Hope Street 125
A. Sidney Herreshoff House and Model Room
c. 1940
Built by A. Sidney Herreshoff, son of Nathanael G. Herreshoff, Bristol's famous naval architect, this contemporary house has two hip-roof units linked by a 1-story connector. The north unit is a dwelling and the south unit a model room used by Nat Herreshoff.
Hope Street 132
John Gladding House
1795
This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay Federal house was built for John Gladding, a miller. The Gladding windmill stood on the opposite side of the street. Exterior detailing includes a Greek Revival entrance, added c. 1840, with a heavy entablature and narrow sidelights; the original chimney has been altered and a new end chimney added on the northwest. Original heavy frames have been removed, although splayed lintels remain. John Gladding, Jr., who inherited the house, was a sea captain.
Hope Street 136
Seven Oaks/Augustus O. Bourn House
1873
The second house in Bristol designed by New York architect James Renwick, Seven Oaks was built for the founder of the National Rubber Company. The design of this large, hip-and-cross-gable-roof Gothic Revival mansion includes twin turrets and iron roof cresting, and a large porte-cochere on the north with clustered, square columns and a roof balustrade. The stone walls of this picturesque building are soft gray. After Bourn was elected Governor in 1883, Seven Oaks became the site of many social and political gatherings. Although Governor Bourn lost control of the National Rubber Company in the 1890s, he rebuilt his business in Providence, and continued to live at Seven Oaks until his death in 1925. From 1937 to 1945, the house was owned by Harold Paull, a stockbroker. Seven Oaks is slated for development as condominiums. An original landscape design for the site showing many details of late Victorian gardens and outbuildings is in the library of the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society.
Hope Street 140
Herreshoff Manufacturing Company Guest House
c. 1878
This 2-1/2-story, 3-bay Second Empire house was built by the Herreshoff Company to accommodate guests and clients. Detailing includes paired brackets under all cornices and tall French doors opening onto a bracketed full-width porch overlooking Bristol Harbor.
Herreshoff Plaque
1963
A simple marble stone with gilded letters, carved by the John Stevens Shop of Newport, it faces the site of the former North and South Construction Sheds. the monument reads:
The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company was started here in 1863 by John B. Herreshoff with his brother Nathanael G. Herreshoff as designer. The company designed and built many famous vessels including Sea Going Torpedo Boat No. 1, U.S.S. Cushing 1890 and the America's Cup Defenders Vigilant 1893, Defender 1895, Columbia 1899, Reliance 1903, Resolute 1914 and built Defenders Enterprise 1930, Rainbow 1934. Herreshoff inventive design of hulls, sails, engines, and devices was an enduring contribution to yachting.
Hope Street 142
Lemuel Clark Richmond-Herreshoff House
c. 1800, 1870, 1926
Parson Wight recorded that Richmond (1797-1852) repaired his house on Hope Street in 1806. This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay, gable-roof Federal house was begun about 1800. Richmond was a wealthy whaler who owned nearly twenty ships, including the Empress, a Bristol-built bark. In 1854 the house was sold to William H.S. Bayley, publisher of the Bristol Phoenix. In 1856 it was rented to Charles and Julia Herreshoff, who moved here with nine children from their farm on Poppasquash. Rachel Bayles sold it to Julia Herreshoff in 1863. The house was moved back from the street and extensive rear additions made between 1870 and 1880. A nearby cottage was raised and attached to the large shed-roof kitchen ell to create additional space. In 1893 Lewis Herreshoff and Sally (Herreshoff) Brown owned the homestead. Lewis died in 1926 and left the house to his nephew Norman F. Herreshoff. A collector of Americana, Norman Herreshoff completed a series of renovations, including remodeling of the kitchen to be "old-fashioned" and replacement of the front porch with a small Ionic portico. Now a private museum, this house is open by appointment.
Hope Street 208
James Lawless House
c. 1865, 1900
this 1-1/2-and 2-story, 5-bay Greek Revival/Italianate house, with gable roof broken by a large intersecting gable on the facade, was built by Lawless, sea captain and naval architect, to live in while he enlarged another house. By the turn of the century, the large ell, with a half-hip roof, and circular porch with jigsaw brackets, was added.
Hope Street 212
Abbie M. Young House
c. 1889
This 2-1/2-story Queen Anne house, with a sweeping roof broken by a 3-story octagonal tower on the main facade, was built for the wife of J.H. Young, who owned a pharmacy formerly at 481-483 Hope Street. This house is a near mirror image of 33 Central Street and may be the work of builder Dennis Doran.
Hope Street
Miramar/ The Tides
1893, 1960
Set on Bristol Harbor, this large, 2-1/2-story, hip-roof summer cottage with cross-gambrel-roof was designed by E.I. Nickerson for State Senator Joshua Wilbour, a banker. The dramatic Hope Street facade is ornamented with wraparound porches, a large porte-cochere with Ionic columns, pilasters, an overscale lunette in the attic, quoins, and a modillion cornice. The 1938 hurricane destroyed the roof balustrade and large urn-topped fence posts. From 1900 to 1936, Miramar was owned by Isabella DeWolf. In the early 1970s, it was remodeled into apartments, and in 1986 was converted to condominiums.
Hope Street 221
Barnes House/ Wyndstowe
c. 1899, c. 1950s
In 1899 Isoline and Hattie Barnes built this large Queen Anne summer house, designed by Wallis E. Howe. The house, a 2-1/2-story structure with a complex cross-gable roof and an offset hip-roof wing, has been compromised by the addition of a modern wing on the north side. Varied surface materials, typical of this style, include brick with burnt ends set in Flemish bond on the first floor and weathered shingles, with every fifth row doubled, on the upper floors. Detailing includes paired Doric columns setting off the main entrance and triple Doric pilasters on the corners. This house was willed to Wallis E. Howe in 1935; in the 1960s it was owned by his son George Howe, author of Mount Hope (1959).
Hope Street 224
Timothy French House
1803
French, carpenter-builder of many of Bristol's early 19th century dwellings built his own house in brick. This small, 2-1/2-story, 5-bay house with end chimneys is a fine example of Federal architecture. The front cornice has dentils, run moldings, and modillions that are similar to but of a larger scale than those of the main entrance. Following an Ashlar Benjamin pattern, the entrance enframement is composed of fluted pilasters on low bases which support a pediment containing a semi-circular fanlight.
Hope Street 232
Frederick A. Easterbrooks House
c. 1879
This typical 2-1/2-story bracketed house, with a 2-bay facade and bay windows, has an elaborate 2-story porch on the south side. The porch was originally only one story in height. The balustraded entrance hood, with a pair of ornate brackets and pendants, is particularly fine. Easterbrooks joined with E.M. Wardwell in 1872 to sell groceries, domestic wares, and confections at 467-71 Hope Street.
Hope Street 248
Jeremiah Diman House
1794
Diman, a cooper, started this 2-story, 3-bay, hip-roof house in 1794. The house displays both Colonial and Federal design elements. The original core is built around a large chimney on a 4-room floor plan (similar to 1030 Hope Street); exterior details include heavy pegged window casings with splayed lintels; a flat-head entrance, with small modillions and run moldings repeated in the roof cornice; cornerboards; and quoins. A rear kitchen ell leads to a large contemporary addition and an enclosed garden.
Hope Street 249
Edward Wainwright Brunsen House
1862, 1910
Brunsen, a sugar manufacturer, built this Italianate dwelling four years after his marriage to Mary Jane Pitman of Bristol. The main block of this 2-1/2-story house has a high hip roof with an elaborate cornice and balustrade. The 2-story north wing, with Colonial Revival detailing, was added by Dr. Frederick Williams for an office and servants quarters in 1910. Front and rear porches date from this remodeling. Of note are the original folding outer doors in the entry, paneled doors, etched-glass transoms, and rope moldings. Both the house and its stable have been converted to condominiums.
