Stone ender

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1653 Mowry House (Providence) diagram from Norman Isham's 1895 book[1]
1653 Mowry House (Providence) diagram from Norman Isham's 1895 book[1]
Arnold House, 1691, Lincoln, Rhode Island
Arnold House, 1691, Lincoln, Rhode Island

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.

Contents

[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. Only a few stone enders remain in the 21st century. Architectural restorationist, Norman Isham restored several original stone enders in the early 20th century. Armand LaMontagne, a Scituate sculptor, handbuilt four 17th-century style stone-enders off of Route 6 in Scituate, Rhode Island in the 1970s.

[edit] Description of a Stone-ender

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 (2007)

[edit] Images

Valentine Whitman House, 1694, Lincoln, Rhode Island

Irons House, 1691, Johnston, Rhode Island

Tripp House, 1720, Washington Street, Newport, Rhode Island

John Bliss House, ca. 1680, 2 Wilbur Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island

Mowry Tavern, ca. 1650, in Providence near North Burial Ground (demolished c.1900)

John Mowry, Jr. or Sayles House on Wesquadomeset (Sayles) Hill near Iron Mine Hill and Sayles Hill Roads in North Smithfield, demolished in the early 20th century

Stone ender on Memorial Boulevard in Newport, Rhode Island

[edit] References and external links