Bristol, Rhode Island

Bristol was in the original rota of five meeting places for the Rhode Island General Assembly. After the original state house on State Street became dilapidated the General Assembly ordered it sold. Warren jumped into the void in an attempt to wrest the county seat from Bristol but the town held on with the guarantee of this location on the Common. The new State House was ready by 1817. Its architect is unknown but often attributed to the town’s go-to architect of the era, Russell Warren. Two decades later a major redesign and expansion took place that covered the Federal-style bricks with stucco that was scored to resemble large stone blocks in the fashionable Greek Revival style of the day. The General Assembly retreated to only Newport and Providence in 1854 and the building continued in use as a courthouse. Trials continued here until the 1980s. In disuse and decaying the building was purchased  for a single dollar from the state by the Bristol Statehouse Foundation to restore and reuse the old state house as it approaches its bicentennial.