Hope Street 256
John Liscomb-Isaac Camm House
c. 1787, c. 1830, c. 1910
The west section of this house, a 2-1/2-story, 3-bay end-gable-roof Greek Revival design was built in the mid 19th century. The middle section dates from 1787, and a large rear ell and porch date from the early 1900s. The main entrance is a Greek Revival flat-head design with an overscale fret applied to the frieze and double pilaster on each side of an unusual 7-panel door. Camm (1823-1898), who emigrated to Bristol from England, was a master of the Usher brothers’ ship during the 1860s, and acquired this house in 1865.
Hope Street 259
Joseph Coit House
1818
Isaac Borden, Bristol’s noted builder, constructed this house for Coit, a ship builder. Noted for its semi-circular entrance fanlight with a central molded key block, almost identical to Isaac Borden’s own house at 159 High Street, this 2-1/2-story, 5-bay dwelling is a typical Bristol Federal house. Minor additions include the 1-story and 2-story rear ells, a small side porch and a rear dormer. Heavily damaged by fire in 1975, the house has been restored with assistance from the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission.
Hope Street 262
Colt Apartments
c. 1918
Samuel P. Colt built this apartment house for employees of his U.S. Rubber Company. The Colonial Revival design was produced by Wallis E. Howe. A 2-story, tetrastyle Ionic portico is topped by a modillion-trimmed pediment. Details include a Chinese Chippendale balustrade on the second floor balcony, an applied fan design with scrolled ends flanking a single attic window, and triglyphs in the window lintels
Hope Street 275
John W. Munro House/ Linden Place Barn
c. 1810, c. 1866
In 1866 Samuel Colt gave the barn that stood on the site of Linden Place’s stable to Munro, a sutler, who moved it, raised the roof, and added the rear ell. Now a 2-story, 4-bay, gable-roof residence, it displays a handsome bracketed entrance hood. Munro operated a hardware and wallpaper store in the Mount Hope Block on Hope Street.
Hope Street 281
Susan Gorham Cottage
c. 1855, 1867
One of Bristol’s few Gothic Revival buildings, this small, 3-bay, end-gable-roof cottage has retained most of its fanciful detailing. Decorative bargeboard trims the steep main gable and are repeated on the gable entrance. A small rear addition was added by Mrs. Gorham in 1867. Twentieth-century additions include the side porch and second story of the rear ell.
Hope Street 289
Pricilla Talbee Lindsey House
1789
In 1787 Edward Talbee gave his daughter Priscilla, the wife of Samuel Lindsey, this lot. A small end-gambrel-roof cottage was built by Lindsey, a housewright, by 1789. Its heavy, projecting windows with flat, beaded casings and early sash, including double-hung 12-over-12, 18-over-18, and 12-over-8 units, are typical of late 18th century construction.
Hope Street 328
Babbitt-Smith House
1795, 1810
Parson Wight recorded that Jacob Babbitt and Barnard Smith, merchants, built a house, “both in one,” on Hope Street in 1795. In 1810 Captain Daniel Morice, French refugee from Haiti, purchased the house. This beautiful, 5-bay Federal house with an unusual gable-on-hip roof, has an elaborate facade incorporating a pedimented Ionic entrance, a Greek fret and modillion cornice, and a large lunette window in the front gable. By the end of the 19th century, a large 2-story ell had been added on the east side.
Hope Street 341
John Howe House/ House with the Eagles
1808
John Howe began building this house after his marriage in 1807 to Louisa Smith. It is a 2-story, 5-bay, nearly square Federal house, noted for its Chinese Chippendale roof balustrade. A grandson of Mark Antony DeWolf, John Howe graduated from Brown University and was admitted to the bar in 1808. He served in the General Assembly from 1823 to 1842 and in 1844 was appointed Collector of Customs for the Bristol and Warren district. In 1822 Benjamin Churchill, captain of the famous Yankee, bought this house. Four American eagles, traditionally believed to have been carved by the Yankee’s sailors, trim the corners, giving the house its name. In 1825 Byron Diman, Governor of Rhode Island in 1846 and 1847, acquired the property and lived here, enlarging the house 3 times. Diman, a protege of James DeWolf, was active in whaling, the West Indies trade, and cotton manufacturing. Diman served as a treasurer, then president of the Bristol Steam Mill, was a director of Pokanoket Mill, and was cashier of the Mount Hope Bank, then president of the Bank of Bristol. Today, this house is owned by a descendent of John Howe.
Hope Street 344
Royal Diman House
c. 1792, c. 1937
Royal Diman, a cooper and trader, built this 2-1/2-story, 4-bay Federal house with a 4-room floor plan. Detailing includes a fine pedimented entrance with fluted Ionic pilasters, similar to 736 Hope Street. Marian Pekham Paull installed elaborate Federal woodwork from several Thames Street houses after 1937.
Hope Street 353
William Fales House
1797, moved c. 1879
Originally this 2-story, hip-roof, 3-bay Federal house, built for a successful West Indies merchant, stood on the adjoining lot at the corner of Hope and Church Streets. By 1876 William H. Bell owned this property, and he moved the house on lot south to use the corner lot for his new furniture store, completed in 1879. The ell and the bracketed porch date from this period.
Hope Street 361-65
William H. Bell Block
1879
One of Bristol’s few late 19th century commercial structures, this handsome 2-1/2-story, mansard-roof 7-bay building was built to take full advantage of a busy corner. Green’s The Providence Plantations (1886) described it as “one of the largest and best stocked furniture stores in the state, outside Providence.” Constructed of brick with granite trim, the building retains its original cast iron storefront with flat pilasters at the corners and sides of the door, and Ionic pilasters separating window bays. The upper floor has been used for Masonic meetings since 1879.
Hope Street 366
David Leonard House
1808
The first house on this corner was built c. 1690 for James Burroughs and sold in 1748 to Simeon Potter; it burned in the British raid of 1778. In 1807 David Leonard, postmaster and editor of Bristol’s first newspaper, the Mount Hope Eagle, bought the lot and built this handsome 2-1/2-story, 5-bay Federal house. Merchant John Wardwell acquired the property in 1817; he sold it in 1833 to Captain Isaac Bly of New Bedford. During the 1840s, owners included Gardner Willard and Joseph L. Gardner, partners in a saw and grist mill on Thames Street. The Bristol Phoenix noted in 1843 that Mrs. Browning kept a fashionable boarding house here. By 1864 Captain Augustus N. Miller acquired the property and probably was responsible for the Victorian additions, including a mansard roof and porch. In 1943 it was converted into apartments.
Hope Street 375
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
1860
This parish was established as one of the four original mission churches in Rhode Island by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first church (1720) was burned during a British raid in 1778. It was replaced in 1785 by a plain wooden meetinghouse. In 1833 it was replaced by a Gothic church which burned in 1858. Architects Saeltzer & Valk of New York City and George Ricker of Newark, designed the present brownstone Gothic Revival church. The nave, covered by a slate gabled roof, has a clerestory rising above the shed-roofed aisles. The western apse has a semi-octagonal conical roof. The facade is dominated by a 3-level square tower. A clock was installed in 1871. The original steeple was replaced in 1891. Four pinnacles, originally on the second level, now accent the square top of the third, executed in a different stone pattern. There is a large Gothic-arched entrance with a stained glass transom. An original iron fence encloses the property along Hope and Church Streets. Modern alterations include a classroom wing joining the church to 399 Hope Street on the north.
