The General Thomas Allin House on Lincoln Avenue has reached the final round of nomination for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Barrington home is on the agenda for final review by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) at its State Review Board meeting on Dec. 2. 

Only three private houses in Barrington are individually listed on the National Register: Belton Court (the Frederick Peck estate on Middle Highway); the Benjamin S. Jackson House on Nayatt Point; and the Allen-West House on George Street adjacent to Nockum Hill. Several other houses are listed in groups as part of two National Register Historic Districts, one on Alfred Drowne Road and the other on Jennys Lane.

Thomas Allin (1742-1800), together with his brother Matthew Allin (1744-1794), owned hundreds of acres of land on the west side of Barrington. Thomas and his wife Amy (Bicknell) Allin built their house shortly after 1769 and raised 12 children there. Thomas Allin served as a town and state government official and as a militia officer during and after the Revolutionary War. The house was expanded in the 19th century and Allin descendants lived in part of the house until 1924. The Allin family farm was gradually subdivided and developed into the Bay Spring, Drownville, North Lake Drive, Lincoln Avenue, and Roberta Plat neighborhoods, including Barrington Middle School.

The General Thomas Allin House is nominated based on two areas of significance. First, the house is a good surviving example of Georgian and Federal-style architecture, with an original massive center chimney with meat-smoking chamber, interior wood details, and unusual seven-room floor plan. 

Second, the house was a witness to the history of slavery in Barrington. Research conducted by Roger Williams University students Courtney Garrity and Kristen Black, Barrington Preservation Society volunteers including past president Stephen Venuti, and others, led to the installation of a Rhode Island Slave History Medallion in Barrington in 2022 and a series of articles by Stephen Venuti on Barrington’s history of slavery. This work revealed that the Allin family was among the leading slave-owning families in Barrington, from at least 1704 through the Revolutionary War. The General Thomas Allin House is one of the few surviving houses in Barrington providing a direct link to this part of our history. 

Homeowner Nathaniel Taylor, a past president of Barrington Preservation Society who has been researching the house and the Allins family for years, worked with Historic Preservation Consultant Kathryn Cavanaugh to distill the architectural and historical highlights of the house into its National Register nomination.

If the General Thomas Allin House is approved on Dec. 2, it will be sent to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. for final review.