Old Colony House | |
![]() Front elevation in 2017 | |
Location | Washington Sq., Newport, Rhode Island |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°29′27″N71°18′48″W / 41.49083°N 71.31333°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1736-1739 [1] |
Architect | Richard Munday |
Architectural style | Colonial |
Part of | Newport Historic District (ID68000001) |
NRHP reference No. | 66000014 [2] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 [3] |
Designated NHL | October 9, 1960 [4] |
Designated NHLDCP | November 24, 1968 |
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 building has received little alteration since its construction. As one of the best-maintained surviving Georgian public buildings in the United States from the colonial era, it was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1960. [4] It is also a contributing property to the Newport Historic District, later designated an NHL itself. The building is still owned by the state, but managed as a museum by the Newport Historical Society.
Besides its political and architectural importance, the building was the site of many important Revolutionary events in Rhode Island. George Washington [1] and Dwight Eisenhower have both been guests at the building. It has been used as a barracks, hospital, courthouse and a location for a Steven Spielberg film.
The two-and-a-half-story seven-bay front facade looks down the square to the similar Brick Market (now the Museum of Newport History), another NHL. The entryway is matched by a door and balcony immediately above it, capped by a trapezoidal gable with two round windows and a clock flanked by a pair of dormer windows on either side. Atop the roof is an octagonal cupola. It sits atop a raised basement.
Previous to the construction of the Colony House, the site had been home to a small wooden courthouse built in 1687. The new building was among several projects undertaken as an attempt to apply formal planning to the development of Newport, which had previously lacked it. By putting the home of the colonial assembly at the top of the Parade (as Washington Square was then known), the town's leadership hoped to create a public space similar to that found in the English cities they or their parents had emigrated from. [1]
Architect Richard Munday's design, one of his last, emulates Christopher Wren's buildings on the exterior but incorporates an interior layout similar to that of English town or guild halls. The first floor was thus an open space that could be used as a market, with civic offices upstairs. [1]
Many of the events leading up to and surrounding the Revolution in Rhode Island centered on the Colony House. In 1761, news of the death of King George II and his succession by his grandson George III was announced from the balcony. Three years later, the inaugural board meeting of the Corporation of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island, which became Brown University, took place in the building. [5] In 1765, Newport's citizens gathered around to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act, which led to riots that damaged the houses of three prominent supporters of the Act, including the nearby Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, an NHL which is today the oldest house in the city. [1] [6]
Tensions between the colonies and Britain continued to grow, leading to the Gaspée Affair of 1772, in which a ship of the Royal Navy was burned off present-day Warwick by colonists resisting the enforcement of the Navigation Acts. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the incident was convened at Colony House the following year. [7] Although it could have sent any suspects to London to face trial before an Admiralty court, a provision which greatly concerned most colonists, it found insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone. [1]
The incident further galvanized colonial opposition to British rule. The colony's General Assembly began preparing for war, and ordered that weapons be stored in Colony House in 1774. [8] Two years later, the Declaration of Independence was read from the front steps. The British occupied Newport, then the colonial capital, later that year. During that time the building was used as a barracks. When the French joined the war later and drove the British out of the city, they used the building as a hospital. It is widely believed that a French Army chaplain celebrated Rhode Island's first Roman Catholic Mass at Colony House during this period, but no evidence has been found of this. After the surrender at Yorktown, in 1782, Rochambeau held a banquet in the building's first-floor Great Hall to honor George Washington. A portrait of Washington, painted by Rhode Island native Gilbert Stuart, hangs in the first floor. [1] In 1786 Trevett v. Weeden one of the earliest cases of judicial review was decided in the building by the Rhode Island Supreme Court. [9] James Mitchell Varnum successfully represented the defendant in the cause.
In September 1842, delegates met at Colony House to draft a new constitution to replace the 1663 Royal Charter. [10] The convention, held as a response to the Dorr Rebellion, debated questions of expansion of citizenship and suffrage. [10] Prior to 1842, the vote was held only by a small minority of rural elite landowners.
