The General Nathanael Greene Homestead, also known as Spell Hall, is a historic house at 20 Taft Street in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

.The General's first name is Nathanael, but the National Historic Landmarks program listing for him misspells his first name as Nathaniel, and the NRHP Inventory/Nomination document misspells it as Nathanel in the title but not the main body of the document (where it is correctly spelled as Nathanael). It was the home of

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

general

Nathanael Greene Nathanael Greene (June 19, 1786, sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most talented and dependab ...

from 1770 to 1776, and was owned afterwards by his brother Jacob Greene and his wife Margaret. The house is owned and operated by the General Nathanael Greene Homestead Association, a non-profit organization, and was opened as a museum in 1924.

Description

The house is a -story wood-frame structure with a gable roof, two interior chimneys, and clapboarded exterior. It is five bays wide and two deep, with a center entry framed by pilasters and topped by a transom window, triangular pediment, and carved fanlight motif. The house follows a typical late-Georgian center-hall plan, with four rooms on each level, two on either side of the central hall. On the lower level, the front right room housed Nathanael Greene's 300+ volume library, while the rear room served as the kitchen. The rooms on the left served as parlor and dining room. There are four bedrooms on the second floor, and the attic space was later also converted into bedrooms.

History

The house was built by Nathanael Greene in 1770, part of a property encompassing , and served as his family's home through the Revolutionary War. In 1783 Greene moved the family to Newport, before eventually relocating to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, where he died in 1786. This house he sold to his brother Jacob. It remained in Greene family hands until 1899, although it became run-down and was used as a tenement house in the later years. In 1919 the Nathanael Greene Homestead Association was formed to restore and care for the property. It is now a house museum, open to the public. It was declared 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 ...

in 1972, and was included in the Anthony Village Historic District in 2010. Nathanael Greene Homestead

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References

External links

Gen. Nathanael Greene Homestead Association
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Images

File:Nathaniel Greene Homestead, Anthony (Coventry Town), R.I (68994).jpg, 1930s Postcard depicting the house File:Historic American Buildings Survey, Arthur W. LeBoeuf, Photographer, 1937 FRONT AND SIDE ELEVATIONS. - General Nathanael Greene House, Greene Street, Anthony, Coventry, Kent County, HABS RI,2-ANTH,1-1.tif, Front and side elevations, 1937 File:Historic American Buildings Survey, FIREPLACE WALL, DINING ROOM. - General Nathanael Greene House, Greene Street, Anthony, Coventry, Kent County, RI HABS RI,2-ANTH,1-2.tif, Dining Room and Fireplace Wall {{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, General Nathanael, House National Historic Landmarks in Rhode Island Museums in Kent County, Rhode Island Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Houses completed in 1774 Historic house museums in Rhode Island Biographical museums in Rhode Island Buildings and structures in Coventry, Rhode Island Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island Houses in Kent County, Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Kent County, Rhode Island Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Rhode Island

Description

History

See also

References

External links

Images