Bristol County Courthouse
High St., Bristol, RIThis is one of the five court houses or "state houses" in which, un to 1855, the General Assembly of Rhode Island met in prescribed rotation. The Assembly first met in Bristol in 1785, thus asserting that town's importance as a county center (the area had been annexed from Massachusetts in 1747). Though not really large and not known to have been a background for great legislative or judicial events, personalities or decisions, the court house was evidently from the beginning intended to provide Bristol with a public building of some visual importance, and the legislature and judiciary with dignified accommodations.
It remains a part of the state's history and of Bristol's, as well as being a fine example of Federal architecture and an adornment to the town common.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.