The building replaced a smaller wooden courthouse built about 1687.
The Colony House was constructed as part of the movement to bring
formal town planning to Newport, which until then had developed in
haphazard fashion.It was intended to help transform the Parade, as
Washington Square was then named, into an elegant public space in
keeping with the traditions
of English cities. The design of the Colony House is derived from the English Georgian style
popularized by the architect Sir Christopher Wren, but its floor plan follows the customary
layout of English town or guild halls, which often had an open marketplace on the ground floor
and civic offices on the second floor.
The Colony House was constructed as part of the movement to bring
formal town planning to Newport, which until then had developed in
haphazard fashion.It was intended to help transform the Parade, as
Washington Square was then named, into an elegant public space in
keeping with the traditions
of English cities. The design of the Colony House is derived from the English Georgian style
popularized by the architect Sir Christopher Wren, but its floor plan follows the customary
layout of English town or guild halls, which often had an open marketplace on the ground floor
and civic offices on the second floor.
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