Henry Marchant House (Joseph Babcock House)

This is a very fine five-bay farmhouse with pedimented central door flanked by Doric pilasters and central chimney in stone, all backed by a shallow lean-to. Shortly after its building, Henry Marchant bought it and operated it as the center of a plantation, all the while maintaining ties with the Newport mercantile establishment and a career as a member of the state assembly from Newport. His son, like some other wealthy Newporters of the early nineteenth century, continued to ferry between the city and the family farm. The house, surrounded by 90 acres and mostly nineteenth-century outbuildings, has continued in the ownership of Marchant descendents and is well preserved throughout, with some changes inside.