Linden Place

On the same day I visited Coggeshall Farm at Colt State Park in Bristol, RI, I went downtown to tour Linden Place, a mansion owned by the family of Samuel Pomeroy Colt. An extensive audio tour told the story of how the family came into its wealth, and how this wealth influenced the town around them.

Similarly to Forbes House Museum in Milton, MA, the house was built by money accrued in an immoral way. While the Forbes family focused on opium in China, the DeWolf family concentrated on the transatlantic slave trade. Before the construction of Linden Place in 1810, family patriarch Captain Charles DeWolf (sometimes styled as D’Wolf) had a plantation in Cuba while trading in Bristol. His younger brother, Captain James DeWolf, was likewise a merchant along with a lifelong politician. The original owner of Linden Place was George DeWolf (or D’Wolf), who went bankrupt in 1825 after his plantation in Cuba failed to produce sugar. He and his family fled to the island rather than facing their problems, so it is difficult to feel badly for them. The story greatly resembles that of Moffatt-Ladd house in Portsmouth, NH, although the original owners of that property fled to Sint Eustatius instead. James bought the house and later sold it to his son, privateer William Henry DeWolf.

After growing up in Cuba, Theodora Goujaud DeWolf returned to the United States and soon married Christopher Colt II, the older brother of Samuel Colt who invented the gun. Naturally, the couple named one of their sons after the richest brother, and Samuel Pomeroy Colt became financially successful as a rubber baron and banker. By 1854, Theodora’s cousin William had died, leaving Linden Place to his wife, Sarah Rogers DeWolf, who leased the property to become a hotel. After a decade, Sarah died, and Theodora’s sons sprang into action. In 1865, second son Edward Douglas Colt purchased the house at auction, renovated the building, and bought more land to expand the lot. Third son LeBaron Bradford Colt and youngest son Samuel then became joint owners, although LeBaron sold his share to Samuel by 1868. Samuel would continue to improve and expand the house for the rest of his life; he died in 1921, dividing the house into equal shares for each of his descendants and ordering that it stay in the family until one grandchild was left. Put a pin in this for later.

Not all of the wealthy people who lived at Linden Place were industrialists. Academy-award winning actress Ethel Barrymore, who was part of the eighth generation of actors in the Barrymore family, married Samuel’s son Russell Griswold Colt in 1909. Their daughter was named Ethel Barrymore Colt after her mother, and she became the ninth generation of actors in the family. Multiple Colt family members lived in the house from time to time until the final remaining grandchild, Elizabeth Stansfield, who lived in Arizona, put the property on the market for $2 million in 1987, equivalent to about $5.7 million today for standard inflation, or $6.0 million for housing inflation. The Friends of Linden Place raised the money, and the home became a museum in 1988.

As for the design of the house, it boasts many unique and beautiful architectural features. Chandeliers hang throughout the spaces, the largest hanging in the dining room. A spiral staircase winds between three floors and features a round skylight overhead. A sunny addition to the house was an octagon sunroom with floor-to-ceiling windows and a scantily clad statue of the Greek god Ganymede. The house has furniture pieces typically found in mansions of the period, including poster beds, pianofortes, clocks, andirons, early indoor plumbing, and a record player. One special surprise was the woodsy wallpaper of the former billiards room, now the gift shop. In the backyard of the property, which is shared by the public library for very loud kids’ events, are statues of Greco-Roman goddesses, especially Artemis/Diana. Additional statues stand in the front yard along with blossoming blue hydrangea bushes.

Linden Place is open all year from Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with audio tours provided on a rolling basis. Ticket prices are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, $5 for children ages 7 to 12, and $0 for children ages 6 and under, active duty and retired military members, Linden Place members, North American Reciprocal Museum Association members, and New England Museum Association members (like me!). The museum website is well-designed and easy to navigate with clear information about open times, events, the history of the house, and contact information. Like most historic house museums, Linden Place is not accessible for those with limited mobility or using a wheelchair. Lighting in the building is excellent on sunny days but may be dim on cloudy days. No seating was available. The audio tour format was excellent but occasionally difficult to hear due to the volume of other visitors and the backyard library program; headphones would have been appreciated. Additionally, each group was given only one tablet for the tour, so individual group members could not listen at their own pace. Despite these limitations, this was an excellent museum experience. The tour adeptly wove the story of the house, its contents, and its inhabitants into a cohesive story with opportunities to learn in-depth about specific topics. For those interested in exploring the Bristol area, this is a worthy stop.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 8/10

Accessibility: 7/10