House and Garden 
Vol. XVI JULY, 1909 No. I 
- « 
“Hey Bonnie Hall” 
AN HISTORICAL COLONIAL MANSION 
By ANN OLDFIELD 
F EW buildings in Bristol, Rhode Island, are 
more admired, even in these days of brick 
and stone houses, than tine old “Hey Bonnie 
Hall,” the country seat of the late Mrs. Nathaniel 
Russell Middleton, now occupied by her daughters. 
Built in 1808 from the plans of the famous architect, 
Russell Warren, who designed the White House at 
Washington, this mansion on Papoosesquaw Neck 
has ever since been notable, not only for its beautiful 
colonial architecture, but also for the antique furni¬ 
ture, rare china, and objects of art which it contains. 
The land on which “Hey Bonnie Hall” stands 
is part of an original estate of one hundred and sixty 
acres extending from Bristol Harbor to Narragansett 
Bay. This estate was in the possession of the De- 
Wolf family and Hon. William DeWolf, the grand¬ 
father of the late Mrs. Middleton, was the first to 
build on this neck of land. The peninsula still bears 
its queer Indian name, Papoosesquaw, which was 
given it, according to one tradition, for the reason 
that the point was once a place of safety, in 
which Indian 
squaws took ref¬ 
uge with their 
papooses in times 
of warfare. An¬ 
other and more 
probable legend 
gives the point 
the name Papa- 
squae, an Indian 
word meaning 
peninsula. 
Here it was 
that just one hun¬ 
dred years ago 
the foundations 
of “Hey Bonnie 
Hall” were laid. 
The structure was 
designed by Rus¬ 
sell Warren after 
the Maryland manor type and its long projecting 
wings, connected with the main portion of the house 
by loggias, give the mansion a decidedly Southern 
appearance. The resemblance is still further carried 
out in the arrangement of the interior, for as in the 
case of so many of the old manor-houses of the South, 
the kitchen and servants’ quarters are situated in one 
of the wings and are separated from the house itself 
by the well-room, as it is called on account of its un¬ 
failing spring of clear, cold water available by means 
of an old-time windlass. The other wing, which is 
connected with the house proper by a covered pas¬ 
sage way, contains an ample carriage house and har¬ 
ness rooms. The stables themselves were entirely 
separated from the dwelling and were located a short 
distance down “Farm Lane,” as it was known. 
The approach to the house is from the west through 
broad colonial gateways at either end of a semi¬ 
circular driveway, which leads past lawns, flower¬ 
beds, and banks shaded by sweeping evergreens 
and stately horse-chestnut trees. The house itself 
is screened from 
the main road 
and it is not until 
one is half way 
down the avenue 
that a glimpse 
of the structure 
may he caught, 
l he whole length 
is about one hun¬ 
dred and forty 
feet, just solid 
enough to be im¬ 
pressive, just 
broken enough to 
have the appear¬ 
ance of spacious 
c o m f o r t. T wo 
magnificent f 1 u- 
ted pillars as high 
as the house itself 
A SIDF. VIEW OF MIDDLETON HOUSE 
Copyright, 1909, by The John C. Winston Co. 
3 
