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King Block

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1892–1893, Perkins and Betton. 204–214 Bellevue Ave.
  • (HABS)

This six-bay storefronted structure, developed as a commercial block by LeRoy King and his brother Gordon following the success of the adjacent casino and Travers buildings, echoes its more prominent neighbors in a reduced scale. While the cadence of inset bay windows and brick piers on the first story and the roofline of gabled peaks surely acknowledges the forms of McKim, Mead and White's design, little else about the King building seems familiar. In contrast to the varied textures in shingle, carving, and masonry on the casino's sculptural facade, Perkins and Betton's design is reduced to planar simplicity. Only at the central portion of the block, with two middle bays projecting slightly forward and two circular windows in the gable peaks, did the architects vary the uniformity of their brick facade; in effect, the King Block is an abstraction of the complex rhythms of the earlier buildings.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

The Casino
Audrain Building
Travers Block
George Noble Jones House (Kingscote)
Martha Codman House (Berkeley Villa, Bellevue House)

Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "King Block", [Newport, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-NE142.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 564-564.

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