This elegant home fronting Newport’s Common was built by Seth M. Richards, and designed by architect James T. Kelley of Boston, Massachusetts. Seth, the son of Dexter Richards, was a partner with his father in Dexter Richards & Sons located at the Sugar River Mills site on Sunapee Street. This home was built on the site of the old Edmund Burke residence, took two years to complete and cost $65,504.41 in 1897. It’s Colonial Revival style is sometimes termed neo-Georgian because it resembles earlier Georgian and Federal styles. The interior design matches the exterior in extravagance and richness of detail.
In 1963 Louise Richards Rollins, daughter of Seth M. Richards, graciously continued the family tradition of providing a library building for the town of Newport. She gave this home to the Trustees of the Richards Free Library when the original Richards Free Library, located on the site of the present Sugar River Bank, was to be demolished. Mrs. Rollins maintained an apartment on the uppermost floors of the building until her death in 1968
In 1963 Architect Lewis Fleck of Hanover, New Hampshire designed the remodeling of the inside of the building. Including the initial first floor conversion the building has undergone five major renovation projects: 1963, 1988, 2006, and 2007.
Read more about the interior of the Richards Free Library building.
