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Greenville Fire Company

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1939, Public Works Administration. Later addition. 611 Putnam Pk.

The Greenville Fire Company is a good example of Public Works Administration Neo-Colonial design. On the upper story the brick wall provides a textured background against which to display a crisply detailed Palladian motif fronted by a balcony, the latter (as was often the case in PWA work) a decorative feature in metal. Above is an arched “belfry” for the siren. The dialogue between civic embellishment and efficiency is nicely maintained in the best PWA work by such spare and sprightly use of Neo-Colonial detailing. Simulated end chimneys front and back provide an ingenious means aggrandizing the facade with a falsefront capping.

Writing Credits

Author: 
William H. Jordy et al.
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Data

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Citation

William H. Jordy et al., "Greenville Fire Company", [Greenville, Rhode Island], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/RI-01-SM12.

Print Source

Buildings of Rhode Island, William H. Jordy, with Ronald J. Onorato and William McKenzie Woodward. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 253-254.

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