The year following his work on the Providence Arcade, Warren completed St. Mark's. Whereas its very fine Ionic columns are now topped by a pediment (one of a number of alterations made after a fire in the early twentieth century), they originally supported a paneled attic comparable to that on the Weybosset Street elevation of the Arcade. Immediately behind this attic once rose a massive steepled cupola, lost to the 1938 hurricane. The entrance doors are canted, in a manner reminiscent of Egyptian forms. As is typical for Greek Revival buildings, flushboarding of the front sets off the columns, and the side elevations, with their arched windows, are clapboard. The fire required the twentieth-century replacement of the preaching end of the sanctuary. The center of the balcony over the entrance has also been altered, although much of this end is original. The boxed pews also appear to be original. To the center block of pews are posts, four to each side, which support the lighting fixtures. This exceptional torchère-like treatment is apparently original and seems to have substituted for the chandelier which would conventionally have hung from the center of the shallow, barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling.
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St. Mark's Episcopal Church
1829, Russell Warren. Early 20th century, exterior and interior alterations. 23 Lyndon St. (near Broad St.)
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