Almy -Taggart House    -    circa  1720

     The Almy -Taggart House is a two story, gambrel-roofed house with a large interior chimney.  The building is set end-to-the-street with the main entry on the street façade.

      It is thought that this house started as a one room, end-chimney building - very much in Newport’s “first period” style - and that it was built sometime between 1710 and 1720.  Indications of a one room structure showed in the first floor framing during investigations of the building prior to restoration.  A major enlargement of this early building took place in the mid-18th century giving it the appearance of a typical Newport vernacular building of the “second period”, also referred to as the “Georgian period.”

      Unique siding was also discovered during the preliminary restoration process.  The siding is beaded at the lower edge, random in width, and with rabbets at top and bottom which allow the siding to lie flat when applied to the wall rather than over lapped as standard clapboards.

      The house went through several owners in the mid-18th century.  It is not known whether one of these owners alone enlarged the house or whether several different owners each played a part in the various changes. 

     It is believed that Job Almy’s advertisiments in issues of the Newport Mercury of 1760 regarding a house “…newly painted blue…” probably refer to the Almy-Taggart House.  Blue pigments, particularly Prussian Blue, were advertised in the Mercury as early as the 1750s.  It was a newly available pigment, imported from England, and only discovered as a process about 1710 in Prussia. Blue pigments were considered to be very stylish and thus would have been a selling point for the house.

     The Almy-Taggart House is on its original site.  The house was purchased by NRF in 1973 and restored in 1975.