Aldrich House

110 Benevolent Street , Providence RI 02906

Built in 1822, the Aldrich House is 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. The house also serves as the Rhode Island Historical Society headquarters. The Aldrich House is open by appointment only and for RIHS special events and programs.

Did You Know?

Robert S. Burroughs hired famed RI architect John Holden Greene to build this house in 1821. It was completed in 1822–the year the RIHS was created, too!
Nelson W. Aldrich, born in 1841 in Foster, Rhode Island, started building his fortune while rising through the ranks of Waldron and Wightman, a leading Rhode Island wholesale grocer. He entered politics in 1869, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1881. He laid the groundwork for what would later be the Federal Reserve Act.
One of Aldrich’s daughters, Abby, married John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller was named after his grandfather Aldrich.
During WWII, Lucy Aldrich, another of Aldrich’s daughters, who was living at 110 Benevolent St, took in two Scottish children who had been part of the mass evacuation of children in the United Kingdom.