Richard Munday (c.1685-1739) was a prominent

colonial American American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. T ...

architect and builder 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, ...

. Munday built several notable public buildings in Newport between 1720 and 1739 helping to modernize the city.

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 ...

's church of St. James at Piccadilly in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, and

Old North Church Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End, Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related ...

in Boston, are believed to have greatly influenced Munday's

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style. Munday also built many

Georgian houses Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...

in Newport and was a parishioner at Trinity Church. Few details about his life have survived.

Works by Munday

Old Colony House The Old Colony House, also known as Old State House or Newport Colony House, is located at the east end of Washington Square in the city of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is a brick Georgian-style building completed in 1741, and was ...

, 1739, a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) *Sabbatarian Meeting House (currently home of the

Newport Historical Society The Newport Historical Society is a historical society in Newport, Rhode Island that was chartered in 1854 to collect and preserve books, manuscripts, and objects pertaining to Newport's history. History of the society Although the society w ...

), 172

* Trinity Church (Newport, Rhode Island), Trinity Church, Newport, 1725, also an NHL *Daniel Ayrault house, Newport, 1739-40 (built with Benjamin Wyatt) *

Malbone Castle and Estate Malbone is one of the oldest mansions in Newport, Rhode Island. The original mid-18th century estate was the country residence of Col. Godfrey Malbone of Virginia and Connecticut. The main house burned down during a dinner party in 1766 and th ...

, 1739-40 (resembled Colony House, destroyed in 1766 fire) *Malbone town house, 1729 (demolished) *Jahleel Brent House, (possible contributor) *John Gidley House, (possible contributor)

External links and references

*James D. Kornwolf, Georgiana Wallis Kornwolf, ''Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America,'' (JHU Press, 2002), pg. 102
Preservation Society pictures of Munday's works
*Antoinette F. Downing, ''Early Homes of Rhode Island'' (Richmond, VA: Gt: 1937) *A. F. Downing & V.J.Scully, The Architectural Heritage of Newport Rhode Island 1640-1915 (NY: Bramhill, 1967) *Henry Russell Hitchcock, ''Rhode Island Architecture'', (Providence: Mus. Pres., 1939) 1685 births 1739 deaths Architects from Newport, Rhode Island {{US-architect-stub