Hope Street 380
Parish House/Chapel, St. Michael’s Parish
1876
Architect Stephen C. Earle designed this Gothic Revival 1-story structure with a hip-roof tower, surmounted by a steeper hip-roofed belfry, on the northwest corner. Earle combined Massachusetts brownstone with read mortar joints. The offset entrance porch has a large Gothic arch, matched-board doors, and a leaded, colored glass transom. Gothic window surrounds, used singly in the tower and in compound and triple units on the main part, replicate those forms on St. Michael’s Church. A description of the flexible interior, subdivided with sliding, glazed screens, a forerunner of modern open-plan school design, appears in Munro’s History of the Town of Bristol (1881). In 1961 a bell tower of red brick was built in the front yard by Anna C. Gross as a memorial to her parents. Its bells are from Trinity Chuch.
Hope Street 399
John Willard Russell House/ St. Michael’s Episcopal Church Office
1810
This is one of Bristol’s many 2-1/2-story, 5-bay Federal houses, with two interior chimneys and a central-hall, 4-room floor plan. Russell (1770-1814) is noted for a series of letters to his wife written while he was at sea, compiled in the book The Romance of an Old -Time Shipmaster, containing a detailed account of a slave voyage and comments on life in Bristol. Russell’s wife died in 1811, and that same year he moved into his new house with his four children. After his death, the property was sold to Dr. Jabez Holmes. His decendants left the house to St. Michael’s Church in 1919.
Hope Street 400
Burnside Memorial Hall
1883
Stephen C. Earle of Worcester, Massachusetts, architect for the Rogers Free Library (1847) and St. Michael’s Chapel (1876), designed this elaborate, polychromed, 2-story Richardsonian Romesque public building. The main mass has a slate, cross-gable roof and a large 2-story, projecting hip-roof tower on the Hope Street elevation with an arcaded porch in its base. The main entrance, topped by a colored-glass fanlight, is recessed in a semi-circular arch. Colored glass is used extensively in lunettes on the second floor and in the tower. President Chester A. Arthur and Governor Augustus O. Bourn of Bristol dedicated the hall to the memory of General Ambrose E. Burnside (1824-1881), whose statue was intended to be the focus of the porch. In 1969 the majority of town offices were relocated to the adjacent town garage. This hall is a key architectural and historical element in the Hope Street commercial and institutional area.
Hope Street 407-09
James and Josephus Gooding House
1807
Built for James Gooding and his brother Josephus, this 2-1/2-story, 6-bay Federal dwelling was later converted to a double house. The southern section contains the original front door and stairway. Exterior detailing includes a cornice with modillions, Greek key and swag motifs, and elaborate Corinthian corner pilasters with small angels in the capitals. The Goodings operated a jewelry store on the site of the Easterbrooks Block.
Hope Street 417
John W. Bourn House
1804
Bourn, a wealthy shipmaster who’s firm, Bourn & Marshall, owned 42 vessels, built this fine brick house. A 2-story, 5-bay Federal house with end chimneys, it has a facade elaborated by a slightly projecting, pedimented central entrance pavilion. At the second level of this bay is one of Bristol’s few Palladian windows. In the late 1970s, sandblasting caused severe damage to the surface of th brick.
Hope Street 423
Belvedere Hotel/Harriet Bradford Hotel
1901
John Brown Herreshoff, president of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, built this 4-story, nearly square, 100-room brick hotel to accommodate his business visitors. A glass-walled roof garden with a pyramidal roof (now removed) looked over Bristol Harbor. The Barnes House was moved to 16 John Street to permit construction of the hotel.
Hope Street 440
Old Post Office and Customs House
1857
Ammi B. Young, Supervising Architect of the U.S. treasury from 1853 to 1862, designed this 2-story, 3-bay, Renaissance Revival structure. Constructed of red brick with a corbelled cornice and greyish sandstone moldings and granite trim, the building originally had a cast-iron balustrade on the concave-hipped roof; the balustrade, paneled chimneys, and dormers have been removed. The west facade contains a slightly projecting bay with a delicate iron balcony and three arched openings on each level. The north arch served as an entry to the customs offices on the second floor. The building has interior granite and cast-iron piers, brick arched vaulting, and cast-iron staircases. Of note are the square, cast-iron Corinthian columns on the first floor. In 1962 the post office moved, and in 1964, the adjacent YMCA bought this building. A modern swimming pool wing was added to the east. In the 1980s the arched doors were sealed, original double-hung 12-over-8 arched sash boarded over, and interior changes made.
Hope Street 443
John DeWolf House
1789, 1799-1801, moved 1915
DeWolf (1760-1841) began this 2-1/2-story, 5-bay Federal house with paired chimneys as his town house about the same time he began development of his farmhouse at 70 Griswold Avenue. Benjamin Norris, carpenter-builder, finished the interior of the northeast parlor in 1799 and the southeast chamber in 1801. DeWolf, ninth child of Mark Antony and Abigail Potter DeWolf, was a ship captain. In 1788 he left the sea and became a farmer. He served in the state legislature in 1808 and on the Supreme Court from 1819 to 1822. His granddaughter Eliza, wife of Robert Shaw Andrews, Superintendent of Schools, acquired the house in 1868 and it remained in the DeWolf family until1932. About 1915 it was moved back 15 from the street line and renovated; a Colonial Revival portico replaced the original entrance, a 3-bay porch was added to the north side, and the interior was remodeled.
Hope Street 461-71
Easterbrooks-Paull Block
1899
This handsome, 2-story, 5-bay, flat-roof brick store was built by Joseph L. Buffum for Frederick A. Easterbrooks, a grocer and merchant. Fire had destroyed Easterbrook’s grocerty in the original building, which also housed the Gooding Clock Shop and other stores. An original, cast-iron columned storefront survives on the first floor.
Hope Street 474
Hersey Bradford-Norris House
1792, moved 1845
Bradford (1729-1808), who would become Deputy Governor of Rhode Island from 1775 to 1778, came to Bristol to practice medicine by 1758. His first house was burned in the British raid of 1778. Bradford replaced it with this simple, 2-1/2-story Federal house which he left to his son Hersey, owner of a ropewalk on Wood Street. By the mid-1840s, Hersey Bradford mortgaged the house to Francis Dimond. His daughter Isabella married Samuel Norris, a sugar refiner. The Norris family hired Russell Warren to renovate the house in the spring of 1845; it was probably at this time that the house was moved back from Hope Street and the third floor, the Ionic porch, the north wing, and the Chinese Chippendale-type balustrades were added. This house, one of Bristol’s best known landmarks, remained in the Norris family until 1942.
Hope Street 500
Linden Place/George DeWolf House
1810, et seq
Merchant George DeWolf (1779-1844) hired Russell Warren to design this 3-story, 5-bay, monitor-on-hip roof Federal house, the most elaborate in Bristol. A 2-story, tetrastyle Corinthian portico, surmounted by a balcony, rises to a Chippendale-type balustrade. The entrance design incorporates two delicate, superimposed elliptical fanlights framed by smaller, engaged Corinthian columns. In 1825 DeWolf went bankrupt and fled Bristol. Three years later, during the ensuing depression, James DeWolf, George’s uncle, purchased the house. In 1834 it passed to his son William DeWolf, who commissioned Russell Warren to add the Gothic sunroom on the south and the ballroom wing on the north. Here DeWolf was host to President Andrew Jackson, whose portrait hangs on the wall in the hall today. William DeWolf’s widow leased the house in 1856 to Captain William Wars, who added a large rear addition and operated a hotel here until 1865. The house was then put up for auction and purchased by Edward D. Colt, of Hartford. Colt transferred the property to his sister-in-law Theodora Goujaud DeWolf Colt, daughter of George DeWolf, who had spent her early childhood here. Mrs. Colt removed Wars’s addition, relaid the marble path to Hope Street, and planted the linden trees for which Linden Place is named. Her sone, Samuel P. Colt, enlarged the site and built the adjacent ballroom in 1905, which was designed by Wallis E. Howe. Howe’s plan included relocation of the 2-story, wood carriage house (c. 1850), construction of a 2-story, yellow brick wall along Wardwell Street to define the northern property line. Colt filled the garden with classical sculpture and two gazebos: one a c. 1745 octagonal structure with copper ogee-curved roof and the other a c. 1910 arcaded garden house. His song Russell married actress Ethel Barrymore; during their occupancy six bathrooms, outfitted with mirrored plate-glass walls and silver-tone fixtures, were installed in the house. In 1986 the Friends of Linden Place, a non-profit organization, was formed to acquire the site from Colt’s last living grandchild and to restore and preserve this landmark for public use. In 1988 the voters of Rhode Island approved a $1.5 million bond issue to help purchase Linden Place and restore it for use as a cultural and educational center.
