A shipping merchant's fortune built the Francis Malbone House at 392 Thames Street in Newport. This historic house dates from 1760 and its design is attributed to Peter Harrison, the same architect responsible for the Touro Synagogue and the Redwood Library, two of Newport’s important early buildings. It was built as a private residence for Colonel Francis Malbone (1728–1785), a shipping merchant who made his fortune at a time when Newport Harbor was one of the busiest harbors in the New World.
Malbone is believed to have smuggled merchandise into the house to avoid taxes. In the cellar you can picture the subterranean passages that have been traced to a subway leading to the pier where Colonel Malbone moored his fleet — a practice common in the Free Port of Newport and one upon which many Newport fortunes were founded. During the American Revolution the British occupied Newport and seized the Malbone Estate; the mansion was used to store looted gold and treasures, earning it the nickname “the treasure house.
In 1975 the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Notice the pier where those passages once ran, the harbor that once bustled with ships, and the curve of Thames Street just past you.