Join Us

Support the effort to create a center for Black history in Newport

The history of the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House (WLHH) goes back 327 years. This landmark property has been home to Loyalists, Revolutionary War soldiers, merchants, and generations of Newporters, including enslaved Africans Briston, Jenny, Casen and Cardardo, who lived and labored in the home. As a center for Black History, this treasured property will find a new purpose and provide once more opportunities for the community to explore, learn, and connect.

Understanding the Past, Preserving the Future

A Newport center for Black history, housed in the city’s oldest documented home at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House (c. 1697), will celebrate the contributions of Black Newporters in creating our city’s rich culture, both in the past and today. The mission of this effort will be to serve as a hub for research, scholarship, education, exhibitions, contemporary art, and community engagement; fostering critical conversations about race and equity and ensuring a more inclusive, representative, and accessible understanding of history.

Newport Historical Society Launches the Voices Campaign

To explore the experience of enslaved people and illuminate the often-overlooked narratives of Black Newporters, the Newport Historical Society is embarking on the $4.5 million Voices Campaign to restore the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House and launch a center for Black history in Newport.

Giving New Purpose to a Centuries-Old Landmark

1697

The oldest surviving house in Newport, the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, is built for Stephen Mumford. Mumford was a merchant and a founding member of Newport’s Seventh Day Baptist congregation.

1749

Briston, Jenny and Casen, enslaved by Ann Brenton Conklin, are brought to the house through her marriage to Martin Howard.

1775

Cardardo, enslaved in the house by John G. Wanton, is manumitted.

1854

The Newport Historical Society is founded as a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the rich history of Newport County. It is one of the oldest nonprofits in Rhode Island and in the top ten of the oldest historical societies in the country.

1927

NHS purchases the Wanton­-Lyman-Hazard House and retains Norman Isham, a noted restoration architect, to stabilize and restore the building.

1930

Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House opens for public tours. It subsequently operates for decades as a historic house museum, until the 1990s, when it closed regular operations and became available only for private tours and special events.

1960

The Wanton-Lyman-­Hazard House receives its National Historic Landmark designation.

1995

NHS commissions a Preliminary Historic Structure Evaluation of the house that leads to funding from The Champlin Foundation, the McBean Charitable Trust, and the van Beuren Charitable Foundation for restoration and stabilization through 2001.

2005

An African spirit bundle, an assemblage of objects known as a nkisi, including a cowrie shell, nails and shards of glass, and a scrap of cloth, is discov­ered under the attic floorboards at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House. The contents, dated to the second half of the 18th century, provide physical evidence of the enslaved occupants previously believed to reside at the property.

2016

NHS loans the nkisi spirit bundle to the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History where it is part of their inaugural exhibits.

2023

With the support of Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, NHS receives a $300,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures program to kickstart efforts to create a designated Newport Center for Black history.

2024

NHS launches Voices from the NHS Archives, a digitization project and database of more than 4,000 records that center Black and Indigenous experiences within Newport’s history.

NHS launches the $4.5 million capital Voices Campaign to bring a Newport Center for Black History to life.

Illustrating the Vision

The NHS has engaged the award-winning David Parker

as the architect for this project. Since founding the firm in 1989, Parker and his New England-based team of architects and designers have built an impressive portfolio, including noteworthy work with other National Historic Landmarks. Their residential and preservation work has received many honors, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Tony Goldman Award, two New York Landmarks Conservancy Moses Preservation Awards, and two Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Stanford White Awards. KCM Group, a certified small business enterprise and full-service construction management and consulting firm, will serve as the owner’s representative.

Setting the Course

Current Phase

Summer 2024

Quiet Phase

$2 million working goal

Fall 2024

Public Phase

Additional $2.5 million working goal

By January 2025

Construction Begins

2025 - Early 2026

Construction, Interpretive Planning, & Exhibit Design

Summer 2026

Public Opening of Center

Join us

Newport Historical Society has a promising path forward to securing $4.5 million in this Voices Campaign to create a first-of-its-kind effort to explore Black history in Newport. Investments from individuals, foundations, government funders, and corporate partners all play a critical role in achieving this goal and making Black history more visible and accessible for generations to come.

Why this project and why now?

  • Unwritten Chapter

    While Newport’s rich history is the cornerstone of our vibrant tourism economy, we cannot tell a selective story. The city’s past and present are built upon the slave trade and as we prepare to celebrate the semiquincentennial in 2026, there remains no historic site that is dedicated to telling this story in New England.

  • Urgent Need

    The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, a 327-year-old architectural treasure, needs significant renovations to become accessible and meet the preservation needs of the historic site.

  • Catalyst for Change

    A Newport center for Black history, in partnership with Black-led community organizations including the Newport Middle Passage Port Marker Project, will be a hub for research, education, exhibitions and community engagement, driving conversation and action towards equality.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

– Joanna Baker de Neufville

– Daniel Benson

– Nancy Brickley, Treasurer

– Nancy Cushing Evans

– Wendy David

– Dorienne Farzan

– Anne F. Hamilton, Secretary

– Harriet Harris

– Pam Kelley

– Elizabeth Leatherman

– Karen Lloyd

– Paul McGreevy

– Douglas Newhouse, President

– Diana Pearson

– Leila Ray

– Dwight Sipprelle, Vice President

– Kathryn (KK) Streator

– Lisa Stuart

– Nancy Parker Wilson

– Thomas P.I. Goddard, President Emeritus

– Dennis McCoy, President Emeritus

 

 

“Together, we can build a better understanding of our shared past and how it informs the present – in Newport and beyond.”

-Rebecca Bertrand, Executive Director

Contact information

Rebecca Bertrand
401.846.0813 x.101
rbertrand@newporthistory.org