Hope Street
Colt Memorial High School
1906-13
Bristol’s most elaborate school building was given to the town by Samuel Colt in memory of his mother Theodora. Designed by Cooper & Bailey of Boston, this monumental, 2-story, cast-bronze window bays. The symmetrical facade has a central tetrastyle Corinthian portico with fluted columns and a pediment containing cherubs around the Colt family crest. Marble, wood paneling and mouldings, and Corinthian columns ornament the vestibule and auditorium. Original plans called for a large museum building to be added to the east and construction of a columned gateway with heroic statues at the Hope Street entrance. Vandalism contributed to the abandonment of this elaborate plan in favor of construction of the marble path and terrace balustrade. Serving as an elementary school since 1966, and maintained in part by a bequest from Colt, the school is used by the town for special events and continues to be an important element of Hope Streets historic streetscapes.
Hope Street 525
Rogers Free Library
1877, 1957
After the death in 1870 of Robert Rogers, president of the Eagle Bank, his widow Maria executed his wish to build a free public library. Stephen C. Earle, of Earle & Fuller, Worcester, designed a 2-1/2-story, Romanesque Revival building with a steep hip roof, crested turrets, and hip-roofed dormers. This picturesque structure is built of random ashlar masonry with tinted mortar. On the first floor, free space was provided for the YMCA, which moved to 448-52 Hope Street in 1899. The upper half of the building was destroyed by fire in 1956. Wallis E. Howe then completed a dramatic redesign, using a lower hip roof and creating a 1-story facade. Surviving elements include the 3-bay portico, massive columns, and curving iron hand rails. The basement was remodeled as a children’s room in the 1970s.
Hope Street 565-67
Commercial Bank Building
1814, early 20th century
Bristol’s second bank was formed in 1809. By 1820 with assets of $150,000, it was the largest of Bristol’s banking houses. The bank occupied this 2-story, 3-bay, hip-roof Federal building from 1814 to 1869. The Customs House moved here from 39 State Street in 1845 and remained here until the completion of the new Post Office and Customs House at 440 Hope Street in 1857. Later tenants included the Bristol YMCA, which rented the upper floor from 1863 to 1877, and the town clerk who had his office here in the 1870s. By 1903 the Providence Telephone Company had acquired the building for offices and altered the first floor for a cigar and candy shop. During this period the Bradford Street entrance was eliminated. Today this important early 19th century building is further compromised by the addition of an inappropriate storefront.
Hope Street 574
Andrews Memorial School
1938
In 1932 Robert D. Andrews donated funds for the Andrews Memorial School in memory of his father, Robert S. Andrews, former superintendent of schools. Designed by George Maxwell Cady, this 2-1/2-story, T-plan, brick and brownstone Georgian Revival structure has symmetrical 9-bay facade with a pedimented, projecting central pavilion. A central hexagonal cupola crowns the cross-gable roof. In form, this building recalls 18th-and early 19th century educational buildings such as Brown’s University Hall.
Hope Street 610
Giles Luther-Charles Rockwell House
c. 1809, c. 1850, c. 1900
Parson Wight recorded that the “elegant house of Giles Luther” was built in 1809. A 2-story, 5-bay, hip-roof Federal house, it has been substantially enlarged. Original detailing on the facade includes the Palladian window, modillion cornice, quoins, and wide-beaded window castings with splayed lintels. Luther (1775-1841), a shipmaster, merchant, and farmer, was first Grand Marshall of the Bristol Fourth of July Parade. In 1825 Luther’s business failed; the Commercial Bank took this house and sold it in 1828 to Jacob Babbitt. Babbitt owned part of Long Wharf and in his will of 1849, he left the “use and improvement” of this house to his son Jacob, Jr. (1809-1862). The younger Babbitt probably added the rear ell and the Italianate triple-arched door and full-width porch with delicate cut-out posts and railings. Jacob, Jr., also assumed his father’s roles at the Commercial Bank and the textile mills. He died at Fredericksburg in 1862. In 1897 Charles Rockwell of the Cranston Worsted Mills purchased this house. He added the sunporch and fieldstone fireplace at the rear. The property was donated by his daughter June Levy to the Bristol Nursing Association in 1915. In 1973 it returned to private ownership and restoration began in 1984.
Hope Street 617
Francis M. Dimond House
c. 1838, c. 1970s
One of Hope Street’s two remaining Greek Revival temple-form houses, this one was designed by Russell Warren for Dimond (1796-1858). One of the first Greek Revival houses in the state, it is a 2-story, end-gable-roofed building with a full-height tetrastyle portico of fluted Ionic columns. The entrance repeats the Ionic motif. A polygonal Gothic bay with lancet windows and applied quatrefoils projects from the dining room on the southwest corner. Interior Greek detailing, including marble fireplaces in the double parlor, in intact. One year after the house’s construction, Dimond, who had served as Vice-Consul at Havana and later Consul to Joseph L. Gardner, merchant and owner of Gardner’s Wharf on Thames Street.
Hope Street 620
Charles Collins, Jr., House
1805
Parson Wight’s diary described the construction of this “large brick house” in 1805. This 2-story, 5-bay, hip-roof, Federal house with paired interior chimneys has a shallow hip roof and displays stone quoins. It was set back approximately 50 feet from the street line, an unusual siting for this period. Collins was James DeWolf’s brother-in-law and through his influence was appointed Second Collector of Customs in 1804. In 1817 Collins became first president of Freeman’s Bank. Jacob Babbitt, Sr., a merchant, shipowner, stockholder and president of the Pokanoket Mill and the Commercial Bank, purchased this house in 1833. After his death in 1850, his widow, Abby E. Babbitt, owned both this house and the one just south at 610 Hope Street. A wooden rear wing was added by 1870, and by 1903, a full-width Colonial Revival porch existed; it was removed in the early 1980s to reveal the original pilastered entrance with an arched fanlight.
Hope Street 631
Second Martin Bennett House
c. 1852-55
This is a sophisticated 2-story, 3-bay, flat-roof, Italianate dwelling. The facade has a narrow, recessed center bay containing a round-head entrance, a form repeated in the arched entrance to the console-supported balcony above. The flush-board siding simulating stone and the brackets under the projecting cornice and balcony are typical Italianate details. A strong similarity exists to 117 State Street. Martin Bennett was cashier of the First National Bank of Bristol and later treasurer of the Bristol Institution for Savings. His first house was at 93 Bradford Street.
Hope Street 647
Josiah Talbot House
1838, 1850s
Designed by Russell Warren, this 2-story, 3-bay, gable-roof Greek Revival house is one of the finest in the state. Its facade has a pair of fluted Corinthian columns, set in antis, a contrast to the full tetrastyle portico of the Dimond House at 617 Hope Street. A simple side-hall entrance is framed by heavy Doric pilasters, supporting a broad, plain entablature. The walls are sheathed with horizontal flush boarding and clapboards. A rear ell wan added in the mid-1850s. The original interior is virtually intact. Talbot was part-owner of a schooner, and owner and master of two brigs.
