• Visual Art

Amos Allen House

62 Benefit Street

A medium sized, well-preserved house from the late eighteenth century.

Image Source (Top): Laurence E. Tilley - Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA - April, 1958

1910s - 1920s

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Nancy Elizabeth Prophet’s Home

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, the first African American graduate from RISD, resided here before her Paris pilgrimage in 1922.  She lived with her father and husband after graduation, working on various artistic mediums before discovering her calling for sculpting.  During her stay at 62 Benefit Street, she was invited to exhibit one of her paintings, only to be notified that she was not allowed to “stand next to her work”; or in other words, the showroom was unfit for her “brown face”.  “Sick, but with dogged determination to conquer”, Prophet fled to hone her bust-work and sculpting with “the great masters” of Paris.

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