Sherburne-Nichols House   -   circa 1758-1774 

The Sherburne-Nichols House was originally located at 14 Coddington Street.  It is believed to have been built by Benjamin Sherburne on land purchased from Captain John Draper.  The date is vague, in part, because a building appears, coded as a shop, on the Coddington Street lot on the Stiles 1758 map of Newport.  Coddington Street, the building’s original location, is in the heart of the city and seems to have been an area with a high density of shops and stables at the time Stiles made his map.

Captain John Draper bought the property in 1721.  In 1750, Draper heirs sold the property to Sherburne without a building listed on the deed.  During the mid-18th century, Sherburne owned a "mansion" house on the NE corner of Farewell & Marlborough Streets – quite near by Coddington Street - and it would not have been improbable for him to have built a shop, stable, or accessory building close to his main dwelling.  Later, the building could have been converted to a house, perhaps when Sherburne sold the property to Samuel Nichols in 1774, as the term "house" was listed on Nichols’ deed to the property.  

The exterior of the Sherburne-Nichols House fits the plan of a four bay house scheme so typical in Newport from 1740 to 1815.  By the time NRF purchased the structure, very little original material existed with the building.  When the house was restored, (or perhaps ‘rebuilt’ is a better term), the size and exterior proportions that typify the 18th century were kept and enhanced.  The interior was furnished with architectural materials from NRF inventory of period trim or with details reproduced from profiles and designs existing on other similar Newport houses.

This is one of several properties NRF bought from the Foundation for the Preservation of America's Architectural Heritage (FPAAH).  This organization sought, in particular, to save houses in Newport that were slated for demolition in order to make way for a housing development for the elderly in the area of Farewell, Coddington, Charles, and North Baptist Streets.  FPAAH purchased various plots of land in the Point section of Newport, constructed cellar foundations, and the houses, mostly stripped of their interiors, were moved to the new locations.

When momentum stalled within the organization, the buildings were offered to NRF.  The buildings purchased from FPAAH had very little original fabric either interior or exterior.  Little in the way of history existed on these buildings, and what FPAAH had done to the buildings was, unfortunately, not well documented.

To some extent, NRF purchased buildings from FPAAH and then restored and/or rebuilt them not because of important existing structure and fabric, but rather to stabilize a neighborhood at a time when there was considerable need in Newport for this action.

The Foundation for the Preservation of America's Architectural Heritage moved the Sherburne-Nichols House from Coddington Street to the Elm Street site in 1968.  The Newport Restoration Foundation purchased the building in 1969 and restored it in 1970.