Prescott Farm, Guard House, 2009 West Main Road, Middletown, Newport County, RI

2011 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Entry
Significance: The significance of the Guard House is three-fold. The first is that it represents an exceptional surviving example of early eighteenth-century craftsmanship. The nature and importance of its construction was why Doris Duke, founder of the Newport Restoration Foundation, opted to preserve the structure during the 1970s.
The Guard House also represents the extent to which Newport's mercantile culture reached into Portsmouth's farming landscape during the Colonial era. As an agricultural building, the Guard House serviced the farm, but also the owners' business interests, which were centered in Newport. It further documents the wealth of the farm's owners in its architectural detail, its size, and its presence as a dependency on the farm.
Lastly, the Guard House witnessed the capture of Major General Richard Prescott by Colonial forces on the evening of July 9/10, 1777. This major event prefaced the Battle of Rhode Island, which occurred over the summer of 1778, and provided an important morale boost for Colonial troops. Even though the Guard House was not the site where Prescott was actually captured, the folklore surrounding that event lives on and remains a curious story still told today about the Guard House.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1807
Survey number: HABS RI-414-A