William Watts Sherman House
The William Watts Sherman House, designed by H.H. Richardson in 1874, is considered to be a 19th-century American architectural landmark, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Watts Sherman House was one of the first true Shavian Queen Anne buildings in America, those elements evident in its steep central gable, a top-heavy appearance, wide-carved eaves, overhangs and massive chimneys. Stanford White, then a young architect, played a role in designing interior and exterior surfaces.
The house was built for New York financier William Watts Sherman and his first wife Annie Wetmore. Salve Regina University purchased the property in 1982.
Sources: "A Walking Tour of Salve Regina University: From Gilded Age estates to inspired education" (Salve Regina University) and "Newport through its architecture" by James L. Yarnall.
Resources
- Jean Brown Papers on the William Watts Sherman HouseHoused in the university's Special Collections, this collection contains research materials and notes on the William Watts Sherman House, the Sherman family, architecture, and interior design collected or generated by Jean Margaret Young Brown as part of the Circle of Scholars at Salve Regina University.
- Wetmore-Sherman Family PapersThe Rhode Island Historical Society provides a brief background on the Wetmore family, along with a bibliography and finding aid for extended family papers, which includes Sherman family correspondence and more. William W. Sherman (1842-1912) married Annie D.R. Wetmore (1848-1884), and was thus the brother-in-law of George P. Wetmore. The collection includes papers of his father Watts Sherman (1809-1865), his mother Sarah Maria (Gibson) Sherman, grandfather Henry Bicker Gibson, and daughter Georgette (Sherman) Brown. This family resided in New York - in Canandaigua, Albany and New York City. Georgette (Sherman) Brown married into the prominent Brown family of Rhode Island and divided her time between New York City and Newport, RI.
- Eileen Slocum, "Memories of Bellevue Avenue: The Story of a Newport Family," Newport History 67:1, #230, Summer 1995Recollections by Eileen Slocum of her family's time in the William Watts Sherman House.
- H. H. Richardson: The Architect, His Peers, and Their Era byCall Number: e-bookISBN: 9780262279635Publication Date: 1999Background information on H.H. Richardson, the architect of the Williams Watts Sherman House. Provides additional information on the architect and other architects of the time.
Stanford White by Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9780231508247Publication Date: 2005Information on Stanford White, who remodeled the inside of the house in 1881. Examines his work and the social and cultural climate during his time.
Sherman and Stonor Wedding
William Watts Sherman
William Watts Sherman, a New York financier, commissioned Henry Hobson Richardson to design a shingle and stucco house for him and his wife, Annie Wetmore, daughter of Chateau-sur-Mer owner Willam Shepard Wetmore. The daughters from William Watts Sherman's subsequent marriage to Sophia Augusta Brown were Irene Muriel Augusta and Mildred Constance Sherman. The latter was the mother of Noreen Stonor Drexel, a longtime Salve Regina trustee and champion of preservation and adaptive reuse of the university's historically significant buildings.
Noreen Stonor Drexel
- Cultural and Historic Preservation Program namedNoreen Stonor Drexel dedicated much of her life to philanthropy, served on the university's Board of Trustees, and "was a champion of the preservation and adaptive reuse of Salve Regina’s priceless collection of historically significant buildings that make up this stunning campus."
Stonor Drexel was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 1989 by Salve Regina University. Born in England to Ralph Francis Julian Stonor, 5th Baron Camoys, and the former Mildred Constance Sherman, of Stonor Park, England, Stonor Drexel has deep historical ties to Rhode Island on her mother's side of the family. She is a descendant of Roger Williams, Nicholas Brown of Brown University, and William Watts Sherman was her grandfather.
Sophia Augusta Brown Sherman
Portrait by G.C. Munzig
Sophia Augusta Brown Sherman (1865-1947), was the second wife of William Watts Sherman and daughter of John Carter Brown and Sophia Augusta Brown. She and her daughters inherited the bulk of her mother's estate.
The New York Times, Aug. 27, 1913