Warren Rhode Island

Hall’s Block // c.1883

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This diminutive commercial block sits on Water Street in Warren, Rhode Island while small in size, packs an architectural punch! The late-Italianate style wooden block exhibits its original wooden storefronts, second floor round arched windows with stained glass, and ornate detailing including the brackets, parapet and period-appropriate paint colors which allow those details to pop. The shop was owned in its early days by the Hall family, who sold drygoods. Later, the building was used as an antiques shop on the ground floor with a studio for author and illustrator, David Macaulay on the second floor. These types of smaller-scale commercial spaces are some last remaining (relatively) affordable spaces for small businesses to operate. So lets make sure we

Buckingham House // 1903

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This period Queen Anne residence in Warren, Rhode Island was erected for Erastus and Hannah Buckingham and today remains essentially as originally built. Erastus Buckingham made his money by opening an oyster plant where he would collect and package oysters. I think it is safe to say that someone opening up a similar plant would not be able to afford such a house today… Its simple forms, coupled with its use of natural materials illustrate early 20″ century design simplification while retaining the use of materials typical of late 19″ century Queen Anne style. Oh and those diamond pane windows are something special too!

Charles Wheaton House // c.1815

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Rehoboth, Massachusetts native, Charles Wheaton (1761-1863) enlisted in the Revolutionary army as a young man. After the war, he settled in Warren, Rhode Island and married Abigail Miller. They would have at least nine children. One of his children, Charles Wheaton, Jr., (1791-1863) would grow up in Warren and married Abiah Goodwin Turner in 1815, the daughter of a wealthy sea captain. Around the time of their marriage, they built this house on Liberty Street in Warren in the Federal style with a three bay facade and portico at the entrance with Ionic columns. By the end of the 19th century, the house was enlarged and a bay window was added over the Classical portico and a monitor on hip-roof.

Dow-Starr House // c.1858

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A big departure from the plain, yet classically proportioned Federal period homes in Warren, this Gothic Revival on Main Street turns heads when people pass by. A quintessential Gothic “cottage,” the facade of the Dow-Starr House in Warren has also been graced by a three-sectioned Gothic Revival porch as illustrated in Alexander Jackson Downing’s plan books from the 1840s. As completed, this house followed almost exactly Andrew Jackson Downing’s Design II as illustrated in Cottage Residences 1842 ; it differed only in its use of speckled fieldstone over coursed ashlar. The house was later acquired by and used as a convent for the St. Jean Baptiste Church in Warren, who also built a school building behind. The house has seen some alterations, but remains an important architectural landmark of the town.

Eddy-Cutler House // c.1806

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Located next door to the Rebecca Maxwell Phillips House on State Street in Warren, Rhode Island the Eddy-Cutler House stands as possibly the finest brick Federal style building in the waterfront town. In July 1806, Benjamin Eddy purchased this house lot and began construction on his new mansion. Born in Warren in August 1772, he married Abigail Kelly in 1794 and began a career as a sea captain. Like many of the town’s wealthiest residents, Benjamin Eddy was engaged in the slave trade. Captain Benjamin Eddy was captain of at least three slave voyages, delivering 139 captives to the Charleston docks in June 1806 alone. In 1808, just before the “Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves” he purchased and imprisoned 176 Africans – the largest number ever carried on a Warren slave ship. Nineteen died during the return voyage. When he reached Charleston, South Carolina the remaining 157 people were sold into slavery. At the time, the sale would have returned nearly $33,000. He would return home to this mansion on money profited from human suffering, a story as American as apple pie. In 1871, the Eddy Homestead was transferred to Charles R. Cutler, a ship master and whaler who had many successful voyages to the Indian Ocean.

Rebecca Maxwell Phillips House // 1804

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Another of the “wedding gift houses” in Warren, Rhode Island is this Federal style mansion on State Street! The house was funded by James Maxwell, a wealthy local merchant who profited by the transport and sale of enslaved Africans. A large part of Maxwell’s wealth was attributable to the sale of enslaved captives, such as those aboard Maxwell’s schooner Abigail, which left Warren in September 1789. The captain of the vessel, Charles Collins, purchased 64 slaves on the coast of Africa, and sold them in the Americas by June of 1790. Of the 64 captives embarked on the ship, only 53 survived the voyage. This home was built as a wedding gift to his daughter Rebecca and her new husband, William Phillips. The three-story mansion exhibits a pedimented fanlight transom, corner quoins, and a shallow hipped roof. The property has always included two lots, the other lot has long had a Japanese Beech tree, brought from Japan by Commodore Joel Abbot in 1853.

Miller-Abbot House // 1789

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More impressive than elegant, this unusually large Federal house in Warren, Rhode Island was the home to two important military leaders, Nathan Miller and Joel Abbot. Nathan Miller (1743-1790) was a Brigadier General of the Rhode Island Militia during the Revolutionary War. He was a deputy in the Rhode Island State Assembly for six years, and he represented Rhode Island in the Continental Congress in 1786. After his death in 1790, the general’s daughter, Abigail, and her husband, Charles Wheaton inherited and enlarged the property. Their daughter Laura married Joel Abbot in 1825 and resided here afterwards. Joel Abbot (1793–1855) was a Naval officer in the War of 1812, and commanded a ship during Commodore Perry‘s 1853-1854 visit to Japan, opening the Asian country up to trade with the western world. The large home has maintained its charm and the dated chimney is just too perfect!

Warren Masonic Temple // 1796

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Located next door to the Randall House (last post) on Baker Street in Warren, Rhode Island, this early building has some history! Constructed in 1796 by the Washington Association, Inc., this two-story Federal period building is considered to be the oldest Masonic hall building in the state of Rhode Island. The elongated building is fairly plain in plan, but is adorned by corner quoins, elaborate pedimented entries, ornate cornice, and (now filled) ocular windows in the gable ends. The Lodge was likely built by local carpenters using Asher Benjamin’s plan books for the detailing.

Samuel and Patty Randall House // c.1810

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This stately three-story Federal style mansion sits on Baker Street in the lovely town of Warren, Rhode Island. The house was funded by James Maxwell, of the local family of merchants and slave traders, for his daughter Martha “Patty” Maxwell and her soon-to-be husband, Samuel Randall. The house was gifted as a wedding present to the new couple, and an expensive one at that! Judge Randall operated a school nextdoor and established “The Telescope,” Warren’s third newspaper nearby the house. The pop of color at the entry and the Victorian-era door hood work so well on this facade as well.

George Hail Free Library // 1888

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Nearly every New England town has a library, and some are lucky enough to have a historic library building! Warren, Rhode Island’s library was established in 1871 as the Warren Public Reading Room Association in a second floor room inside a commercial building. In 1882, Martha Hail in her will, made a substantial contribution to the library association on behalf of her late  husband, George Hail. Constructed in 1888 and dedicated in January 1889, the Romanesque Revival style building was designed by Providence architectural firm of William Walker and Sons, the building cost just over $16,000 was constructed of granite.