Peter Buloid - Oliver Hazard Perry House   -   circa 1750-60

     The Buloid-Perry House is a large, three story, hip-roofed house of the five bay plan, with two interior chimneys.  There is record of Peter Buloid giving to Lewis Buloid the "large new house…." in 1757.  This house is one of the few remaining 18th century structures on Washington Square.

      The Buloid-Perry House embraces elements of both the Georgian period and the Federal period.  On the exterior, Georgian elements are reflected in the doorway, the rusticated siding, and the general proportions of the building.  The rusticated siding was an attempt to imitate stone with wood planking.  Stone was the favored Georgian building material in 18th century England while the colonies made do with the plentiful supplies of wood to create their "stone". The rusticated wood siding was "sanded" when the paint finish was applied to enhance the illusion of stone.  Sand was either added directly to the paint and applied to the siding or dusted on to the tacky surface after the paint was applied.

      Some architectural historians feel the building may have been designed by or influenced by Peter Harrison, the gentleman architect known to have drawn the Redwood Library (1747), Touro Synagogue (1763), and the Brick Market (1760) – all in Newport. Harrison also is believed to have had a hand in some residential buildings such as the Vernon House (Newport, R.I. c.1760), the John Banister summerhouse (1756) in Middletown, R.I. (now demolished, but with parts at Winterthur Museum), and other buildings now gone.  Harrison could have had a hand in or influence on the Buloid-Perry House, particularly if one makes comparisons to the Vernon House on Clarke Street.  It is important to make clear that no conclusive evidence exists to link Harrison to the Buloid-Perry House or the Vernon house.

      Federal elements in the Buloid-Perry House include the three-story façade and the shallow pitched hip roof.  One theory is that Perry, fresh from victory at Lake Erie (1818), bought and enlarged the building in the Federal style.  This theory hypothesizes that the building was originally done in the Georgian style and appeared much as the Vernon House appears today -with two stories and a gambrel or hip-on-gambrel roof.  Under Perry's ownership (or a previous owner), Federal elements – such as the full third floor and shallow hipped-roof - could have been added.  One would have to examine and date the timbers in the third floor and roof to begin to draw significant conclusions regarding this line of thinking.  It is a possibility, since many houses of this style dominated both sides of Washington Square at the time, and Perry, flush from his naval successes, would have been able and desirous to be "in style".

      The Perry family owned the building until 1865.  From 1865 on, the building was used for various commercial ventures such as a market, restaurant, and culminating in use by the Salvation Army as a place of worship and meeting.  The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased  the building in 1973 from the Salvation Army which had owned the property since 1914.

     When acquired by NRF, the first floor of the building had long before been gutted for these various uses, although original fabric did exist in small amounts on the second and third floors.  The Newport Restoration Foundation was able to acquire the staircase and some paneling that was saved from the 18th century mansion house of Jaheel Brenton (demolished years before) and used these materials in the first floor front rooms and in the stair hall of the Buloid–Perry House.

     In 2001, NRF commissioned a careful paint analysis of the exterior of the Buloid-Perry House.  Samples were taken from plank siding that had been encapsulated by a building to the west.  (There has been a building abutting the west side of the house since about 1860.)   Some further samples were taken from a piece of original cornice on the south side. These samples corroborated the findings on the planks from the west side.  John Vaughn of Architectural Conservation Services did this analysis and the colors were matched in paint by the California Paints Co. of North Andover Massachusetts.  Since then (2001), the exterior of the Buloid–Perry House has been painted in what is believed to have been the exact original color of the house – something made possible by modern paint analysis techniques coupled with the unintentional protection provided by the abutting building for one hundred and forty years.

     The Buloid–Perry House is on its original site.   The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased the house in 1973 and restored it in 1976-77.