Old Colony House

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Coordinates: 41°29′27″N 71°18′48″W / 41.49083°N 71.31333°W / 41.49083; -71.31333
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Old Colony House
Contributing Property
Front elevation in 2017
Old Colony House is located in Rhode Island
Old Colony House
Old Colony House is located in the United States
Old Colony House
LocationWashington Sq., Newport, Rhode Island
Coordinates41°29′27″N 71°18′48″W / 41.49083°N 71.31333°W / 41.49083; -71.31333
Arealess than one acre
Built1736-1739[2]
ArchitectRichard Munday
Architectural styleColonial
Part ofNewport Historic District (ID68000001)
NRHP reference No.66000014[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966[3]
Designated NHLOctober 9, 1960[4]
Designated NHLDCPNovember 24, 1968

The Old Colony House, also known as Old State House or Newport Colony House, is located at the east end of

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

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

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.

Building

The two-and-a-half-story seven-

dormer windows on either side. Atop the roof is an octagonal cupola. It sits atop a raised basement
.

History

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.[2]

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.[2]

Revolution

Many of the events leading up to and surrounding the

Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, an NHL which is today the oldest house in the city.[2][6]

Tensions between the colonies and Britain continued to grow, leading to the

Admiralty court, a provision which greatly concerned most colonists, it found insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone.[2]

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.

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.[2] 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.

1842 Constitutional convention

The 1842 Constitution

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]

19th century

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.[2]

Colony House from an early 20th-century postcard

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.[2]

20th century

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.[2]

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

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]

See also

Gallery

  • Old Colony House before 1917
    Old Colony House before 1917
  • West Front
    West Front
  • Front Elevation in 1937
    Front Elevation in 1937
  • First Floor
    First Floor
  • Courtroom
    Courtroom

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "NHS/The Newport Colony House". Archived from the original on February 6, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2008.
  3. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  4. ^ a b "Old State House (Rhode Island)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2008.
  5. ^ "Bicentennial celebration". Encyclopedia Brunoniana. Brown University. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
  6. ^ Carroll, Charles (1932). "XI". Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy. New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. p. 241. 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.
  7. ^ Staples, William Read (1845). The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee. Rhode Island: Knowles, Vose and Anthony. pp. 25. Colony House+Newport.
  8. ^ Carroll, op. cit., 263.
  9. ^ Power of Federal Judiciary Over Legislation by John Hampden Dougherty (Putnam, 1912) pg. 28-32 [1]
  10. ^ a b c Erik J. Chaput and Russell J. DeSimone (September 16, 2017). "My Turn: Erik J. Chaput and Russell J. DeSimone: How Rhode Island expanded black rights". Providence, RI: The Providence Journal. Archived from the original on September 17, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  11. ^ a b "State Constitution". State Archives Catalog. State of Rhode Island. Archived from the original on September 17, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  12. University of California at Santa Barbara
    . September 4, 1957. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
  13. Providence Journal. Archived from the original
    on October 11, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
  14. ^ "Resolution 258". June 15, 1999. Archived from the original on May 18, 2011. Retrieved April 24, 2008.
  15. ^ "Old Colony House". Retrieved April 25, 2008. 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]
  16. ^ "Newport Historical Society - Facility Rentals". Archived from the original on March 3, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.

External links

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