Renovations

The 1920s saw the addition of modern conveniences, including a kitchen and indoor plumbing, as well as a restoration of the home’s original yellow exterior. Also, a 3,300 square-foot carriage home, used as servants’ quarters, was built behind the home. In 1967, restoration architect Irving B. Haynes suggested to Mr. and Mrs. John Nicholas Brown II that the home was in poor structural shape and suggested a complete overhaul, which the Browns declined. It was not until 1985, when the home was sold to house the John Nicholas Brown Center for American Civilization, that the dire situation of the home was realized. Decades of termite infestation and rot had taken their toll on the wooden foundation and frame of the National Historic Landmark home, and collapse was imminent. To fund this project, which lasted seven years, the children of John Nicholas Brown II sold a 1760s-era Newport desk and bookcase that had been in the home for 175 years. The bookcase sold for over twelve million dollars at Christie’s, the largest sum ever paid at auction for a piece of furniture.