Artillery Company of Newport

The story

The Artillery Company of Newport is one of the oldest military organizations in the United States, and its stone armory in Newport, Rhode Island, doubles as a military museum. Its roots reach back to 1639, when Newport formed a "trained band" for defense, but the company itself dates from 1741, when the Rhode Island General Assembly granted a charter, in the reign of George II, to a group of 18 men describing themselves as the town's "principal inhabitants." The company calls itself the oldest militia unit in the country still operating under its original charter.

From the start the Newport Artillery was unusual. No independent unit in the Rhode Island militia had been chartered before it, its members elected their own officers rather than serving under men appointed by the governor, and it answered to the governor alone. Its first commander was Captain Jahleel Brenton (1691-1767), grandson of Governor William Brenton.

The company's service record tracks American history. Members fought in the French and Indian War, split between Patriots and Loyalists in 1776, and acted as bodyguard to George Washington when he visited Newport in 1790. Some served with Perry on Lake Erie during the War of 1812; the unit turned out during the Dorr Rebellion of 1842; it fought at First Bull Run in 1861 as Company F, losing four men; and it was posted at Fort Adams during the Spanish-American War. After the First World War the company declined and was not called up in the Second. A Newport tobacco heir revived it in the early 1960s, dressing members in colonial-style uniforms and firing period cannons that Paul Revere had cast in 1798. During the Bicentennial it served as honor guard for Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Newport in July 1976, and it celebrated its 275th anniversary in 2016.

The armory was built in 1835 on a narrow lot, 28 feet wide, donated by the Newport merchant Audley Clarke. Its designer was Alexander MacGregor, a Scottish stonemason who also built several Newport stone buildings and early granite sections of Fort Adams. He raised walls of rough-laid local stone, donated from a farm, into a severe little Greek Revival temple, with rusticated corners and a heavy doorway whose lintel bears the company's founding year. A rear addition in 1873 doubled the length of the building, and in 1906 the gable was raised to add a second story; the 1972 National Register nomination felt both changes harmed MacGregor's design; Wikipedia ties the 1906 rebuilding to a fire. A carved wooden eagle, taken from the paddle-box of the steamship Metropolis, was fixed to the gable in 1860. The armory was listed on the National Register in 1972.

The legend

The armory's haunted reputation is real but thin, and it is worth being clear about how little lies behind it. Newport's tourism bureau says the building has been rumored to be haunted for more than a hundred years, but it names no source for that claim, and no dated first sighting has been found. No named ghost, no specific historical figure and no first-hand witness account appears in any source. Ghosts go unmentioned on the company's own website.

What does exist is modern paranormal activity. In 2017 a regional group, the SNE Paranormal Team, ran a series of fundraising guest ghost hunts at the armory under the title "Ghosts of the Armory Past and Present," with evening sessions through October. According to the tourism bureau, investigators claimed to have recorded more than 150 instances of electronic voice phenomena, along with various orbs, during these hunts.

Several Newport ghost walks stop at or finish at the armory. We found no television episode or skeptical study, but the absence of any named witness or historical anchor speaks for itself. Visitors should treat the building as a fine small museum with a recent ghost-tour reputation rather than a site with a deep-rooted tradition.

What remains today

The armory still belongs to the company and houses its museum, which displays military uniforms from more than 50 nations along with the company's own history. Outside, the building keeps its rough stone walls, rusticated corners, the lintel inscribed with the founding year, the 1860 paddle-box eagle against a red semicircular background flanked by panels with embedded cannonballs, and the second story added in 1906. The side windows have iron shutters and the front windows iron bars. Inside, the main hall is open and plain, with a high ceiling. The company continues to fire a 21-gun salute every Fourth of July at noon in Washington Square and appears at events such as the Gaspee Days Parade in Pawtuxet Village and ceremonies in Boston.

Visiting

The Artillery Company museum is open to the public, with admission free and donations welcome. According to the company, it opens on weekends from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. between Memorial Day and Columbus Day, and private tours may be arranged when members are available; check the company's website for current hours.

Ghost hunts at the armory have been occasional fundraising events rather than a regular program, so look for announcements in the autumn. Several commercial Newport ghost walks include the building as a stop; these are a legal way to hear the stories without disturbing a working museum.

Sources

1. National Register nomination #72000029 (texte intégral) — U.S. National Park Service · Public record
2. National Register of Historic Places file (NRHP #72000029) — U.S. National Park Service · Public domain (U.S. government)
3. Wikimedia Commons category : Artillery Company of Newport — Wikimedia Commons
4. USGS 1:250000-scale Quadrangle for Providence, RI 1958 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1958 · Public domain (USGS)
5. USGS 1:62500-scale Quadrangle for Newport, RI 1889 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1889 · Public domain (USGS)
6. "Artillery Company Newport's Ghosts of the Armory Past and Present" (3 Sept 2017, updated 2021) — What'sUpNewp — What'sUpNewp
7. "Haunted spots" — Discover Newport (official tourism bureau) — Discover Newport (official tourism bureau
8. "History" — Artillery Company of Newport (official) — Artillery Company of Newport (official
9. "Newport Ghosts: Seaside Hauntings and Hags Tour" — The Abroad Guide — The Abroad Guide (weak source
10. Official website
11. Wikipedia article — Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Text written by AI from the sources above and checked by a separate AI fact-check (how we work). Images: credits and licenses under each picture.