and 1974 (32 KB)