‘69-'96: A CLOSER LOOK AT A HOUSE IN COMMON Premiering In Newport

Center Aquidneck is presenting ‘69-'96: A Closer Look at a House in Common on March 1, 2, 8, 9, 2025. This inventive house tour invites the public to experience one Newport house as remembered by three different families who lived there between 1969 and 1996.

Not anything particularly fancy or notable, the house on Dresser St holds stories from the era in Newport that spans the opening of the Newport Bridge to the X Games at Ft Adams as remembered by Newporters who each lived totally exceptional, incredibly normal lives.

Jed Hancock-Brainerd and Rebecca Noon, founding directors of Center Aquidneck which also produces the annual Jane's Walk Aquidneck Festival of neighbor-led walks, are creating the installation with fellow Newporter Colleen Byrne (nee Moy) who lived at 15 Dresser St with her family from 1972 to 1982, when her parents sold the house to Hancock-Brainerd's. A House in Common encourages us to think about our own homes, histories and what we know of the people who lived there before us, before them, and maybe even before them. Turning each of us into historical detectives, A House in Common builds relationships between people who've shared the same space at different times and then welcomes visitors into what they've learned. 

“‘69-'96 sort of started in 2017 when we met Colleen and realized we grew up in the same house -- and where I still live,” says Hancock-Brainerd. “Of course my family knew they'd bought the house from the Moys, but we didn't know each other. By meeting Colleen and inviting her over, we gained a really wonderful relationship through this funny connection.”

“That house on Dresser St was in my dreams for years,” says Byrne. “Meeting Jed and Rebecca and then getting to see it again after 35 years was really special. We hope visitors appreciate the experience and that it gets them thinking about their own childhood homes or beloved places where they no longer live.” 

The experience itself will be a blend of a house tour and a gallery visit, with drop-in hours between 12-5pm on the two open weekends. The focus will be the bedroom that was Colleen's from 1976-1982 and Jed's from 1988-1996, but the stories the organizers have collected extend beyond Colleen and Jed's.

“We've also been able to talk with Tom Finn who lived there in 1969 when he was a newlywed and the house was divided into apartments,” says Hancock-Brainerd. “The room that was Colleen and my bedroom was his sitting room. So many different lives all in one space.”

Though the house is a Victorian built in 1896, ‘69-'96 doesn't go into that history, and instead focuses on the middle class Newporters who lived there in the mid-to-late 20th century, with the opportunity for visitors to also reflect on their own family memories during that period.

“Too often we let Newport history stay in the Gilded or Colonial Ages,” says Noon, “but Newport has kept evolving and existing since then. We hope this experience helps archive and memorialize some of what that time in Newport was like -- because even now it's really different. We'd love it if other people proposed their houses in future years. It's been such a pleasure to remember with Colleen and Jed.” 

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