We try to keep this list of historic house museums for Rhode Island current, but it is best to check directly with the museums for their hours and other information. If you know of a historic house museum in Rhode Island that should be listed here, please use our submission form to let us know about it.
Bristol
Need an Image for ID# 1119
Blithewold
Bristol, RI 02809
Phone: (401) 253-2707
Admission Price: Adult $12, Senior $11, Student $10, Youth $4
Hours: See their website
Ranked by Yankee Magazine as one of the five best public gardens in New England, Blithewold, formerly home to the Van Wickle family, is a 45-room English-style manor mansion filled with family heirlooms, framed by a series of lovely gardens and arboretum on Narragansett Bay.
Coventry
Need an Image for ID# 1120
Paine House
Coventry, RI 02816
Phone: (401) 249-0633
Admission Price: Call for info
Hours: Call for info
The Paine house originally was built around 1691 by Samuel Bennett. Samuel ran a saw mill at this site and it is believed that the house began as a one room shelter.
Greenwich
Need an Image for ID# 1121
The James Mitchell Varnum House
Greenwich, RI 02818
Phone: (401) 884-1776
Admission Price: See their website
Hours: See their website
The two-storied frame house being built just above the Kent Country Court House was the new home of a young lawyer, James Mitchell Varnum, and his bride, Martha. Built in keeping with the best architectural standards of the day, the new mansion had a hipped roof, modillioned cornices, heavily moulded caps, and a central pedimented doorway with columned porch. The two-storied ell was added sometime in the late 1800's.
Lincoln
Need an Image for ID# 1122
Hearthside
Lincoln, RI 02865
Phone: (401) 726-0597
Admission Price: Call for info
Hours: Call for info
Located just to the north of Providence in Lincoln, Rhode Island, Hearthside is a unique stone mansion built in 1810 on pastoral Great Road, the first road through the wilderness between Providence and Mendon, Massachusetts, and one of the oldest thoroughfares in America.
Newport
Need an Image for ID# 1123
Newport Mansions
Newport, RI 02840
Phone: (401) 847-1000
Admission Price: See their website
Hours: See their website
The Preservation Society of Newport County presents 10 of the best homes in America. The Breakers, The Elms, Marble House, Rosecliff, Green Animals, Chateau-sur-Mer, Chepstow, Isaac Bell House, Kingscote, and Hunter House See their web site for complete details on all of these houses
Need an Image for ID# 646
The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House Museum
Newport, RI 02840
Phone: (401) 841-8770
Admission Price: $8.00 per perso
Hours: Daily, 11am - 3pm
Newport, Rhode Island's oldest residence, built in 1697 and home to generations of colonial governors and American patriots.
Providence
Need an Image for ID# 1124
Governor Henry Lippitt House Museum
Providence, RI 02906
Phone: (401) 272-5101
Admission Price: Adults $10, Students $5
Hours: 11am-3pm Fri, May thru Oct
Heir to one of Rhode Island’s leading textile manufacturing families, Henry Lippitt (1818-1891) designed and supervised the construction in 1865 of a house at 199 Hope Street in Providence for his wife Mary Ann Balch (1823-1889) and their six children. Occupied by generations of the Lippitt family for 114 years, the house is a three story, thirty room Renaissance Revival villa with Italian palazzo elements. Embellished with elaborate faux finishes, colorful stained glass windows, ornate woodwork details, and surviving original furnishings, the house is also significant for its pioneering mechanical systems.
Warwick
Need an Image for ID# 1125
Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum
Warwick, RI 02818
Phone: (401) 884-9490
Admission Price: Call for info
Hours: Open by appointment
The house at Clouds Hill was built as a wedding gift for Elizabeth Ives Slater on her marriage to Alfred Augustus Reed, Jr. The home passed from Elizabeth to her daughter, Helen, on to Elizabeth’s granddaughter, Anne, and finally to her great-granddaughter, Anne. Anne is the current owner and graciously invites you to visit her family home which is also a museum.
Westerly
Need an Image for ID# 1126
Babcock-Smith House
Westerly, RI 02891
Phone: (401) 596-5704
Admission Price: Adults $5, Children $1
Hours: See their website
This early Georgian-styled mansion was built circa 1734 for Dr. Joshua Babcock, who was Westerly’s first physician and a Chief Justice of Rhode Island. It was Westerly’s first Post Office, and later became the home of Orlando Smith, discoverer of Westerly Granite in 1846.