Aldrich House

Built in 1822, the Aldrich House is a National Historic Landmark located on the beautiful and historic East Side of Providence. The house was presented to the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1974 by the heirs of Winthrop W. Aldrich, a former Ambassador to Great Britain, and it also serves as the Rhode Island Historical Society headquarters, hosting RIHS special events and programs by appointment. Robert S. Burroughs hired noted Rhode Island architect John Holden Greene to build the house in 1821; it was completed in 1822, the same year the Rhode Island Historical Society was founded. The Aldrich family later shaped national history from this address: Nelson W. Aldrich rose to the U.S. Senate in 1881 and helped lay the groundwork for the Federal Reserve, his daughter Abby married John D. Rockefeller Jr., and their son, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, was named after him. During World War II, another daughter, Lucy Aldrich, sheltered Scottish evacuee children at the house.