It appears that the builder of the Doric distyle porch for the Smithfield Lime Rock Bank, with its simple side-lighted and transomed door, duplicated his effort here in a slightly grander manner. Whereas the bank is three bays, the Whipple House is five. Whereas the principal entablature under the bank's eaves appears only on front and rear elevations, here it occurs on all four sides, converting the simple side elevation gables into “pediments.” Whereas the hipped roof of the bank's entrance porch butts into its roof entablature, here more “correct” treatment of that element as a flat roof permits porch and eaves entablatures to fuse, the porch becoming more spacious thereby. The hipped dormer of the Whipple House (shingled, whereas the rest of the house is clapboarded) is a later enlargement. Hence the unusual total effect of the massing, more Virginia than New England, is accidental.
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Jesse Whipple House
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