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Captain Robert Gray House

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18th century. 3622 Main Rd.
  • (Courtesy Providence Public Library, Rhode Island Collection)

Captain Robert Gray apparently built this tiny two-and-one-half-story five-bay shingled house for himself. Utterly unpretentious, its central chimney lost, its window sash replaced, and badly crowded by later houses, it is mostly of historical interest, for the colorful background of one of the owners of the house. Of all the nautical derring-do of Tiverton's seaman, none was as consequential as Captain Gray's sailing in the Columbia to the coast of the present-day state of Washington and there discovering the great river which he named for his vessel. Braving the dangerous shoals and fast currents in its mouth, he “took possession” of it, and thereby established the basis for American claims, in later negotiations with England, to ownership of the Oregon Country, which today comprises the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Data

Timeline

  • 1700

    Built

What's Nearby

Abner Soule–Cornelius Soule–Cornelius Seabury House
A. P. White Store
Tiverton Four Corners
Arnold Smith House
Tiverton Historical Society (Chase-Cory House)

Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Captain Robert Gray House", [Tiverton, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-TI8.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 484-485.

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