Interesting GAOP era house

[Matusalem]

I was up in my old hometown for the weekend visiting family, and I thought you'd get a kick out of this house, which is near where I used to live. This is the oldest house in Bristol, built in 1680, and overlooks Bristol harbor. I know it was built by nathaniel Bosworth and owned by town notables such the Perrys who were somehow related to the De Wolf family whose business was mostly in the shipping of rum, molasses, and also slaves. Bristol was the classic colonial seaport back in the day. The other signigicant story is this house was one of the only few houses still standing after the neighborhood was cannonaded and leveled by the HMS Rose in 1775 when she sailed into bristol harbor.. For those familiar with the Rose, the replica was used in the film Master & Commander.

I took some qick snaps, and 2 hastily put-together panoramas:

Edited May 10, 2007 by Matusalem

[Matusalem]

Here are some more photos I took of the same day in Newport. For those who are are not familiar with coastal New England, these houses are standard fare, however Newport is a bit more like Nantucket or Key West, and only more so because it is on an island. It was a pyratical outpost back in the GAOP, mainly because of it's relative isolation and you needed a boat to get to it. This is the hometown of Thomas Tew, when he was not plundering Madagascar, and a stopover for Kidd, Bellamy, Fly, Rogers, Bart Roberts, and countless more. Houses here are big big $$, and I would kill for one of these. It's one thing to dress pirate....it's another thing to roam the very places they

did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Tew

And this is the essence of Newport:

[William Brand]

Beautiful pictures of the house in Bristol. We need more images of period buildings.

[Hester]

Bugger! The photos disappeared before I saw them!

[HildeKitten]

Bugger! The photos disappeared before I saw them!

Same here

[Matusalem]

QUOTE (Hester @ May 10 2007, 12:32 AM)

Bugger! The photos disappeared before I saw them!

Same here

Problem Fixed!

Hester, HildeKitten, Thanks for pointing it out...glad that someone was watching. I had deleted some photos from my photosource to make room,and I accidentally deleted the ones on this post. Now they are restored.

[callenish gunner]

good ....they're baaaaaaaaaaack!!

great shots

[Capt. Sterling]

Saw a lot of the Newport houses, many are B & B's... one entire road is filled with them... beautiful place to stay and appreciate the architecture. Can't remember how old the one was that we staid in but Rochembau's (sp) headquarters was right across the street. We were wandering by on a tour and the woman invited us all in and showed us some very impressive painted panels that most folks don't get to see. Very, very pleasant, very informative. Lovely place, just a bore for Halloween...

[JoshuaRed]

Yup, that's why I love living in New England! Those are GREAT pics, thanks for sharing them! Here in Portland/Southern Maine there are some equally choice GAOP era houses. Now that it's nice out and everything's in bloom, I'll go around and get some pics to add here. This area has been settled since circa 1625-30, so there's plenty of piratical history and lore.

[Matusalem]

Capt. Sterling wrote:

Lovely place, just a bore for Halloween...

That's because all the surfbirds and tourists go home after Labor day weekend and the city becomes a bit of a ghost town. The town is mobbed during the summer months.

I'm gonna have to venture around Newport and Bristol on my mountain bike during Tall Ships weekend and 4th July and get some great shots for the lot 'o ya. I'm plannin' on doin' a small series called "widow's walk", which is essentially a small tower-like roof that many historic houses near the harbor have. Basically the wives of sea captains would walk up on the "widow's walk" to see (and pine) if their husbands' ships were to arrive.......an odd and sadly yet romantic feature of some of these houses.