A typical house for a post-revolutionary middle-class family, this household was headed by Dodge (1759-1802), a silversmith and clockmaker. They lived here only briefly before moving next door up the hill, selling the house to Moses Brown (1738-1836) and Nicholas Brown II (1769-1841), acting on behalf of the estate of Nicholas’s father, who had just died. It then became the home of Nicholas’s stepmother, Avis Binney Brown, for whom the interior was elaborately finished, no doubt in reflection of her position as the widow of one of Providence’s richest men. It continued to stay in Brown family hands through the nineteenth century, but only as an investment. The house was raised one story above street level in 1906, when the handsome Colonial revival storefront was installed. For almost a hundred years, the Providence Art Club has owned the building. The first story, for many years an art-supply store, was renovated for club gallery and storage space in 1983-84 by Kite Palmer Associates. The interior of the original first story is handsomely restored and may be seen by appointment with the Art Club.
– 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
The Seril Dodge House I is the green house shown in the center of the photograph above.
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