The Colony House served as one of five rotating state houses for the Rhode Island General Assembly until 1901 and today is the fourth oldest surviving state house in the United States. From this brick assembly house, constructed in 1739, came the news of the most important changes of the 18th century. The official death of George II and the ascendancy of George III was read here, and so was the Declaration of Independence on July 20, 1776. Rhode Island became the final state to accept the new republic’s Constitution in the Old Colony House in 1790. In March of 1781 General Washington greeted French lieutenant general Count de Rochambeau here in 1781. A portrait of Washington by native son Gilbert Stuart is in the collection of the Newport Colony House.
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