The Old Colony House, also known as Old State House or Newport Colony House, is located at the east end of Washington Square in the city of Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It is a brick Georgian-style building completed in 1741, and was the meeting place for the colonial legislature. From independence in 1776 to the early 20th century, the state legislature alternated its sessions between here and the Rhode Island State House in Providence. The building has received little alteration since its construction. As one of the best-maintained surviving Georgian public buildings in the United States from the colonial era, it was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1960. It is also a contributing property to the Newport Historic District, later designated an NHL itself. The building is still owned by the state, but managed as a museum by the Newport Historical Society. Besides its political and architectural importance, the building was the site of many important Revolutionary events in Rhode Island. George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower have both been guests at the building. It has been used as a barracks, hospital, courthouse and a location for a Steven Spielberg film. Building The two-and-a-half-story seven-bay front facade looks down the square to the similar Brick Market (now the Museum of Newport History), another NHL. The entryway is matched by a door and balcony immediately above it, capped by a trapezoidal gable with two round windows and a clock flanked by a pair of dormer windows on either side. Atop the roof is an octagonal cupola. It sits atop a raised basement. History Previous to the construction of the Colony House, the site had been home to a small wooden courthouse built in 1687. The new building was among several projects undertaken as an attempt to apply formal planning to the development of Newport, which had previously lacked it. By putting the home of the colonial assembly at the top of the Parade (as Washington Square was then known), the town's leadership hoped to create a public space similar to that found in the English cities they or their parents had emigrated from. Architect Richard Munday's design, one of his last, emulates Christopher Wren's buildings on the exterior but incorporates an interior layout similar to that of English town or guild halls. The first floor was thus an open space that could be used as a market, with civic