The Eleazer Arnold House is a historic house built for Eleazer Arnold in about 1693, and located in the Great Road Historic District at

Lincoln, Rhode Island Lincoln is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,529 at the 2020 census. Lincoln is located in northeastern Rhode Island, north of Providence. Lincoln is part of the Providence metropolitan statistical are ...

. It is now a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

owned by

Historic New England Historic New England, previously known as the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), is a charitable, non-profit, historic preservation organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is focused on New England a ...

, and open to the public on weekends. The house is a relatively large " stone-ender," a building type brought from the western part of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and used most commonly in northern Rhode Island. This geographic-specific aspect may have been due to the attribution of the work to John Smith "the Mason" of

Smithfield, Rhode Island Smithfield is a town that is located in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. It includes the historic villages of Esmond, Georgiaville, Mountaindale, Hanton City, Stillwater and Greenville. The population was 22,118 at the 2020 cen ...

and his family. It was built two stories in height, with four rooms on each floor, a lean-to, exposed

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

end-walls, wooden side-walls, and a pilastered

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

. By the 20th century, a gable had been added to the structure. In 1919 the house was donated to

(then the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) by Preserved Whipple Arnold. It has since undergone two phases of restoration. In 1920 the first stabilization efforts were led by

Norman Isham Norman Morrison Isham (1864–1943) was a prominent architectural historian, author, and professor at Brown University and RISD. He was an ardent preservationist and a pioneer in the study of early American architecture. Biography Norman M ...

; and in 1950 the house and chimney received a thorough structural rehabilitation. In this second restoration, later alterations were removed to return the building to its 17th-century appearance. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1968, and was declared a

in 1974 for its architectural significance. and In 2005 a

dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...

survey of the tree rings confirmed the 1693 construction date. Today the building closely resembles its form during the early settlement in Rhode Island, though some details, including the leaded glass windows and the front door and its surround, are 20th-century replacements.

Images

Historic American Buildings Survey, George J. Vaillancourt, Photographer, 1941 VIEW FROM THE SOUTHEAST. - Eleazer Arnold House, Great Road, Saylesville, Kent County, RI HABS RI-87-2.tif, View from the Southeast in 1941 Historic American Buildings Survey, George J. Vaillancourt, Photographer, 1941 VIEW FROM THE SOUTHWEST - Eleazer Arnold House, Great Road, Saylesville, Kent County, RI HABS RI-87-1.tif, View from the Southwest in 1941 Historic American Buildings Survey, George J. Vaillancourt, Photographer, 1941 VIEW FROM THE NORTH. - Eleazer Arnold House, Great Road, Saylesville, Kent County, RI HABS RI-87-4.tif, View from the North in 1941 Eleazer Arnold House Lincoln RI.jpg, Arnold House in 2008

References

External links

* * * {{Historic New England Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island Houses completed in 1693 National Historic Landmarks in Rhode Island Museums in Providence County, Rhode Island Historic house museums in Rhode Island Houses in Lincoln, Rhode Island Historic New England National Register of Historic Places in Providence County, Rhode Island Historic district contributing properties in Rhode Island 1693 establishments in Rhode Island

Images

See also

References

External links