The Francis Malbone House is a historic house at 392 Thames Street in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

. The house dates from 1760 and its design is attributed to Peter Harrison, a prominent architect of the period, responsible also for the

Touro Synagogue The Touro Synagogue or Congregation Jeshuat Israel ( he, קהל קדוש ישועת ישראל) is a synagogue built in 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island. It is the Oldest synagogues in the United States, oldest synagogue building still standing in t ...

and the

Redwood Library 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 ...

, both important early Newport buildings. In 1975 the house was added to 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 ...

History

The building was constructed "in 1760 as a private residence for Colonel Francis Malbone (1728 - 1785), who made his fortune as a shipping merchant at a time when Newport Harbor was one of the busiest Harbors in the New World. He is believed to have smuggled merchandise into the house to avoid taxes. Subterranean passages found in the cellar have been traced to a subway leading to the pier where Colonel Malbone moored his fleet. This was a practice common in the Free Port of Newport, and one upon which many Newport fortunes were founded.""History of our Inn"
21 June 2008. The British occupied Newport during the American Revolution "and seized the Malbone Estate. The mansion was used to store looted gold and treasures, leading to its nickname, "the treasure house."" After the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, "the mansion was returned to the Malbone family who retained ownership until the early 1830s. After the death of Colonel Malbone in 1785, his son, also named

Francis Malbone Francis Malbone Jr. (March 20, 1759June 4, 1809) was an American merchant from Newport, Rhode Island. His father, Francis Sr., and his uncle, Evan, were active in the slave trade in Rhode Island. He held the rank of captain in the Rhode Island ...

, who later became United States Senator, owned the estate until his death in 1809. In 1770, famed painter,

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...

painted the portrait of the younger Francis Malbone and his brother Saunders, which now hangs in the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

." In the early 1800s, prior to the building of the famous mansions on

Bellevue Avenue The Bellevue Avenue Historic District is located along and around Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Its property is almost exclusively residential, including many of the Gilded Age mansions built by affluent summer vaca ...

, the Malbone House was one of the most opulent houses in Newport. It was owned from 1833 to 1838 by Colonel Joseph G. Totten of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. At that time, Colonel Totten was in charge of construction of

Fort Adams Fort Adams is a former United States Army post in Newport, Rhode Island that was established on July 4, 1799 as a First System coastal fortification, named for President John Adams who was in office at the time. Its first commander was Capt ...

and was also the senior Army engineer in the northeast. He sold the house in 1838 when he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Army. Francis Malbone House (1760) in 1888

Dr. James R. Newton owned the house in 1850 and built a brick office on the estate for his doctor's office, now known as "The Counting House". The Francis Malbone house was restored in the early 1970s. The front door of the mansion features an Ionic doorway very similar to the Ionic portico of the

. The floor plan features a broad central hall with flanking rooms on either side. The hall has a high divided arch, the stairs are fitted with ramped rail and twisted balusters. The stair landing is lit by a Palladian window. The front parlors feature plush paneling, a sign of wealth in colonial times. Two-story pediment mantels adorn the fireplace walls and a broken scroll tops the one in the northwest parlor. In 1989, the house was converted to an inn, with nine guest rooms. In 1996, a "sensitively designed addition" was built, allowing the inn to expand to eighteen guestrooms.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Houses in Newport, Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Newport, Rhode Island Historic district contributing properties in Rhode Island Houses completed in 1758 Georgian architecture in Rhode Island

History

See also

References