Hope Street 649
Stephen Wardwell House
1784
This 2-story, 5-bay Federal house, built on the site of the Wardwell Tavern, is unusually well preserved. The facade centers on an elliptical-arched entrance with a delicate fanlight and sidelights, framed by engaged Doric columns. The double-hung 12-over-12 and 12-over-8 windows have heavy plank casings trimmed with splayed lintels. Stephen Wardwell’s heirs sold the house in 1821 to Nicholas Peck, a merchant and shipowner. The house was then sold to the Paull family in 1902, who still retain ownership. Additions include the rear northwest ell and enclosed porch.
Hope Street 658
Gardner-Bosworth House
c. 1840, 1893
The original 2-1/2-story, 3-bay, end-gable-roof Greek Revival form of this dwelling was strongly influenced by Russell Warren’s designs. In 1850 the house was purchased by Moses Wood, superintendent of the Namquit Mill, from the estate of Benjamin Gardner. It was extensively altered on Orin Bosworth, who purchased it in 1893. Additions include a 2-1/2-story, octagonal tower on the southwest corner; a full-width bracketed porch; and a 1-story wing on the north. The original Greek Revival entrance, with a wide entablature supported by rusticated pilasters, remains within the porch. Bosworth, descendant of one of th town’s first settlers, was an attorney with an office on Bradford Street. From 1897 to 1911 he was a judge of the Fifth District Court.
Hope Street 675
Jeremiah Wilson House
c. before 1751, c. 1835
The first house on this lot was built c. 1709 for Samuel Woodbury, town surveyor. In 1750 his son Jonathan Woodbury split the lot an dsold the eastern quarter-acre, fronting on Hope Street, to housewright John Peckham. Within five months, Peckham built this 2 _-story, 4-bay, gable-roof Colonial house with a center chimney for Jeremiah Wilson. It has a fine pedimented entrance with pierced fanlight and geometric-patterned surround. By 1817 Wilson’s heirs sold the house to Henry Wight, Jr., a merchant. Deacon Daniel Perry, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, became owner in 1832 and by 1835 his daughters Eliza Bartlett Perry and Mary Laurence Nye inherited the house. The large rear ell may date from this period. In 1866 it passed to Gideon Gifford, remained in family ownership until 1922, and is now a 2-family home.
Hope Street 686
Charles Greene House
1879
A 2-story, bracketed, end-gable-roof building with a 2-bay facade including a side-hall entrance under a bracketed hood with a balustrade, flanked by a 2-story, semi-octagonal bay. A 1-story porch is on the south. Greene (1822-1899) purchased the Bristol Phoenix in 1862 and remained its editor and published for thirty-one years. Active in public and civic affairs, he was first president of the Rhode Island Press Associations, clerk of the Supreme and Common Pleas Courts of Bristol County from 1865 to 1868, a member of the General Assembly in 1873 and 1874, sheriff of Bristol County from 1875 to 1877, and a town council member from 1879 to 1881.
Hope Street 693
Dr. Chillingsworth Foster House
c. 1780, 1810, c. 1921
This 2-story, 5-bay, hip-roof Federal house was begun for Foster, ship’s surgeon on the Hiram, which was lost in the West Indies during the War of 1812. The facade has a central Doric portico and a flat-head entrance with paneled pilasters and rope-design cornice, flanked by triple-hung, 6-over 6- over 6 facade windows. The house was moved back from the street line in 1810. A hip-roofed porch on the south side was added in the 1920s.
Hope Street 701
Durfee T. Bradford House
c. 1850
This large, 2-1/2 story, 3-bay, l-shaped, cross-gable-roof house was built by Bradford, a shipmaster and commercial fisherman. Henry Goff of the Phenix Sugar Refining Company purchased it in 1857. This transitional Greek Revival/Italianate house reflects changes in taste and style occurring just before the Civil War. The handsome facade has a recessed Greek Revival entrance, with Ionic pilasters and modillion cornice and ornamental brackets trimming the windows and the eaves. A triparite, round-head window unit, a popular mid-19th-century feature, appears in the center of the pedimented front gable.
Hope Street 707
Leonard J. Bradford House
before 1800
This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay Federal house with interior end chimneys was the home of Bradford (1780-1812), a shipmaster and owner, in the early 19th century. This house retains fine interior woodwork. The entrance has a heavy cushion molding, a Greek frieze, and fluted pilasters with rope moldings. A 2-1/2-story, gambrel-roof ell had been added at the rear by 1798. Bradford’s letters from Cuba to fiancee Sally Turner, written aboard a slaver in 1800, and their portraits by Cephus Thompson are in the collections of the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society’s museum.
Hope Street 720
John Phillips-Isaac Manchester House
c. 1740?
A 2-story, 4-bay, gambrel-roof, center-chimney Colonial house with a deep projecting front cornice; the 2-story rear ell has a brick end wall. John Phillips, a cooper, built the house an dsold it to merchant Thomas Church in 1751. Isaac Manchester (1768-1869) of Little Compton bought it in 1792, when he bacame a ship master for John and William DeWolf. In 1798 Manchester bought his own sloop. Forced into bankruptcy, he spent his final years as a clam peddler. In 1838 merchants Crawford Easterbrooks and Henry Manchester bought the house for 2-family use.
Hope Street 721
Caleb Littlefield House
1799
This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay, flank gable-roof house was built for Littlefield (1775-1810) after his marriage to Hannah M. Bosworth. The pedimented entrance (now filled in) has fluted Ionic pilasters, typical of the fine Federal craftsmanship of Bristol. Parson Wight recorded that Littlefield also built a barn and two stables on Thames Street in 1804. Littlefield died at sea in 1810 and his son George, a shipmaster, inherited this house.
Hope Street 736
Parker Borden House
1798, 1855
In 1798 shipmaster Borden began this dwelling near his Thames Street wharf. This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay house with two interior chimneys is a fine example of Federal construction. The elaborate pedimented entrance, wtih a semi-circular fanlight, engaged Ionic columns, and imaginative carving in the door and fanlight frames, and the unusual second-story Palladian window with carved garland trim are fine examples of the skill of Bristol craftsmen. Superb interior woodwork with rope molding survives in the northwest parlor.
Hope Street
Guiteras Memorial Building/Guiteras Junior High School
1925
Dr. Ramon Guiteras of New York left funds upon his death in 1919 to build a school in honor of his mother. His will stipulated that the structure replicate the Mudge House (1808), built for Mark Antony DeWolf by Russell Warren and burned in 1919, and that the building be white in color. Designed by Wallis E. Howe, this large flat-roofed building of pale buff brick and Indiana limestone has a 9-bay central pavilion flanked by 8-bay angled wings. This imposing structure is a Bristol landmark clearly visible from the harbor.
Hope Street 814
Bosworth House/Silver Creek
1683 et seq.
Known as the oldest house in Bristol, this structure was started by Deacon Nathaniel Bosworth, one of the original town incorporators, who named it for a Silver Creek that ran through the Bosworth family property in England. Silver Creek originated as a 1-room-deep, 2-story building with a massive stone chimney–as specified in the “Grand Articles.” Today, the building is a 2-story, 5-bay, hip-roof house with a 2-1/2-story, gable-roof wing on the northeast. Deacon Bosworth conducted Bristol’s first religious services here before the Congregational Meetinghouse on the Common was built in 1684. Ruth Bosworth, Nathaniel’s great-granddaughter, married Shearjashub Bourn, a tavern keeper, in 1749. Their grandson Benjamin Bourn, an attorney, was Quartermaster General of the Second Rhode Island Regiment in 1776, a member of the General Assembly, a U.S. Congressman from 1790 to 1796, and a U.S. District Judge from 1801 until his death in 1808. In 1836 Julia Jones, Bourn’s granddaughter, married James Perry. The Perry family owned Silver Creek until 1957. In the mid-1960's, the land was subdivided and a gas station and convenience store constructed to the south; the noted gardens to the north and east have disappeared. Silver Creek, now divided into apartments and bereft of its setting, is still an important architectural and historical landmark.
