Stone ender
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Stone-ender is a unique style of Rhode Island architecture that developed in the 1600s where one wall in a house is made up of a large stone chimney.
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[edit] History
Rhode Island was first settled in 1636 by Roger Williams and other colonists from England. Many of the colonists came from western England and brought the prevalent British architectural ideas with them to New England but adapted these to the environment of Rhode Island. The colonists built “stone enders” which made use of the material that was in abundance in the area, timber and stone. Rhode Island also had an abundance of limestone (in contrast to the other New England states), and this allowed Rhode Islanders to make mortar to build massive end chimneys on their houses. Much of the lime was mined at Limerock in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
[edit] Description of a Stone-ender
The stone ender houses were usually timber-framed, one and one-half or two stories in height, with one room on each floor. One end of the house contained a massive stone chimney, which usually filled the entire end wall, thus giving the dwelling the name of “stone ender.” Robert O. Jones, in the Statewide Historical Preservation Report K-W-1, Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1981, noted that the windows were very small “casements filled with oiled paper” and that “the stairs to the upper chambers were steep, ladder-like structures usually squeezed in between the chimney and the front entrance.” He points out that a few houses may have had leaded glass windows, but that was very rare.
[edit] List of existing Rhode Island stone-enders (2006)
- Eleazer Arnold House, Lincoln, Rhode Island 1693
- Valentine Whitman House, Lincoln, Rhode Island 1694
- Clemence-Irons House, Johnston, Rhode Island 1691
- John Tripp House, Providence/Newport, Rhode Island 1720
- Thomas Fenner House, Cranston, Rhode Island 1677
- John Bliss House, Bliss Road, Newport, Rhode Island ca. 1680
- Clement Weaver House, East Greenwich, Rhode Island 1679
[edit] References and external links
- Warwick Site
- Clemence Irons House (1691)
- Arnold House (1693)
- Norman A. Isham, Early Rhode Island Houses, (Preston & Rounds, 1895) -Rhode Island Historical Society Library
