Historic RI Homes For Sale

Few American towns offer a wider variety of historic homes and antique buildings for sale than Newport, RI. Established in 1639, Newport is known for quaint Colonial streets lined with 17th, 18th and 19th century homes that have been preserved with care throughout the many years that these properties have stood within this community.

Historic home in Rhode Island

Real Estate Statistics

Average Price $1.3M
Lowest Price $4.5K
Highest Price $29.9M
Total Listings 225
Avg. Days On Market 67
Avg. Price/SQFT $483

Property Types (active listings)

NEWPORT HISTORIC HOMES FOR SALE

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Historic Rhode Island Homes For Sale

Newport's historic district contains many beautiful examples of pre-Revolutionary architecture that’s still intact thanks to thoughtful owners and contemporary champions of historic architecture — including heiress, philanthropist and preservationist Doris Duke. Ms. Duke founded the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1968 to protect Newport's historic properties. Since then, the non-profit has saved and restored 83 antique buildings. 

71 are lovely Colonial homes now rented back to Newport residents keeping them viable for future generations. Duke not only bought these homes but often moved them before painstakingly restoring them to near original condition adding a few modern conveniences like heat and hot water. 

It is said that the craftsmen who put these old buildings back together mined parts from other old buildings salvaging hand forged hardware, iron hinges, door latches, bullseye glass and other antique materials from abandoned period homes. Everything about these homes is authentic.

Some wonderful examples of 17th and 18th century Colonial architecture are open to the public, but most are still in private hands. Many homes in Historic Hill and The Point are historic homes. These neighborhoods are centrally located in Newport close to all the amenities you need including the many shops and restaurants lining Thames Street.

The Newport Restoration Foundation offers guided historic tours and you can learn about everything from Colonial Newport right up to the Gilded age, when the famous Newport mansions were constructed.

Rhode Island History

These incredible homes are palatial in scope and have history packed into every corner, so when you buy historic homes in Rhode Island, you’re continuing on a piece of this great state's extravagant past. 

But what made Rhode Island such an attractive place for so many wealthy folks to settle down? 

There’s lots of answers to this question, but simply put, the three main factors were:

  • Ease of access for trade routes with the ocean so near

  • Already booming natural industries such as oil and coal attracted wealthy tycoons to live nearby

  • The natural beauty of the Narragansett and Chesapeake Bays attracted the eye of many of these Gilded Age industrialists to build summer homes on places such as the now infamous Cliff Walk, affording them uninterrupted views of the ocean.

These famous summer homes have since become the stuff of legend, with the tradition of the wealthy and elite of America making these manors their summer homes and year round abodes into the 1920s and beyond.

Now many of these historic Rhode Island homes are up for sale, and available for you to make your own history in!


If you are looking for a REALTOR® to help buy or sell a Newport historic home, contact Hogan Associates today.

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