Stone ender

1653 Roger Mowry House (Providence) diagram from Norman Isham's 1895 book [1]

Eleazer Arnold House, 1691, Lincoln, Rhode Island

The Stone-ender is a unique style of Rhode Island architecture that developed in the 17th century where one wall in a house is made up of a large stone chimney.

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 quarried 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, (see: *Clement Weaver House and Clemence-Irons House). Armand LaMontagne, a Scituate sculptor, handbuilt a large 17th-century style stone-ender off of Route 6 in Scituate, Rhode Island in the 1970s.

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. For an example containing the leaded glass windows along with ladder-like, steep stairs, see: *Clement Weaver House, East Greenwich, Rhode Island 1679

List of early extant Rhode Island stone-enders

Clemence-Irons House, Johnston, Rhode Island 1691
Clement Weaver House, East Greenwich, Rhode Island 1679
Edward Searle House, Cranston, Rhode Island 1670-1720
Eleazer Arnold House, Lincoln, Rhode Island 1693
John Bliss House, Newport, Rhode Island ca. 1680
John Tripp House, Providence/Newport, Rhode Island 1720
Smith-Appleby House, Smithfield, Rhode Island, 1696 (chimney later modified)
Thomas Fenner House, Cranston, Rhode Island 1677
Valentine Whitman House, Lincoln, Rhode Island 1694

Images

Epenetus Olney House in North Providence, demolished by 1900
Arthur Fenner House (ca. 1655) in Cranston, demolished 1886
Clement Weaver House, ca. 1679, in East Greenwich, Rhode Island
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 House.JPG

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 Newport RI Memorial Blvd.JPG

Stone ender on Memorial Boulevard in Newport, Rhode Island
Thomas Fenner House Rhode Island.jpg

Thomas Fenner House in Cranston, Rhode Island
Edward Searle House in Cranston, Rhode Island
Armand Lamontagne's stone ender from the late 20th century in Scituate, Rhode Island
Smith Appleby.JPG

Smith-Appleby House in Smithfield with a modified chimney
Governor William Coddington House, a stone ender in Newport built in 1640-41, was destroyed in 1835
Thomas Field house, ca. 1690, on Fields Point, a vernacular building that is now demolished