John Sisson House   -   circa 1730

     The John Sisson House is a small, one-and-a-half story gambrel-roofed building of rural origins with a large center chimney.

      In 1974, NRF disassembled the house at its original site on Old Mill Lane in Portsmouth, a town located on the same island (Aquidneck Island) as Newport.  The original chimney was in the house at this time, but it was in such deteriorated condition that a complete reconstruction, utilizing old materials, was necessary at the new site.  Fortunately, there was approximately seventy-five percent original fabric on the rest of the interior such as mantle pieces, doors, and moldings, and all of this was used when the building was reassembled and restored on Green Street in 1974-75.

      Preservationists must sometimes decide whether or not it is appropriate to site a rural building in an urban setting.  In the various cases where NRF made the decision to do so, the Foundation was often acting under significant time pressures.  The Sisson House, for instance, had to be disassembled and removed from its original site in six weeks time.  In every case where a house from outside of Newport was reassembled in Newport, consultants to NRF recommended the relocation of structures based on architectural significance and condition.  It was better to have the building, even on a somewhat inappropriate site, than not to have the building at all.  This line of thinking was not limited to NRF, but rather, was a principle generally held by preservationists throughout the 1960s and ‘70s.

     The John Sisson House was purchased by NRF in 1974, disassembled at its original site on Old Mill Lane in Portsmouth (Aquidneck Island), RI, and reassembled and restored by NRF on Greene Street in 1974-75.