Hope Street 843
Joseph Reed House
c. 1842,1881
1808, c. 1842, c. 1881
In 1808 Reed began construction of this 2-1/2-story, 4-bay Federal farmhouse with a hip roof topped by a gable monitor. The Reed family sold the property to Thomas Church in 1842. The large, 2-story, gable-roof ell on the west probable dates from this time. By 1852 Hezekiah Church Wardwell had purchased the house. About 1881 Samuel Drury Wardwell added the heavy, flat-head hood and overscale, scroll-design brackets that now obscure the original Federal entrance; he also made extensive interior changes.
Hope Street 875
George Martin House
c. 1855, c. 1970
1840, c. 1855, c. 1970
James Freeborn’s journal notes that he built this 2-story, 4-bay, hip-roofed Federal house for George Martin in 1840. Its facade has a 3-bay Ionic front porch. Originally the house had a Chippendale balustrade on both the main roof and front porch, similar to the ones on Linden Place. By 1843 Martin, an onion farmer, put his house up for sale, and in 1849 he sailed to San Francisco to seek his fortune in the gold fields. Interior renovations and the addition of 2-story Italianate bay windows on the south side date from the 1850s. The original hip-roof carriage house, overlooking Mill Pond, is now converted into apartments.
Hope Street 900
Seth Paull House
1879-81
Paull, a lumber merchant whose warehouse and business were located at the foot of State Street, began construction of this house in 1879. This elaborate 2-1/2-story, hip-roofed, Second Empire dwelling has a 3-bay facade with a projecting central pavilion capped by an ogee gable roof. A 2-story tower on the southwest corner, topped by a turret with a copper finial, has elaborate brackets, diamond panels in wood, and a saw-tooth frieze. The entrance portico has clustered, square, chamfered columns; above it is a round-head Victorian version of a Palladian window. There was originally a sweeping driveway to the south. The corn crib at the rear was moved to 870 Hope Street in 1936 by Gladys Paull for use as an antique shop and is now enlarged for a residence. The original horse barn stands at 11 Hillside Road.
Hope Street 901
George H. Reynolds House
1838
This 2-1/2-story, 3-bay, end-gable-roof Greek Revival house has been dated by the discovery of 1838 newspapers used to fill the wall cavaties. Extant Greek Revival details include corner pilasters and a flathead entrance with 4-pane sidelights and transom, partially obscured by addition of a delicate portico. Original window casings were recently removed to accommodate vinyl siding. Reynolds was involved in a number of ventures. In 1836 he was a blacksmith in partnership with J.N. Miller; by 1837 he sold shoes and groceries. In 1840 he was appointed postmaster.
Hope Street 932
William Reynolds-Nicholas Peck House
1808
Parson Wight recorded that William Reynolds began this 2-1/2-story, 4-bay, gable-roof house in 1808. William began acquiring land from his father Joseph Reynolds in 1805 and enlarged the lot in 1814 to four acres. In 1823 the house was sold to merchant Benjamin Norris, who in turn sold it to Peleg G. Jones, captain of the brig George. Colonel Nicholas Peck bought the house from widow Fanny Jones and her sister Elizabeth Diman in 1833. Peck was a merchant in the West India trade and owner of Peck’s Wharf at the north end of Thames Street. His youngest son Viets Griswold Peck (1814-1906), a real estate and dry goods dealer, acquired the house in 1870.
Hope Street 956
Joseph Reynolds House
1698-1700 et seq.
Family records show that this unique early transitional Massachusetts-plan house was built in 1698-1700 by Joseph Reynolds (1677-1759) on the ten-acre lot that his father Nathaniel Reynolds, a leather worker from Boston, purchased in 1684. In 1708 Nathaniel willed the ten-acre lot with its tannery to Joseph and how own dwelling house in town to three daughters. Joseph Reynolds’s house is unusually large for the period, rising three stories plus a garret, and may possibly once have had a cupola. Originally the house had a two-room, center-hall plan with chimneys built into the rear wall, as found in a number of early Massachusetts buildings. This plan was expanded in the late 18th century to make a four-room plan. The modified saltbox roof slopes from its full height on the west to a height of less than two stories at the rear. The main 5-bay facade has a rare plaster cove cornice following late 17th-century English precedents, one of two remaining examples in Rhode Island. A very early, 2-story, gable-roof ell, which may predate the main section and probably was only one-and-one-half stories high originally, extends on the east side. The house was remodeled about 1790: the ell was extended about six feet, its roof raised, and a side entrance and staircase added. The present pedimented front entrance facing Hope Street was installed, possibly replacing a wider double door. About 1820, during a second remodeling, interior changes were made and a Greek Revival door frame was added to the side entrance.
The interior structure is clearly visible, with corner posts, plates, girts, and summer beams encased. In the major rooms, this casing was marbleized, a treatment which survived untouched until the 1940s, when it was painted white. Two rooms, the northwest parlor and the “Lafayette” bedchamber above, display rare heavy bolection-molded paneling, ranking among the most important examples of this finish in colonial America. The parlor paneling, damaged by fire in 1976, has been replicated. The bedchamber, which survived the fire nearly intact, has its original color scheme of red and yellow panels with light brown, dark red, and brown moldings, and lighter brown and yellow stiles. Much of the trim, including door casings, two-panel doors, and hardware, is original. The main staircase, with heavy torus-molded closed strings and newel posts with ball finials and acorn pendants, clearly reveals its early date and is comparable to the one in the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House in Newport.
The Marquis de Lafayette used this house as his headquarters in 1778. Prominent family members include Joseph Reynolds III (1748-1818), chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas; Samuel Godfrey Reynolds (1801-1881), an inventor; and John Post Reynolds (1850-1915), a probate judge and superintendent of Bristol’s schools for over thirty years. The house, called “Willowmere” in some records, remained in the Reynolds family until 1930. In 1982 the Reynolds House was designated a National Historic Landmark. This extraordinary early house is the most important and best preserved early transitional house in Rhode Island or Massachusetts.
Hope Street 996
Levi Dewolf House
before 1771, 1798
Mark Antony DeWolf, the first of his family in Bristol, fled to Warren after the British burned Bristol in 1778. He returned in 1786 and purchased from Benjamin and Abigail Bosworth this farmhouse, which they had bought from Benjamin Reynold’s heirs in 1771. After Mark Antony’s death, Levi DeWolf sold his house at 400 Hope Street and moved here. Between 1795 and 1801, Levi purchased his siblings’ rights to the house. This 2-story, 5-bay dwelling is notable for its elaborate pedimented entrance with a modillion and dentil cornice over a cushion molding. Housewright Simeion Pierce’s accounts for 1798 note that he finished the house of John DeWolf in the “same manner as Captain Levi Dewolf’s house is done,” suggesting that Levi had this entrance added to the earlier Reynolds farmhouse. Original heavy pegged window frames, with splayed lintels and 16-over-16 sash, survive. The large center chimney has been rebuilt and reduced in height.
Hope Street 1013
Samuel Norris House
c. 1750 et. seq.
A 1-1/2-story, 6-bay, gambrel-roof Colonial farmhouse with many original exterior and interior details. In 1755 after Norris’s death, his son John, a housewright, obtained this property and probably widened the original 5-room plan. In the 1850's it was owned by Captain Benjamin Norris, whose wharf stood between Franklin and Bradford Streets.
