PROVIDENCE – The historic “Hoppin House” in the College Hill neighborhood on the city’s East Side recently sold for $2 million, according to Residential Properties Ltd., which represented the buyer.
Brown University sold the property to Boston-based Blood Bank Realty LLC, according to public records of the sale.
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Following its construction in 1853, original owners Thomas F. and Anna Hoppin made the large residence a center of artistic and social life in the city, and due to their lavish style of entertaining, it became known as “the house of a thousand candles,” according to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which added the Providence home in 1973.
Residential Properties said the new owners plan an extensive renovation of the 16,536-square-foot home at 383 Benefit St., dividing the house into six to eight luxury apartments in a project that will also “showcase the stunningly elaborate, original interiors and magnificent exterior.”
The three-story property, with 8,500 square feet of paved surface that could accommodate 32 parking spaces, was long owned by Brown University, according to city records and a property listing. The building was last used by the university for its Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
According to the entry in the National Register of Historic Places, the Hoppin House was “one of the largest and most elegant houses built in Providence during the mid-19th century,” and it was designed by architect Alpheus C. Morse, the first president of the Rhode Island chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The design is “similar to contemporary London mansions in St. James and Kensington Palace Gardens,” the entry states.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.
