Cute Buildings

Narragansett Engine Company No. 3 // 1846

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The Narragansett Engine Company No. 3 Station is an absolutely charming two-story building tucked away on Baker Street in Warren, Rhode Island, and is one of the oldest extant historic fire stations in New England. Built in 1846, the building features a flushboard-façade, pedimented-gable end oriented to the street, paneled double-leaf engine doors, and a rundbogenstil Palladianesque window centered on the second story. The small fire station was built to house, “Little Button”, a fire engine manufactured in Waterford, New York. This building served as a fire station well into the 20th century, and was restored decades ago by local preservationists. The building is open by appointment and houses the Warren Fire Department Museum.

Mellen Law Office // c.1829

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Samuel H. Mann (1801-1838), a lawyer, acquired the Dr. Ebenezer Ames House on Cochituate Road in 1829, only a month before his marriage to Isabella Ross. At about that time, Mann built this small law office across the road from his home, where he would practice law. It is not clear why, but within a year, Mann sold the house and this law office to Judge Edward Mellen (1802-1875), who was appointed Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas in 1855 and practiced law in Wayland until his death in 1875. After his death, the law office sat largely vacant until during World War II, when a newsletter to soldiers, The Village Bugle, was published here. After this, a couple of businesses used the former law office in the 1950s and 1960s until the owner donated the lot to the Town of Wayland in 1971. The diminutive building is a charming, and well-preserved example of a vernacular, Federal period professional office building that mimics the form and materials of the Ames House to which it was long affiliated with.

Old Platte Clove Post Office // c.1885

Buildings of New England1 Comment

Believe it or not, but I occasionally venture out of New England, and a favorite place of mine to explore is Upstate New York. On a recent trip, I ended up driving through the tiny town of Hunter, New York, located in the middle of the Catskills. This charming little building was constructed c.1885 as the Platte Clove Post Office. The building was constructed to serve a rural portion of the town and was built as an early mixed-use building with the post office at the ground floor and small residence upstairs for the postmaster to live. The exterior cladding features both shingle and clapboard siding with overhanging eaves. The post office here ceased by 1911 and the use reverted solely to residential.