Horatio Tracy House   -   circa  1831-1846

     The Horatio Tracy House is an early 19th century cottage with little interior or exterior detail.  The exception to this is the center chimney and the original simple stairway that serves all three levels.

     The dating for this building follows a pattern similar to the William Mansfield House at 12 Dennison Street.  The land on which the Tracy House was eventually built was owned by Samuel Whitehorne who sold it to Joshua Langley in 1824.  We are not sure whether Langley purchased two (or more) small lots or one large parcel of land that he then subdivided.  In any event, Langley sold this particular lot in 1831 to Horatio Tracy.  When Tracy in turn sold the property to George Clarke in 1846, it was as a “lot and dwelling”.

     While the Dennison Street properties are not the most architecturally interesting, part of the NRF plan was to control land and buildings around the Samuel Whitehorne House, which was planned as a future museum property.  In the late 1960s this area was run down and unstable.  It was seen as an area ripe for potential demolition and development for unknown commercial purposes.  It was hoped that purchases by NRF would stabilize the area immediately around the Samuel Whitehorne house as well as preserving some interesting vernacular buildings.

     The Horatio Tracy House is on its original site.  The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased the house in 1968 and restored it in 1973.