Roger Mowry Tavern

See also: List of the oldest buildings in Rhode Island

Roger Mowry Tavern in ca. 1885

The Roger Mowry Tavern (also known as the Roger Mowry House or Olney House) was a historic stone ender house, built around 1653, in Providence, Rhode Island. It was the oldest house in Providence, Rhode Island until it was demolished in 1900.

Roger Mowry, an early settler in Providence, built the house around 1653 according to research by Norman Isham. Mowry was a constable and operated the only tavern in the town. The tavern also served as a government meeting place, church, and jail. The Mowry Tavern was allegedly one of only five buildings not burned by the Indians during King Philip's War because Roger Williams, a friend of the Indians, held Christian worship services there. The house was located on Abbott Street adjacent to North Burial Ground and was demolished in 1900 so a triple decker tenement house could be constructed on its site.^[1][2]

Images

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  Mowry Tavern, ca. 1650, in Providence near North Burial Ground (demolished c.1900)

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  Mowry House as is originally appeared according to Norman Isham

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  Mowry House before its demolition

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  Norman Isham's diagram of the 1653 Mowry House from his 1895 book^[3]

References

1. ^ Great Migration Begins, Anderson, Robert Charles, ((Boston, NEHGS, 1995-))
2. ^ Colonial Tavernkeepers, Stryker-Rodda, Harriet, ed., (Flagon and Trencher, 1976)
3. ^ "Early Rhode Island Houses," by Norman Morrison Isham, Albert Frederic Brown (1895, Preston & Rounds [1]