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Noel Freeborn House

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1817. 24 Main St.
  • (John Bellm)

Although typical in its plan, this is the only brick house on Main Street. Its window frames and chimneys, unlike those of its wooden companions, are flush with the wall, giving it a greater austerity. In contrast also to the gabled roofs with central chimneys that characterize most other Main Street houses, this has a low hipped roof with two end chimneys, elements which contribute to its greater formality. So do the handsome proportioning of windows to wall and their regularity of rhythm across the elevation, which contrast with the prevalence on Main Street of the more countrified double, four-spot domino effect (where the four windows on either end of the elevation are separated from the entrance and the center window overhead by a wider interval of wall). The entrance fanlight, too, with its sophisticated sawtooth leading and star-shaped joint fasteners, is exceptional on the street. Noel Freeborn was a silversmith who owned a shop in Newport, and it is doubtless the influence of the grander town that one sees here.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Nicholas Hart House
15–17 Main St.
Immanuel Case House
First Baptist Church Parish House (Masonic Hall)
Allen Mason Thomas House

Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Noel Freeborn House", [North Kingstown, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-NK12.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 358-358.

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