This is one of Providence’s finest Federal houses, built for the daughter of Joseph Brown on land, extending from here north to College Street, long owned by the Brown family. Eliza Brown’s marriage to Samuel Ward, member of a politically important Newport family, ended with his death in 1808, and she built this house as a childless widow. It remained in the hands of collateral descendants until Marsden Perry, owner of the Narragansett Electric Company, bought it in 1892. What we see here are phases from both Ward and Perry ownership.
On the outside, the house’s overall appearance follows a standard early 19th-century format, although its larger scale gives some indication of its importance. The street-level entrance and the large oriel window centered on the façade, however, are Perry’s late 19th-century renovations, designed by Stone, Carpenter & Willson. Colonial Revival reworking of late 18th- and early 19th-century houses was quite common in Providence a century ago and endows such houses with a rich layered quality.
On the inside, the staircase, which rises toward the front of the house, is part of the 1890s remodeling, as is the beautifully paneled library or office (at least as it was originally used) on the southwest corner of the lower story. The principal floor includes rare and superb decorative effects, especially the 19th-century French wallpaper in the southwest and northwest parlors by Joseph Dufour and his successor son-in-law A. Darcy, “The Incas” in southwest and “Banks of the Bosphorus” in the northwest parlor. The dining room walls are hung with Chinese metallic papers originally used to wrap packages of tea for export.
— 2006 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
An ample Federal house built for the daughter of Joseph Brown, this is probably more interesting for its Colonial Revival remodeling by Stone, Carpenter & Willson for tycoon Marsden J. Perry, who lived here before moving to the John Brown House. Edmund Willson, the partner in charge, moved the principal entrance to street level, exaggerating both scale and detail, and installed the oriel window above at the landing of a remodeling staircase.
— 2003 Guide to Providence Architecture
2 Eliza Ward house,1814-1823. Federal: 2-1/2 stories (plus exposed basement); brick; hipped roof; 5 bay facade — originally a central entrance was located between the first and second stories reached by a high double flight of steps; in 1892 Stone, Carpenter & Willson remodeled the house making the original entrance into an oriel, removing the exterior stairs, and inserting a fine elliptical leaded fanlight door in the basement story.
— College Hill National Historic District; 1976
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