Although the Pendleton House on Benefit Street in Providence, gives the appearance of a domestic residence, it was actually built for the purpose of displaying the once private collections of Charles L. Pendleton (1846-1904), which were given to the RISD Museum in 1904. Pendleton’s bequest, which included American and European furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, textiles, and paintings, came with the stipulation that the collection remain intact and on display in a suitable building for the benefit of the public. The stipulation occurred just before Mr. Pendleton’s death in 1904 and the Rhode Island School of Design immediately hired the local architect, Edmund Willson of the local firm of Stone, Carpenter and Willson, to furnish plans for a wing to the museum. Willson was an expert in the Colonial Revival style and sought to make the private collection of the Pendleton House befitting of a grand Providence mansion. It was Willson’s last major commission before his death. The building is crafted in a refined Colonial Revival style with symmetrical facade, traditional fenestration and Palladian motif, but is beefed up internally for is museum use with brick walls over a fireproof, reinforced concrete frame. The RISD museum has continually grown over the subsequent decades with wings connecting the Pendleton House with more contemporary buildings, all-the-while retaining the residential scale of Benefit Street in this iconic structure.
Buildings of New England 