Four Barrington houses to receive historic plaques

Special program will be held at the library on Nov. 28

Posted 11/19/18

The Barrington Preservation Society will hold its annual historic house plaque program and lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 28, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Salem Auditorium and Collis Gallery at the Barrington …

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Four Barrington houses to receive historic plaques

Special program will be held at the library on Nov. 28

Posted

The Barrington Preservation Society will hold its annual historic house plaque program and lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 28, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Salem Auditorium and Collis Gallery at the Barrington Public Library. 

This year, four homes will receive their plaques:

• 170 New Meadow Road: Benjamin Drown House, c. 1750 (moved to its current site in 1758)

• 6 Holly Lane: Mary Eliza Dyer Carriage House, c. 1897

• 84 Alfred Drown Road: Walter J. Howland House, c. 1900

• 30 Walnut Road, Jerry S. and Cornelia Goff Cottage, c. 1902

Properties must be 100 years in age to qualify for a BPS plaque, and display defining elements of their original architectural style and have no artificial siding. Additions must not overwhelm the original design. To date, 174 properties have BPS Plaques in Barrington.

Following the presentation of the plaques, award-winning educator and historian David Kelleher will offer the presentation "Restoration of the Pomham Rocks Lighthouse." Built in 1871, this Bay landmark, a beacon for mariners and shipping for more than 100 years, was sold by the Coast Guard to Mobil Oil Company in 1980. It remained unused and decaying until Mr. Kelleher helped found the "Friends of Pomham Rocks Lighthouse," a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation. Exterior restoration began in 2005 and the lighthouse was relit in 2006. Interior restoration to a 1950 era was completed in 2018.  

This project received a 2018 Rhody Award from PreserveRI and the Rhode island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission this past month as one of "Rhode Island's unique historic places."

The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

More about the homes

• 170 New Meadow Road: The Benjamin Drown House is a one and a half-story Colonial cottage with side gables located on the shores of the Barrington River. The front door, two windows, and two shed dormers face south. Over the door, there is a 5-pane transom, a typical mid-18th-century detail. The original c. 1750 dwelling had just two rooms. This house is also called the Fisherman's Shack. In a 1758 Warren Deed, Ebenezer Garnsey, HouseWright (sic), stated Benjamin Drown, Cordwainer, intended "to set a house" on the "upland by a salt cove" on the Barrington River. The deed was recorded in 1774 by John Kinnicutt, Town Clerk. The recording of the deed also stated that Benjamin Drown "set a house." After no evidence of a mortgage or money paid to Garnsey for the house, the BPS Plaque committee concluded that Benjamin Drown moved this house here in 1758.

• 84 Alfred Drown Road: The Walter J. Howland House is a one and a half-story, end gable, Quene Anne cottage on the corner of Second Street. It no longer has its original front porch. Architectural details include the flat-head entrance, supported by large, hand-sawn, brackets with pendants and a small, leaded glass staircase  window with a panel of "Fleur-de-lys" on the north wall. Wall cover includes clapboards on the first level and a delicate wooden frieze between the second level of staggered butt shingles. In 1884, this was one of 40 lots on the 1868 Henry Staples plat sold to Providence merchant Henry J. Beckwith, who sold lots #39 and #40, each fronting 50 feet on Alfred Drown Road, to John L. Kehoe, a letter carrier. Mr. Kehoe, who established his own realty and insurance company, immediately sold to Charles and Mary Coutanche, of Providence, for a summer cottage.

• 30 Walnut Road: The Jerry S. and Cornelia Goff Cottage is a one and a half-story, end-gable roof, shingled cottage is typical of "affordable" summer homes built across America from 1900 to 1920. This house is sited on two lots of the "Drownville Plat of Villa Lots," laid out  by J. A. Latham in 1887; the Drownville Plat has more than 200 house lots, sold to fill the appetite for houses in this "Streetcar suburb." 

• 6 Holly Lane: The Mary Eliza Dyer Carriage House is a two-story Queene Anne Carriage House and has an elaborate steeply-pitched hip and cross gable roofline. A two-story half-round tower with a conical roof and weathervane, bulges from the west facade. Wall cover includes "rubblestone" on the first level and mixed shingles and clapboards above. The carriage house was built for Mary Eliza Dyer, wife of Senator Rodney Dyer, associated with the Dyer Pork Packing Corporation of Providence. In 1944, the estate was sold to Steven and Laurel Wilson, who in 1960 platted the 10-acre horse farm into 6 house lots.

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