Governor Gideon Wanton House   -   circa 1720

The Gideon Wanton House is an early 18th century, three bay building.  The house is only one room deep and quite small in footprint. The roof is gabled and there is a single central chimney.

In 1968, the Foundation for the Preservation of America's Architectural Heritage moved the Gideon Wanton House from its original location at 12 Coddington Street to the Cross Street site.   The house was purchased by NRF less than a year later in 1969. 

Very little original fabric came with the Gideon Wanton House.  At most there may have been bits of simple molding and perhaps a few interior doors as well as the outline for the placement of the chimney within the structure.  Much of the interior detail was reproduced by NRF either from existing period samples or from typical details known to represent the period of the house.

This is one of several properties NRF bought from the Foundation for the Preservation of America's Architectural Heritage (FPAAH).  This organization sought, in particular, to save houses in Newport that were slated for demolition in order to make way for a housing development for the elderly in the area of Farewell, Coddington, Charles, and North Baptist Streets.  FPAAH purchased various plots of land in the Point section of Newport, constructed cellar foundations, and the houses, mostly stripped of their interiors, were moved to the new locations.

When momentum stalled within the organization, the buildings were offered to NRF.  The buildings purchased from FPAAH had very little original fabric either interior or exterior.  Little in the way of history existed on these buildings, and what FPAAH had done to the buildings was, unfortunately, not well documented.

To some extent, NRF purchased buildings from FPAAH and then restored and/or rebuilt them not because of important existing structure and fabric, but rather to stabilize a neighborhood at a time when there was considerable need in Newport for this action.

The Governor Gideon Wanton House was moved from its original site on Coddington Street to the current Cross Street site by FPAAH in 1968, purchased by NRF in 1969 and restored by NRF in 1970.  The Newport Restoration Foundation sold the Governor Gideon Wanton House in 2004.