Jonathan Congdon, for whom the house and street are named, was one of fifteen children born to Quakers Joseph Congdon, a hardware and iron manufacturer and salesman, and Susanna Cross. Jonathan worked in manufacturing and sales with his father, and married Elizabeth Arnold in 1787. The year before they were married, Jonathan Congdon had purchased the land at what is now 22 Angell Street, and for the first few decades of their marriage, Jonathan and Elizabeth resided in a small home described in 1798 as “in bad repair.” The couple had nine children, including sons Arnold and Welcome.

Sometime during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Jonathan inherited the family business from his father and renamed it Jonathan Congdon & Sons, as his two sons Arnold and Welcome had begun working alongside him. In 1805, Jonathan’s father Joseph Congdon was struck and killed by lightning.

In 1818, the Congdons demolished their small home and built the Federal-style, clapboard house that currently stands at 22 Angell Street, including a five-bay façade and double entrance stairs. Incredibly, the home remained in the Congdon family for more than a century, until the Rhode Island School of Design bought the property in 1937. Over the years, several additions have been built, including a Tuscan porch on the west side of the house.

As for the family, Elizabeth Arnold died in 1855, and Jonathan Congdon died in 1862. Arnold and Welcome Congdon took over the business and eventually partnered with Francis Wood Carpenter in the 1850s. As a result, it was renamed Congdon & Carpenter. The business operated into the 1940s.

To read our complete historic house marker report from 1966 for this property, click here.