The Cotton House   -   circa 1720

     The Cotton House is a two-and-a-half story, gable-on-hip roofed house with two interior chimneys.  The house is named for Dr. Charles Cotton who owned it in the early 19th century.  The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased the house from descendants of the original Cotton family in whose possession it had remained for one hundred and fifty-seven years.  At the time of the NRF purchase, the house still had a significant percentage of original fabric both inside and out.

     The house appears on the Stiles 1758 map of Newport.  The circa 1720 date is unfortunately somewhat conjectural.  The original structure was probably a small, single chimney house of one-and-a-half or two stories.  The house one sees today was obviously enlarged in the Georgian style in the mid-18th century and received further improvements in the early 19th century.

     On the interior, rooms were added and enlarged and a second interior chimney was constructed.  One of the rooms in the small, original structure became the Georgian stair hall.  In a closet under the stairs are the remains of a bricked-up fireplace that had been part of an early room in the original circa 1720 structure.  The exterior was unified into a fine Georgian facade complete with a gable-on-hip roof with a dentil band cornice, wider clapboards, and a well-proportioned pediment doorway.

      If one looks closely, the two chimneys are not of the same size above the roof line, nor are they in line with each other.  Had the house been built new in the later Georgian style, elements on the exterior probably would have been more symmetrical and balanced.

      The enlargement of early 18th century houses to reflect the Georgian style occurred often in Newport, particularly during the third quarter of the 18th century: Newport was enjoying an economic boom that facilitated these "improvements".  However, that came to an end when the British occupied Newport during the Revolution; the economy turned sharply downward (as did the population) and the stylish building trend that had been so much a part of Newport for most of the 18th century came to a virtual stand still.

     The Cotton House was purchased by NRF in 1974 and moved, in 1977, from its original location in the southwestern section of the parking lot it now adjoins to its current site.  The house was restored by NRF in 1979-80.