John Whitehorne House, c.1750 (428 Thames Street)

Paint:
Fres~Coat interior

Colors:
Wall - White #00
Wall - Bayberry Wax / Hist.

A two story, five bay, shallow hipped-roofed Georgian house with two interior chimneys. The floor plan has a central hallway - front to back - with the stairway on the back wall. There are four primary rooms on each floor, one in each corner.

The exterior is simple and restrained with a pedimented doorway as the main design feature. This is supported by the symmetry of the fenestration and the use of simple, but forceful trim on the cornice, water table, and window frames. The interior exhibits fine features of Georgian design. The hallway has a great stairway with two runs and a comfortable mid-landing, which is complimented by turned balusters, raised wainscot paneling and a heavy cornice molding.
The rooms are simple, yet elegant in proportion and detail. Most have raised panel wainscoting and chimneybreasts, cased posts, substantial cornice moldings, and the typical Newport mid-18th century window and sash treatment.

The John Whitehorne house has a restrained Georgian elegance, which may owe much to the Quakers who had a strong influence on the look of 18th century Newport, be it the design of buildings or furniture.

Henry Hunter is listed as the first owner and probably built the house in the 1750s. John Whitehorne purchased the house in 1794. At this time little is known of John Whitehorne's background, but it is known he ran a distillery and tannery from this property that, at the time, stretched much further toward Spring Street than today's small lot would indicate. His son, Samuel Whitehorne with his wife and family, lived in this house with him until Samuel and family moved to his new mansion house a block north, at 416 Thames Street, in 1811.
The NRF bought the building in 1969 and restored it during 1974-75. The northwest first floor corner room had been a bar/tavern from at least 1900. For this use the floor had been removed and a new floor at street level was installed. NRF rebuilt the foundations in this area, installed a new floor at the original level, and used existing room fabric to pattern the details for this room. Other rooms in the house contained a considerable percentage of original fabric.

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