The privately-owned Nathaniel Daggett House at 74 Roger Williams Avenue in Rumford, RI, dates to prior to 1700 and has been in three municipalities, two states, and two colonial jurisdictions without being moved. The house was originally a two-story, gable-roofed, timber-framed, end-chimney dwelling, probably with only one room on each floor. A small entry and stair hall with front door opening to the south was squeezed in front of the chimney. A single-story lean-to with its own chimney was later added across the rear north side of the house and the roofline was altered to its present saltbox profile. [Wikipedia]
Nathaniel Daggett owned a shipping business and had a wharf for the ships right beside his home. Originally the house had a center chimney.
Click here for the Wikipedia web page on the Nathaniel Daggett House.
Click here for the WikiVisually web page on the Nathaniel Daggett House.
Click here for the Nathaniel Daggett House Facebook page.
Click on the map below for the location of the Nathaniel Daggett House.
Another privately-owned house at 1527 Pawtucket Avenue (below) is a 2 ½ story gable center chimney colonial c.1700. It was originally a typical 2 story, 3 bay, end chimney early colonial house with one room on each floor. An addition on the opposite side of the chimney was built tin the early 19th century and another across the back in the mid-19th century. An addition to the west was added in two increments in the early 20th century. This is one of the oldest houses standing in East Providence and is the oldest dwelling in the vicinity of the Ring of the Green.
The Phillip Walker House (below, also known as the Deacon Walker House) is an historic American Colonial house on 432 Massasoit Avenue in East Providence, Rhode Island. It was noted as the earliest house in Rhode Island built completely of mill sawn timbers. It was once thought to be the second oldest house in Rhode Island, but continuing investigation, including a dendrochronology study to date the year the trees used to build the house were felled, leads to the 1724 date of construction now assigned to it.
The Walker House has stayed a part of the original family until recently when the house was bequeathed to “Preserve Rhode Island” by descendants of the Walker family and most of the furnishings were auctioned off. The East Providence Historical Society was fortunate enough to acquire some of the historic furnishings which today are displayed in the Philip Walker Room in the Hunt House Museum.
The house retains much of its historic detail, but has been modified over the years with additions and alterations in the late 18th century, late 19th century and mid 20th century. Paneling was salvaged and immediately reinstalled from an earlier house on the site documented to have been constructed in 1679. The right half of the existing house is the original built in 1724; the left hand side was added c. 1780.
Walker bought acreage extending from what is today North Broadway east to the Seekonk River and north to the Ten Mile River where he built a sawmill where trees could be cut into wood for the building of the community. His home burned during the Indian attack and later his wife, then the Widow Walker, rebuilt on the old foundation.
(Above) Walker house in 2012. (Above) Walker house c. 1900
(Above) Walker House in 2018
Owned by Preserve Rhode Island (PRI) since 1982 and used as a study house for historic preservation students and professionals. It is currently being rehabilitated with structural repairs, new utilities and a new kitchen and bathroom for residential occupancy by PRI’s Property Manager. [Wikipedia]
Click on the map below for the location of the Phillip Walker House.
Two other East Providence houses were built on the foundations of 17th century houses that were part of the Ring of the Green that were burned in the King Philip War (1675-1676)
The 1750 Caleb Abell House (above, left) located at 66 Greenwood Avenue, was built on the original foundation of a 1643 house that was burned during King Philip’s War. Supposedly King Philip dragged a chair out of this house and sat in front of it to watch the Ring of the Green burn in 1676. The Abell house (above, right) at 8 Greenwood Avenue was also built on the foundation of a house that was burned during the War.
