Clemence-Irons House

The Clemence-Irons House is a one-and-a-half-story dwelling with a massive stone chimney on one side and thick wooden exterior walls. The building displays the robust proportions and solid craftsmanship typical of early colonial English architecture.

Richard Clemence built this house in 1691, creating one of the oldest surviving examples of colonial architecture in Rhode Island. The building documents how early English settlers carried out their familiar construction methods in their new environment.

The house shows English building methods that took root in New England, particularly the side-chimney stone construction technique. The way it was built reveals how settlers adapted their home country's traditional craftsmanship to colonial conditions.

The house can be visited through guided tours, typically held on Saturdays from June through mid-October. Visitors learn about traditional building techniques and what daily colonial life was like.

A dendrochronology analysis in 2003 confirmed the exact construction year of 1691 through examination of the original timber frame. This scientific dating method made it possible to determine the age down to the exact year.