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H. S. Magoun House

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c. 1885. 1693 Lonsdale Ave.

In this shingled Queen Anne house, the slope of an elongated gable (longer in front than behind) slides over a pretty corner porch with turned supports and interlocks with a low, truncated, squarish mass with hipped roof which suggests a stunted tower. Another small entrance porch off a side elevation has a gable roof which curves like an awning sag. The sophisticated counterpoint of petite windows in front is lighthearted. So, too, is the treatment of the most prominent chimney on the side elevation, revealed at the first floor, while the second puffs out as a shingled bay with a sloping roof to hide it. Wood shingles above (originally covering the roof as well), with burnt brick below, provide textures which further animate the irregularity and collision of the varied shapes. Such overt celebration of cheerful domesticity could easily have become cloying, except that here a skillful sense of composition and proportion saves it from sentimentality. As with Christ Church, one would like to know who designed it.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "H. S. Magoun House", [Lincoln, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-LI1.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 190-190.

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