By November 1842, a new Constitution was put before the voters of the state. The new Constitution, which passed 7024 to 51, [11] expanded the vote to include African-Americans, becoming the first state to do so. [10] But it also contained a $134 suffrage qualification to block the vote from naturalized citizens. [11]
The occupation of Newport had forced the colonists to establish their capital at Providence, and it remained there after independence. But the state legislature continued to meet in Newport every other year, and one day each May known as 'Lection Day. After the ceremonial meeting, results of the state's April elections would be announced, and the winners inaugurated on the spot. It was Newport's most important holiday for many years. [1]
In 1900, with Rhode Island's current capitol building mostly complete, the legislature ended its tradition of alternating sessions between the state's two largest cities. It subsequently became the Newport County courthouse. [1]
It continued to serve as the courthouse until 1926. Afterwards, it and the other two future NHLs nearby were the first three historic nearby buildings renovated by Norman Isham at the behest of the Newport Historical Society. That work was completed in 1932. [1]
In 1957, the building received its first sitting American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a short speech from the steps, he began a two-day visit to the city and its historic sites by praising the city's hospitality and expressing regret that his wife, who had accompanied him from Washington, could not join him at the building. "It is her great ambition to visit so many of these places," he said, "particularly those where the heroes of the Revolutionary times spent so much of their time." [12]
His administration its last year designated the building one of the first National Historic Landmarks in 1960. Six years after that, it was duly listed on the inaugural National Register of Historic Places. Newport's well-preserved historic character drew Steven Spielberg to the city in 1997, where it stood in for mid-19th century New Haven, Connecticut, during principal photography for Amistad . Colony House's exterior can be seen in the background in a few scenes, and the courtroom scenes were filmed inside. [13] Rhode Island Senate majority leader M. Teresa Paiva-Weed, who represents the area, got the Senate to pass a resolution calling for the legislature to again meet in Newport on the centenary of their last meeting there in 1900. [14]
The Newport Historical Society manages the building for the state, which still owns it. It is open as a museum for tours during the summer months. [15] It is also available for event rentals. [16]
Rhode Island is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020; but it has grown at every decennial count since 1790 and is the second-most densely populated state, after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though nearly all its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.
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.
Warwick is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States, and is the third largest city in the state with a population of 82,823 at the 2020 census. Warwick is located approximately 12 miles (19 km) south of downtown Providence, Rhode Island, 63 miles (101 km) southwest of Boston, Massachusetts, and 171 miles (275 km) northeast of New York City.
Pawtuxet Village is a section of the New England cities of Warwick and Cranston, Rhode Island, United States. It is located at the point where the Pawtuxet River flows into the Providence River and Narragansett Bay.
Hunter House (1748) is a historic house in Newport, Rhode Island. It is located at 54 Washington Street in the Easton's Point neighborhood, near the northern end of the Newport Historic District.
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 Museum of Newport History is a history museum in the Old Brick Market building in the heart of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is owned and operated by the Newport Historical Society at 127 Thames Street on Washington Square. The building, designed by noted 18th-century American architect Peter Harrison and built in the 1760s, is a National Historic Landmark.
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.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Newport County, Rhode Island.
Richard Munday (c.1685-1739) was a prominent colonial American architect and builder in Newport, Rhode Island.
Joseph Wanton Sr. was a merchant and governor in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations from 1769 to 1775. Not wanting to go to war with Britain, he has been branded as a Loyalist, but he remained neutral during the war, and he and his property were not disturbed.
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.
The Old State House on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, also known as Providence Sixth District Court House,Providence Colony House, Providence County House, and Rhode Island State House is located on 150 Benefit Street, with the front facade facing North Main Street. It is a brick Georgian-style building largely completed in 1762. It was used as the meeting place for the colonial and state legislatures for 149 years.
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 Fenner House or the "Sam Joy Place" is a historic stone-ender house in Cranston, Rhode Island. It the oldest surviving house in the Providence Plantations portion of Rhode Island. The only older structure in the state is the White Horse Tavern in Newport. The house was built as a farmhouse in 1677 after King Philip's War by Captain Arthur Fenner for his son Major Thomas Fenner. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. The House is available for short stays by those interested in the historical and architectural significance of the property. It also is made available to educational groups to visit and study.
The Kent County Courthouse, now the East Greenwich Town Hall, is a historic court building at 127 Main Street in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to the U.S. State of Rhode Island:
Darius Sessions was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations during the buildup to the American Revolutionary War. He was heavily involved in moderating the effects of the Gaspee Affair, and was instrumental in keeping the perpetrators from being identified.
The historiography of the Gaspee affair examines the changing views of historians and scholars with regard to the burning of HMS Gaspee, a British customs schooner that ran aground while patrolling coastal waters near Newport, Rhode Island and was boarded and destroyed by colonists during the lead up to the American Revolution in 1772. Scholars agree that the incident sparked a period of renewed tension between Great Britain and its American colonies, but they disagree as to the specific long- and short-term impacts of the attack on British and colonial policies and attitudes.
On August 27, Augustus Johnston, who had been appointed distributor of stamps in the colony; Thomas Moffat, Scotch physician, temporarily resident in Newport and outspoken advocate of the English policy; and Martin Howard, whose 'Letter from a Gentleman of Halifax to His Friend in Rhode Island,' answering 'The Rights of Colonies Examined,' by Stephen Hopkins, had been second in a series of pamphlets recalling exchanges a century earlier by Roger Williams and John Cotton, were hanged in effigy on a gallows erected in front of the Colony House. In the evening the effigies were cut down and burned in the presence of a throng of people that filled every available space from which the fire might be seen. The demonstration was continued on the following day, when the houses of Johnston, Moffat and Howard were wrecked, and much of their furnishings destroyed.
Colony House+Newport.
Open mid-June to early September, 11:15 am-2:15 pm, with tours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. US$3 adults.[ dead link ]