GPS City GuideProvidenceThomas P. Ives House

Stop 26 of 36 · Providence audio walking tour

Thomas P. Ives House

College Hill · 1803 · Adamesque-Federal brick mansion

What you'll hear here: about a minute of narration about Thomas P. Ives House, and how it fits College Hill, written to be listened to on the spot rather than read at home.

Notice the Thomas P. Ives House rising at 66 Power Street in Providence's College Hill neighborhood. Built in 1803–06 by Providence master builder Caleb Ormsbee for Thomas Poynton Ives, a wealthy merchant, this brick house is an extremely well-preserved, little-altered example of Adamesque-Federal style and was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 30, 1970. You can sense the house’s quiet longevity: it remained in Ives family hands for more than 150 years, and although two principal chambers were redecorated in the 1870s, those alterations were carefully reversed in the 1950s.

Physically it rises as a 3½-story brick structure, its hip roof surrounded by a low balustrade. The front and sides are set in Flemish bond while the back wall uses American bond. The five-bay front is sheltered by a single-story circular porch, an 1884 addition, that frames the centered entry.

Look at the doorway with its sidelight windows and the elliptical fanlight above, the projecting bay on the right that now rises three stories, and the modillioned cornice under the roofline. Notice those details up close.

Where it is

Coordinates
41.82333, -71.40278
Area
College Hill
Era
1803 · Adamesque-Federal brick mansion
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.