Hope Street 1014
Benjamin Church Home For The Aged/Benjamin Church Senior Center
1903-09, 1972-82
This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay, hip-roof Colonial Revival building was designed by Clarke, Howe & Homer, with Samuel W. Church. It is an outstanding example of the Colonial Revival style by a major architectural firm. It has a 1-story, full-width porch on the facade with Doric columns. The home was designed to provide pleasant housing in a rural environment for aged mend and later for aged women too. It was opened in May 1908 and continued to operate until 1966. The trustees of the home then granted the land and building to the Bristol Housing Authority to construct new housing for the elderly on the rear of the 11.5-acre site. Since 1972 the house has been renovated in four stages into a senior citizen center, with support from National Park Service grants. During this work, the original yellow and white exterior color scheme, confirmed by paint scrapings and old views, was restored.
Hope Street 1019, 1021
William B. Gray House
c. 1800
A 2-1/2-story, 5-bay farmhouse with a center chimney. It has a pedimented entrance with fluted pilasters and a transom, splayed lintels, 12-over-8 sash, and 16-over-16 sash in the 1-story rear ell. In the 1870s Gray, a Thames Street produce dealer, owned this house. He probably constructed number 1021, a small 1-1/2-story, end-gable-roof structure, as a farm outbuilding. It is now a residence.
Hope Street 1027
George Peckham Cottage
c. 1840
A 1-1/2-story, 5-bay Greek Revival cottage which retains typical exterior detailing. The 19th-century barn, in the rear of the lot, is largely intact. Peckham was a farmer.
Hope Street 1030
Jonathan Reynolds House
1792
A typical 2-story, 4-bay, center-chimney Federal farmhouse on the exterior, this house on a corner lot has a 4-room floor plan, including an angled fireplace. Detailing includes original heavy pegged window casings and narrow clapboards. Built by Jonathan Reynolds (1763-1845), a mariner, the house was owned in the mid-1850's by Samuel White, a dealer in beef, butter, and milk.
Civil War Monument, Rhode Island Historical Cemetery, 1902
A monumental column of the Composite order surmounted by a statue of a Union solder holding Old Glory and a sword. Erected by the State of Rhode Island, the monument stands amid the graves of Civil War veterans.
Middle District School/Taft School
1841
In 1802, a small brick school (formerly near Gooding Avenue) was built to serve families on Bristol Neck. It was replaced by this larger 2-story, Greek Revival school with a flank-gable roof and a square, bracketed, hip-roof belfry. Originally sited across Hope Street on part of the town asylum, the school house was moved by Samuel Colt in 1913 to permit construction of the Colt Farm Bull Gates. It was renamed Taft School in honor of Putnam W. Taft, a former schoolmaster (1853-63 and 1885-95) and remained in use until 1959. The building is now headquarters for Italian-American organizations.
Defiance Hose Company No. 2
1928, 1977
Organized in 1905 to protect the North District, this company originally was housed in Defiance Hall on the first floor of the Taft School, north of the entrance to Colt State Park. In 1913 the Defiance Hose Company was incorporated and in 1926 acquired its first mechanized apparatus, a pumpter known as “Ol’ Puff.” The present 2-story, flat-roofed brick building with a paneled parapet, built in 1928, has a large addition on the north side built in 1977.
Hope Street 1200
Longfield/Abby Dewolf and Charles Dana Gibson House
1848-50
Longfield was built between 1848 and 1850 for Charles Dana Gibson, granfather of the artist of the same name who created the Gibson girl. Its name derives from the 60-acre meadow, part of the 300-acre Henry DeWolf farm, given to Abby DeWolf when she married Charles Gibson. The design of the house is attributed to Russell Warren. A symmetrical, 2-1/2-story, 3-bay house with a steep gabled roof, Longfield is an example of the Gothic Revival style, popular for suburban cottages like this. Exterior detailing includes the two Gothic casement windows above the front entrance, label moldings over all doors and windows, and pinnacles at the gable peaks. The interior, which exhibits a mix of stylistic detail including Greek Revival, Gothic, and early Italianate designs, has a traditional 4-room, rectangular floor plan with a long center hall. Changes to Longfield have been minor: about 1907, the front porch was rebuilt, and the side porch was enlarged. The original color scheme was a bright red with darker red trim. Josephine Gibson Knowlton recorded the history of the house and its era in two books, Longfield (1956) and Butterballs and Finger Bowls (1960). The acreage is now diminished and outbuildings moved, altered, or destroyed. Dependencies of Longfield are at 1195 and 1222 Hope Street.
Hope Street 1222
Gibson Cottage
c. 1850, moved 1881
This 2-story, 3-bay cottage was built as a modest gable-roof building with board-and-batten wall cover for the caretaker of Longfield. In 1882 Henry Maitland Gibson moved it to this site. The double front and rear gables, clapboards and strapwork were probably added at this time. A former milk house from Longfield was also moved and joined to the cottage as a kitchen ell.
Hope Street 1223
William Cheshire House
1928
This 2-story, hip-roof house was ordered from a Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogue and the prefabricated parts arrived by railroad. It is the “Americus” model of the Honorbilt Modern Homes Company. Originally designed in 1920, this California bungalow-inspired dwelling ws painted yellow with dark-brown trim. This house was one of the first in Bristol to use gypsum board instead of traditional lath and plaster for interior walls.
Hope Street 1225
Rockwell School
1950
Postwar population growth had made the North District’s Taft School inadequate by 1950. Charles B. Rockwell, Jr., son of the founder of the Cranston Worsted Mills and assistant treasurer of the corporation, gave the funds for a new, 3-classroom school. Architects George Maxwell Cady and Wallis E. Howe collaborated on this symmetrical, 1-story, 11-bay, gable-roofed, red brick Georgian Revival structure. The copper roof cupola contains the bell from the Taft School, which closed in 1959.
Hope Street 1237
Jonathan Peck, Jr.-Samuel Martin Farmhouse
c. 1840
before 1721, c. 1840, rehabilitated 1973
This farmhouse was begun on part of the 600-acre Jonathan Peck Farm, stretching west to Narragansett Bay from Hope Street. In 1778 British and Hessian troops landed on its shore enroute to raid Warren and Bristol. The farm was acquired and the house was enlarged by Samuel Martin in 1835; it remained in the Martin family ownership for over one hundred years. There are two distinct sections: a 1-1/2-story, 3-bay, gambrel-roofed Colonial half on the east, and a 4-bay, Greek Revival section on the west. Original exterior detailing includes a simple entrance with a 5-pane transom light and heavy pegged window casings topped with splayed lintels. The shutters and weathered shingles are 20th-century additions.
Hope Street 1240
James and William Usher House/Old Orchard Farm
1845 et seq.
A 1-1/2-story, 3-bay, end-gable-roof Greek Revival house clad with narrow clapboards. Detailing includes a trabeated entrance flanked by full-length side lights, elongated compound front windows with blinds, and a small triple window in the front gable. Outbuildings include a 1-1/2-story milk house (c. 1920) to the east which was converted into an apartment in 1972; a second milk house (c. 1960); two long gable-roof henhouses; and two 2-stall garages. In 1838 William Usher bought the first farmhouse on this land, which was demolished upon completion of this house in 1845, according to a date marked in the attic. The farm once extended west to Narragansett Bay, but is now reduced in size.
Hope Street 1258
Peck House/Parrott Gables
c. 1870, 1900
1765, c. 1870, c. 1900
The core of this large dwelling is a 2-1/2-story, 4-bay, hip-roof, center-chimney Colonial farmhouse, now obscured by later additions. Horace Peck owned the property from the 1850s until the turn of the century. Additions from this era included the 2-1/2-story, mansard-roof ell on the northeast, a 1-1/2-story, shed-roofed wing on the north side, and numerous dormers. By 1903 the property had passed to Robert Turner, who extended the original gable roof in front, creating a full-width front porch; further changes include additional dormers at both the second and third floor levels. As modified, the house seems a large overscale bungalow. During Prohibition the house became a nightclub known as Parrott Gables. The barrel-vault-roof garage with cupola was built by the Herreshoff Boat Company in 1885 and moved here from John Herreshoff’s home at 64 High Street.
