Sullivan House photograph album

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: 053-03

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of one photograph album of the James E. & Alice B. Sullivan House built in 1893 by William R. Walker & Son at 254 Wayland Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island. Includes three exterior and 12 interior photographs of home, 1895-1897.

Dates

1895 - 1897

Creator

Sullivan family (Providence, R.I. ) (Family)

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

PPL does not claim copyright to this collection. Users of this item are responsible for determining copyright restrictions.

Biographical / Historical

The house is included in the Wayland Square National Register Historic District. It is generally described as a Queen Anne home and was built by William R. Walker and Son. The local firm, which designed schools, civic buildings, and residences, was prolific in and around Providence.

James Edmund Sullivan (1849-1920) was an Irish-born physician and his wife, Alice Margaret Sullivan (1866-1909) was a native Rhode Islander and daughter of rubber-magnate Joseph Banigan. They married in 1885 and built this house in 1893. The couple’s four sons -- Robert Joseph Banigan Sullivan (1887-1929), Edmund James Gibbons Sullivan (1893-1936), William Banigan Sullivan (1900-1911), and James Banigan Sullivan (1905-1970) -- grew up in this house. Around 1916, Robert moved just down the street with his new wife. Father James died in 1920 and the remaining brothers, Edmund and James, remained in the house until about 1933, perhaps around when Edmund married.

Throughout the Sullivan family’s residence in the house, the domestic staff generally numbered three or four women, often Irish immigrants. While members of the Sullivan family lived in the house until about 1932, the property changed legal ownership in 1893, 1898, and 1915.