List of the oldest buildings in Rhode Island

See also: Oldest buildings in America

This article attempts to list the oldest extant buildings surviving in the state of Rhode Island in the United States of America, including the oldest houses in Rhode Island and any other surviving structures. In the 1670s, most buildings, other than those on Aquidneck Island, were burned and destroyed during King Philip's War. Some dates are approximate and based upon dendochronology, architectural studies, and historical records.

List

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Building		Location	First Built	Notes
Stephen Northup House	100px	North Kingstown, Rhode Island	ca. 1660-1661 (possibly rebuilt)	possibly burned during King Philip's War in the 1670s and rebuilt, later modifications 1712, 1850, 2004
Newport Tower (Rhode Island)		Newport, Rhode Island	ca. 1670 or pre-1492	Viking structure or colonial windmill. No roof or floors since the mid-18th century
Philip Sherman House	100px	Portsmouth, Rhode Island	1670	moved from original location c. 1850; major renovation 1987-1990
White Horse Tavern (Rhode Island)		Newport, Rhode Island	1673	Oldest tavern in America
Thomas Fenner House	100px	Cranston, Rhode Island	1677	early stone ender
Edward Searle House		Cranston, Rhode Island	1670-1720	early stone ender
Capt. John Mawdsley House	100px	Newport, Rhode Island	ca. 1677–1680	with a large 18th century modification
Smith's Castle		Wickford, Rhode Island	1678	house museum, site of Roger Williams trading post, National Historic Landmark
Phillip Walker House	100px	East Providence, Rhode Island	1679	research site used by Roger Williams University
Clement Weaver House		East Greenwich, Rhode Island	1679	early stone ender. See also http://www.c1679.com
John Bliss House		Newport, Rhode Island	ca.1680	early stone ender
Forge Farm	100px	Warwick, Rhode Island	1684	oldest part of house dates to 1684
Daggett House	100px	Pawtucket, Rhode Island	1685	oldest house in Pawtucket
Gorton-Greene House		Warwick, Rhode Island	1685
Palmer-Northrup House	100px	North Kingstown, Rhode Island	ca.1685
Hopelands	100px	Warwick, Rhode Island	ca.1686	western ell of building, dates to 1686, now part of Rocky Hill School
Peleg Arnold Tavern		North Smithfield, Rhode Island	ca. 1690	home of Peleg Arnold
Wilbor House	100px	Little Compton, Rhode Island	1690	oldest house in Little Compton
Clemence-Irons House		Johnston, Rhode Island	1691	primitive stone ender
Eleazer Arnold House		Lincoln, Rhode Island	ca. 1693	National Historic Landmark
Valentine Whitman House		Lincoln, Rhode Island	1694	early stone ender
Smith-Appleby House	100px	Smithfield, Rhode Island	1696	museum
Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House	100px	Newport, Rhode Island	1697	one of the oldest houses in Newport, currently a museum
Great Friends Meeting House	100px	Newport, Rhode Island	1699	Quaker Meeting House, oldest surviving church building in Rhode Island
Portsmouth Friends Meetinghouse Parsonage and Cemetery	100px	Portsmouth, Rhode Island	1699-1700	Quaker Meeting House, original site of Moses Brown School, likely oldest church building in RI used continuously as a church
Six Principle Baptist Church		North Kingstown, Rhode Island	1703	oldest Baptist church building in RI
Saylesville Meetinghouse	100px	Lincoln, Rhode Island	1704	Possibly oldest church building in Providence County, RI
Old Narragansett Church		Wickford, Rhode Island	1707	oldest surviving colonial Episcopal church in Northern USA
Trinity Episcopal Church		Newport, Rhode Island	1726	Oldest Parish in Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island
Touro Synagogue		Newport, Rhode Island	1759-63	Oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States

Destroyed early Rhode Island buildings

• 

  Henry Bull House, ca. 1639, was destroyed by fire in December 1912. This Newport house was allegedly the oldest house in Rhode Island until its destruction.

• 

  Governor William Coddington House, a stone ender in Newport built in 1640-41, was razed in 1835.

• Roger Mowry Tavern in Providence Rhode Island.jpg

  Roger Mowry Tavern, built ca. 1653, demolished in 1900 for the construction of a triple decker

• Smith.john.stone.castle.jpg

  Colonial president John Smith was a stonemason, and built his stone "castle" in Warwick before 1663. It was razed in 1779.

See also

• Henry Bull House, ca. 1639 possibly oldest house in RI until demolished in 1912)
• Oldest buildings in America
• Roger Mowry Tavern, ca. 1653 possibly oldest house in RI until demolished in 1900)
• Stone-ender
• Timeline of architectural styles

External links

• Clement Weaver House - Oldest House in Rhode Island, (1679) (accessed on June 21, 2008)
• Norman A. Isham & Alber Frederic Brown, Early Rhode Island Houses:, (Preston & Rounds, 1895) (accessed June 21, 2008 on Google Book Search)
• Oldest Houses in South County, (1934) (accessed on June 21, 2008)
• Michael Mello, Providence Journal, "Dating R.I's oldest houses is part science, part art" August 21, 2005

• There is no archaeological or documentary evidence for this, but the theory has persisted since the early 19th century
• William F. McNeil, "Visitors to Ancient America" (McFarland: 2004), 78.
• Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America - Page 1036 by James D. Kornwolf, Georgiana Wallis Kornwolf (2002)