King's Arms Tavern   -   circa 1720

The King’s Arms Tavern (also known as the Thomas Walker House) is a sizeable, two-and-a-half story building with a large central chimney.  The roof is hipped on the street end and gabled on the other.

This building may, in fact, have parts of its structure dating from the late 17th century, or it may have been built in an older style at a later time.  Records of any certainty can only be traced to 1721.  The chimney and its fireplaces give substance to speculation about earlier construction: the two main first floor fireplaces are built with curved sidewalls and there is a cove above the fireplace lintel – elements indicative of 17th century Newport construction techniques.

The house started life as a smaller building - perhaps a two room plan of one or two stories.  The addition across the back was added and the roof was probably redone at that point to encompass the larger house.  The two different end treatments is quite an odd feature on a Newport house, but framing evidence indicates that this was intentional even though the reasoning remains obscure.

Records from 1721 indicate that Thomas Walker sold a " Dwelling House, Tan Falls, and other buildings" to Captain Edmund Thurston.  Tanning was a thriving industry in mid-18th century Newport and Walker and Thurston were only two of several recorded owners of tanning businesses.  In 1773 Abigail Stoneman opened the building as a coffee house "at the sign of the King's Arms" and mention of the property as a tavern or inn appears in newspapers of the period.

The King’s Arms Tavern had been a rooming/apartment house for many years before it was purchased by NRF in 1968.  By then, having been deemed unfit for habitation, it had already stood empty for four or five years and had suffered a great deal of decay and abuse.  NRF performed extensive structural work to the timber frame of this house during restoration.

The King’s Arms Tavern is on its original site.  The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased the building in 1968 and restored it in 1973.

.