Constructed in the late years of the 1600s, the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House is the oldest house in Newport, as well as one of the oldest residential homes in all of Rhode Island. It was initially owned by Stephen Mumford, a local merchant and one of Newport?s Seventh Day Baptist congregations?s founding members.

The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House later became the home of Rhode Island?s former governors Richard Ward and his son, Samuel Ward. The name came from the family who owned the property the longest, though. From 1757 when John Wanton bought the property in an auction, it stayed in the family through the generations. Wanton passed it to his daughter, Polly, who married Major Daniel Lyman and to their daughter Harriet, who wedded Benjamin Hazard.

The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard house was owned by the family until Mary Hazard passed in 1911. It was then acquired later on by the Newport Historical Society.