Caleb Ormsbee

Caleb Ormsbee (1752-1807) was an American master builder and architect of Providence, Rhode Island.

[1] His training is unknown, but he may have served his apprenticeship with Jonathan Hammond,[a] a carpenter who was associated with Joseph Brown in designing and building the First Baptist Church in America in 1774.

[3] He is known to have owned a copy of A Book of Architecture, published by James Gibbs in 1728, which he is believed to have purchased from the estate of Joseph Brown.

[2] He also looked to contemporary American architecture, and based his design for the 1795 building of the First Congregational Church on the Hollis Street Church in Boston, designed by Charles Bulfinch and built in 1788.

[3] John Holden Greene was an apprentice of Ormsbee beginning in 1794, and remained in his employ until his death in 1807.