Background
Russell Warren was born on August 5, 1783 in Tiverton, R. I. He was the son of Gamaliel and Ruth (Jenckes) Warren, a descendant of Richard Warren of the Mayflower.
Russell Warren was born on August 5, 1783 in Tiverton, R. I. He was the son of Gamaliel and Ruth (Jenckes) Warren, a descendant of Richard Warren of the Mayflower.
Removing to Bristol, R. I, at the period of an influx of wealth, he was afforded an outlet for his talents in designing luxurious residences for ship captains and merchants, chief among them the stately DeWolf-Colt mansion (1810). One writer remarks of this house by "the master mind of the Bristol Renaissance" that it is rare to find a design so boldly original in conception transgressing so few architectural tenets. He served in the Bristol militia and became major. Later, for a long period, he practised in Providence, R. I. He also was in demand in various other cities, his diversified output including churches, banks, public buildings, and residences. Adaptations of the Greek ideal were always dominant, his structures being distinguished for pillared porticoes and classical colonades, and he developed the cupola motive for dwellings with much success. He passed his winters in the South, chiefly at Charleston, S. C. , whose structural beauties he enhanced. Possessed also of engineering skill, he threw a bridge over the Great Pee Dee River, a feat previously attempted without success. The Warren truss, used the world over in steel bridge construction, is said to have been devised by him. He died in Providence at the age of seventy-seven, survived by his wife.
Warren's first wife was Sarah Gladding, daughter of Capt. John Gladding of Bristol, whom he married on March 10, 1805. After her death in 1817, he married her sister Lydia. He had no children.