Jump to content

Esek Hopkins House

Coordinates: 41°50′29″N 71°25′15″W / 41.84139°N 71.42083°W / 41.84139; -71.42083
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Esek Hopkins House
Esek Hopkins House is located in Rhode Island
Esek Hopkins House
Esek Hopkins House is located in the United States
Esek Hopkins House
Location97 Admiral Street,
Providence, RI
Coordinates41°50′29″N 71°25′15″W / 41.84139°N 71.42083°W / 41.84139; -71.42083
Built1756
NRHP reference No.73000071 [1]
Added to NRHPMay 22, 1973

The Esek Hopkins House is an historic home on 97 Admiral Street (just off Route 146) on the north side of Providence, Rhode Island, United States.

Description

[edit]

The oldest portion of the house is a 2½-story gable-roof block, three bays wide, with an entry in the rightmost bay. To the right of this section is a 1½-story gambrel-roofed addition, dating to the early 19th century. A single-story gable-roof ell extends from the rear of the main block.

History

[edit]
Commodore Esek Hopkins

Dating to 1754, the house was the home of Esek Hopkins, the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. After Hopkins died, his daughters inherited the property, and it remained in the family for the next century.[2] Descendant Elizabeth West Gould died in 1907, and the property was donated to the City of Providence in accordance with her wishes in 1908,[2] with the stipulation that it be converted into a museum.[3] Accounts of the time recounted that the property was being restored to its original condition.[2]

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1] Over the years, various plans were put forward over the years to convert the house into a museum.[2] They all failed for lack of resources.[2] Most recently, in 2011 the Providence Parks department put forward a plan to convert the house into a part-time museum; this has not yet come to pass.[2]

The building has suffered from inadequate maintenance by the city's parks department, and was placed on the Providence Preservation Society's "Most Endangered Properties" list in 1995, 2011[4] and again in 2015.[5]

In 2021, the Esek Hopkins house partnered with a local artist collective and a local dance company to serve as an outdoor space for dance performance and classes.[6] In September 2021, the house was the site of an original dance opera titled "The Historical Fantasy of Esek Hopkins."[7] The performance deals with the legacy of Hopkins and slavery and adds fantastical elements.[7][8]

side of Esek Hopkins House

See also

[edit]
[edit]
  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Geake, Robert A. (1 August 2014). "The admiral's all but abandoned Providence homestead". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  3. ^ "NRHP nomination for Esek Hopkins House" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  4. ^ "2011 Most Endangered Properties". Providence Preservation Society. Archived from the original on 2014-10-17. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  5. ^ "2015 Most Endangered Properties List". Providence Preservation Society. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  6. ^ "Outdoor Dance at The Haus of Glitter Performance Lab". AS220. AS220. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  7. ^ a b McQuaid, Cate (7 September 2021). "Grappling with a painful history — and adding glam". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 8 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Mathew Garza, Park-ist in Residence at Esek Hopkins House". Providence Park-ist in Residence Awarded Artists. City of Providence. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.