The John Stevens Shop, founded in 1705, is a stone carving business on Thames Street in Newport, Rhode Island, that is one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the United States.HistoryJohn Stevens was born in Oxfordshire, England. He immigrated to the American Colonies in 1698 and lived in Boston for several years before moving to Newport, where he set up shop at 30 Thames Street in 1705. The shop moved across the street to 29 Thames Street in the mid-eighteenth century. John Stevens, his sons John II and William, and his grandson John III produced what are arguably some of colonial America's most beautiful gravestones, many of which still sit in the nearby Common Burying Ground. The Stevens family ran the Shop for more than 220 years. In 1927, it was purchased by John Howard Benson.A Newport native, Benson studied at the Newport Art Association, the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. He became an internationally renowned stone carver, designer and calligrapher. He taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and, along with his business partner, Graham Carey, wrote the instructional book "The Elements of Lettering". He designed and carved inscriptions for Yale University, Harvard University and Brown University, and designed the inscriptions on the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1955, he was awarded the Craftsmanship medal by the American Institute of Architects. He died in 1956, passing the business to his son John Everett Benson.
