The Joseph Brown House is a historic

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

house located at 50 South Main Street Providence, Rhode Island. The building, designed by astronomer and amateur architect Joseph Brown, is the oldest extant house built by an American architect for his own use.

Architecture

The street-facing portion of the structure measures roughly in both height and width. Its facade, defined by five bays, rises two stories above an elevated, street level basement. The residence's entrance was originally raised above ground and accessed via symmetrical flights of stairs; in the late 18th century, the entrance was moved to street level. The structure's foundation is constructed of

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

, while the raised volume of the house is made of

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

and common bond brick. The structure is noted for its ogee curved gable roof, which is decorated with a white trellised

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

and

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

. According to

Antoinette Downing Antoinette Forrester Downing (July 14, 1904 – May 9, 2001) was an architectural historian and preservationist who wrote the standard reference work on historical houses in Rhode Island. She is credited with spearheading a movement that saved ma ...

, "such a baroque scheme for the exterior was rare even in English building, and harks back to

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

and the first years of the eighteenth century;

Colen Campbell Colen Campbell (15 June 1676 – 13 September 1729) was a pioneering Scottish architect and architectural writer, credited as a founder of the Georgian style. For most of his career, he resided in Italy and England. As well as his architectural ...

, in his ''Vitruvius Britannicus'' of 1717, published an engraved plate of a house similar to Brown's, with the gable end treated as a broken scroll." In the 1920s, a rear wing was added to the house.

History

The structure was constructed in 1774 by architect Joseph Brown of the prominent mercantile Brown family as his personal residence. During the American Revolution, the house was one of a number of structures used to quarter French troops. In 1801, the structure was acquired by the Providence Bank—an enterprise founded by Brown's brothers

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

and

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...

—and used as an office. The bank occupied the structure until 1929. The building was subsequently owned by the Counting House Corporation. In 1970, the structure was designated a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the College Hill Historic District.

Gallery

File:The Old Providence Bank.jpg, An engraving of the building published in 1886 shows the original entrance and staircase. File:Old Providence National Bank.jpg, A 1922 drawing depicts the building in its altered form. File:Joseph Brown House and Old Stone Bank.jpg, The Joseph Brown House stands immediately adjacent to the

Old Stone Bank Old Stone Bank was a popular Rhode Island banking institution that was founded in Providence, Rhode Island, Providence in 1819 as a mutual savings bank that was called Providence Institution for Savings. The savings bank was the fourth largest b ...

References

{{Reflist Houses in Providence, Rhode Island Georgian architecture in Rhode Island Historic district contributing properties in Rhode Island Houses completed in 1774