Hope Street 1269
Josephine Gibson Knowlton House
1923
Henry M. Gibson’s heirs platted his land as Bristol Highlands between 1905 and 1908. This 3-bay bungalow with a jerkin-head roof and Colonial Revival detailing was built by this daughter, Josephine Gibson Knowlton. The central portico has an ogee-curved tin roof and clustered columns, sheltering a segmental-arched entrance framed by a blind wooden fan and leaded glass sidelights.
Hope Street 1303
Ferncliffe/James L. Tobin House
c. 1750, 1882
One of the most distinctive houses in Bristol, Ferncliffe has evolved from a simple Colonial farmhouse. By 1749 the 200-acre farm of Benjamin Church, containing this land, was divided among four daughters. Thomas Peck, a farmer, purchased this share in 1761; his deed refers to a house already on the property. In 1882 James L. Tobin, an undertaker, bought the property, which then extended west to Narragansett Bay. Tobin’s daughter Mary named the house for the plants lining the waterside cliffs. The house has a 4-bay Colonia core; mid-Victorian additions include an overscale 3-story, pyramidal-roof tower on the southeast corner and a full-width front porch with strapwork. A large ell on the west was demolished in 1931. The interior has been extensively modernized, and the surrounding acreage has been developed with single-family houses.
Hope Street 1343
George Coggeshall House
c. 1798
This 2-1/2-story, 5-bay, center-chimney Federal farmhouses with a central pedimented entrance is a good example of the dwellings built by farmers along Hope Street during the twenty years after the Revolution. Carefully restored in the late 1970s, the house retains much of its original interior and exterior detail. From 1813 to 1832, Nathaniel Bullock, later Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, owned this farm. The Coggeshall House now sits on a small lot, its farmlands the site of new construction.
Hope Street 1382
Throope Place/Isaiah Simmons Farm
c. 1687. 1850
c. 1687, 1760, c.1850
In 1687, William Throope (1637-1704), who migrated to Bristol from Barnstable, Massachusetts, purchased this land. The original 1-room, 2-story house, with exposed framing, gunstock posts, and chamfered summer beams, stood approximately 50 feet north of its present location. Throope’s grandson, Thomas, Jr., enlarged the house about 1760. A new 2-story, 4-bay, gable-roofed house was constructed, facing Hope Street, and the old house was moved and added to the rear. Windows on the front section with heavy casings, molded lintels, and 6-over-6 sash; windows on the older section with wide, flat casings and 12-over-8 sash; and a 1771 will which mentions two kitchens are clues to this merger. The farm passed to Isaiah Simmons, a dairy farmer, in 1830, and remained in the Simmons family until 1922. The ell on the back of the original section dates from the late 19th century. Reuse of the barns for apartments dates from the late 1950s.
Hope Street 1392
North Farm and Arboretum
mid-19th century et. seq.
Now the site of modern development, North Farm is notable today primarily for its historic landscape. In 1832 Benjamin Hall (1752-1812), a State Street merchant, purchased a tract encompassing this property. His son George Rogers Hall (1821-1899) served as a physician in China before giving up medicine to become an exporter of oriental objects d’art. Dr. Hall subsequently moved to Japan and in 1861 began to ship unusual oriental plants to the United States. After his return to Bristol in 1862, the aboretum at North Farm was established as a result of his interest in horticulture. Hall is credited with introducing many exotic species to America, including zelkova (Japanese elm) and Japanese dwarf yew, examples of which can be found here. This property came to be called North Farm after a son-in-law, James M. Howe, purchased the northern part of Dr. Hall’s estate in 1897. By 1902 Howard L. Clark, a Providence banker, had purchased North Farm. Clark hired Charles A. Platt, the noted architect and landscape designer, to build a handsome Neo-Classical house and a magnificent Italian garden. In later years the estate was operated as a gentleman’s farm owned successively by William B. MacColl, president of the Lorraine Mills in Pawtucket, and William S. Cherry, of the Cherry & Webb specialty store chain. North Famr was sold in 1953 to the Framingham Motor Inn Corporation, and Platt’s house for Clark was demolished in the 1960s. The Rhode Island Land Company purchased North Farm in 1973 and began construction of condominiums. In addition to Dr. Hall’s arboretum (c. 1862 et. seq.) And remnants of Platt’s garden for Howard Clark (c. 1902), surviving elements from earlier phases of development include a Gothic Revival outbuilding (c. 1855) erected during Benjamin Hall’s tenure, now used as a pool cabana; a library (c. 1904) built for Howard Clark; and some early 20th-century stables and barns.
Hope Street 2,3,4,5,7
Herreshoff Manufacturing Company Houses
c. 1885
John Herreshoff, president of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, built these houses and his workers. They were sold to individual owners in 1987. Numbers 2 and 4 are 3-bay, end-gable-roof cottages with full-width front porches that have square, chamfered posts and low, turned balustrades. Numbers 3 and 7 are large 2-1/2-story, end-gable-roof, multiple-family dwellings with bay windows and hooded entrances. Number 5 is an end-gable-roof cottage with a recessed corner porch and a prominent front bay window. Numbers 2, 4, 5 and 7 retain original picket fences, a common feature of late 19th century dwellings. These modest houses are well preserved examples of typical workers housing.
Hope Street 15
First Jonathan Russell Bullock House
c. 1838, moved c. 1900
This Greek Revival temple-form dwelling was designed by Russell Warren for Bullock, who opened his law office with Joseph M. Blake in 1834. It originally stood on Hope Street. In 1896 J. B. Herreshoff bought its original site for construction of the Belvedere (now Harriet Bradford) Hotel. The Bullock House was moved around the corner to John Street, raised on a new foundation, and given a gambrel roof.
Hope Street 242
John Street
c. 1745, 1790, 1833
A 2-story, hip-roof Federal dwelling with a full monitor, bold quoins, and modillion cornice on three sides. The core of the house dates from c. 1745. Later Victorian additions includes bay windows (c. 1870), a large 2-story east ell (c. 1880), and a wraparound Colonial Revival porch (c. 1900). Weetamoe Farm developed as part of Mount Hope Farm, owned by Henry MacKintosh in the early 18th century. His granddaughter Elizabeth Royall, wife of Isaac Royall, acquired the south half of Mount Hope Farm in 1744 and began construction of a house (see Mount Hope Farm). In 1776 the estate was confiscated by the State to raise crops for colonial troops. After the Revolutions, Deputy Governor William Bradford bought Mount Hope Farm and gave this 33-acre part to his daughter Hannah Baylies. Hannah conveyed her title to Weetamoe in 1811 to her cousin George DeWolf for $8,000; her husband Gustavus retained the use of the farm. John DeWolf 2nd lived here from 1828 to 1832, until he sold Weetamoe to attorney John Howe in 1833. Howe added a Greek Revival Ionic porch and balustrade, now removed. His son Mark Antony DeWolf Howe (1808 - 1895), rector of St. Luke’s Church in Philadelphia and later Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, made extensive additions to the house to accommodate his large family. The fields of Weetamoe, once used for cattle, sheep, onions, and a tree nursery, are defined by beautiful capped stone walls. Outbuildings include a summer house (c. 1795), once the cupola of James DeWolf’s Mount Hope Academy which stood on Bristol Common; a milk house, a 1-story cross-gable-roof stone structure, partially below grade, just south of the house; a caretaker’s cottage/office, a cross-gable-roof bracketed cottage, at the crest of the hill east of the house; and a playhouse (c.1910), a small 1-story shed-roof building, overlooking Church’s Cove. The grounds of Weetamoe have been developed with condominiums.